Welcome to the Human-Robot Interaction Research team at the University of Melbourne.

Our mission is to create autonomous robots that act smoothly and safely with humans. We focus on key areas such as behavioural analytics, co-learning environments for humans and robots, and the personalization and adaptation of autonomous robots to enhance their performance in human interactions.

We are at the leading edge of human-robot interaction research, addressing challenges such as safe drone navigation in crowded spaces, personalized learning solutions with assistive robots, and visualizing uncertainty in high-stake scenarios involving robots…

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Selected Recent Publications

  1. Can you pass that tool?: Implications of indirect speech in physical human-robot collaboration
    Zhang, Yan, Ratnayake, Tharaka Sachintha, Sew, Cherie, Knibbe, Jarrod, Goncalves, Jorge, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25) 2025
  2. Mr.LfD: A Mixed Reality Interface for Robot Learning from Demonstration
    Chen, Jiahao, Chacon, Antony, Bilal, Muhammad, Zhou, Qiushi, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the 36th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (OzCHI ’24), November 30–December 4, 2024, Brisbane, Australia 2024
    Video PDF
  3. Illusion Spaces in VR: The Interplay Between Size and Taper Angle Perception in Grasping
    Zhang, Jian, Knibbe, Jarrod, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25) 2025
    Bib PDF 
    @inproceedings{jian2025,
  bibtex_show = {true},
  author = {Zhang, Jian and Knibbe, Jarrod and Johal, Wafa},
  title = {Illusion Spaces in VR: The Interplay Between Size and Taper Angle Perception in Grasping},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25)},
  year = {2025},
  location = {Yokohama, Japan},
  acmdoi = {10.1145/3706598.3714162},
  acmisbn = {979-8-4007-1394-1/25/04},
  publisher = {ACM},
  pdf = {https://chri-lab.github.io/files/papers/jian2025.pdf},
  selected = {yes}
}
  4. Effects of Shared Control on Cognitive Load and Trust in Teleoperated Trajectory Tracking
    Pan, Jiahe, Eden, Jonathan, Oetomo, Denny, and Johal, Wafa
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 2024
    Video Bib PDF 
    @article{pan2024,
  bibtex_show = {true},
  author = {Pan, Jiahe and Eden, Jonathan and Oetomo, Denny and Johal, Wafa},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
  title = {Effects of Shared Control on Cognitive Load and Trust in Teleoperated Trajectory Tracking},
  year = {2024},
  volume = {9},
  number = {6},
  pages = {5863-5870},
  video = {https://youtu.be/yizsBG1QJog},
  doi = {10.1109/LRA.2024.3396111},
  pdf = {https://chri-lab.github.io/files/papers/pan2024.pdf},
  selected = {yes}
}
  5. Robot-Assisted Decision-Making: Unveiling the Role of Uncertainty Visualisation and Embodiment
    Schömbs, Sarah, Pareek, Saumya, Goncalves, Jorge, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24) May 2024
    Video Bib PDF 
    @inproceedings{schombs2024b,
  bibtex_show = {true},
  author = {Sch{\"o}mbs, Sarah and Pareek, Saumya and Goncalves, Jorge and Johal, Wafa},
  title = {Robot-Assisted Decision-Making: Unveiling the Role of Uncertainty Visualisation and Embodiment},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24)},
  year = {2024},
  month = may,
  dates = {11--16},
  location = {Honolulu, HI, USA},
  acmdoi = {10.1145/3613904.3642911},
  acmisbn = {979-8-4007-0330-0/24/05},
  publisher = {ACM},
  pdf = {https://chri-lab.github.io/files/papers/schombs2024.pdf},
  video = {https://youtu.be/8zgKpGTkMCI},
  selected = {yes},
  project = {robotvis}
}

News

Jun 29, 2024
Muhammad Bilal's first PhD paper gets accepted to IROS2024

Apr 19, 2024
Dr Wafa Johal gave a demo with Furhat at the opening of the Cremone Digital Hub.

Apr 19, 2024
Sarah Schombs receives the Diane Lemaire scholarship!

Apr 19, 2024
Muhammad Bilal successfully passed is confirmation!

Apr 14, 2024
Jiahe Pan's paper accepted at RA-L and IROS.

Mar 16, 2024
#TeamMelbourne wins the HRI2024 Robot Competition in Boulder Colorado

Mar 16, 2024
Dr Wafa Johal will be General co-Chair of HRI2025 in Melbourne, Australia

... see all News