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About

Alan G. Sanchez is a robotics researcher whose work spans the seemingly disparate worlds of creative human-robot interaction and public health robotics. His research is unified by a focus on verifiable, safe, and effective robot autonomy, whether in the expressive realm of improvisational theater or the critical domain of infection control. Sanchez’s most impactful work, "Improv with Robots" (20 citations), pioneers a novel framework for co-creative narrative, demonstrating how improvisational actors and expressive motion robots can collaboratively develop stories within structured "games." This contribution is notable for its unique exploration of creativity and inspiration in human-robot teams. Simultaneously, Sanchez has made significant contributions to pandemic response, leading a series of papers on mobile manipulation robots for surface and aerosol disinfection using ultraviolet light. His work on "Verifiable Surface Disinfection" (12 citations) and "Towards Verifiable COVID-19 Aerosol Disinfection" (10 citations) addresses the critical need for reducing healthcare worker exposure to highly-infectious diseases like SARS-CoV-2 and Ebola. By integrating human feedback and shared autonomy, Sanchez’s systems improve disinfection coverage for complex geometries, advancing the verifiability and practical deployment of autonomous disinfection robots.