Houston Claure

About

Houston Claure is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction (HRI), multi-agent collaboration, and algorithmic fairness. His work addresses a critical gap in robotics: most prior research focused on one-on-one human-robot interaction, but Claure has pushed the field toward understanding how robots function within larger human teams. His most-cited work, "Robot-Assisted Tower Construction" (2020, 55 citations), introduced an innovative experimental paradigm for studying how a robot's resource allocation decisions shape interpersonal dynamics and group collaboration. Complementing this, his research on multi-armed bandit algorithms and reinforcement learning with fairness constraints (30 and 15 citations, respectively) offers principled computational frameworks ensuring robots distribute resources equitably among teammates — a contribution with broad implications for workplace robotics and team performance. Claure also explores how cultural norms influence telepresence robot interactions and how robotic touch is interpreted through social expectation frameworks. His 2022 workshop on fairness and transparency in HRI signals his growing leadership in shaping ethical design standards for social robots. With over 160 cumulative citations, Claure's research is shaping a future where robots are not only capable collaborators but genuinely fair and socially aware teammates.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Robot-Assisted Tower Construction—A Method to Study the Impact of a Robot’s Allocation Behavior on Interpersonal Dynamics and Collaboration in Groups

   55 citations · 2020
2. 2
   Multi-Armed Bandits with Fairness Constraints for Distributing Resources to Human Teammates

   30 citations · 2020
3. 3
   My Telepresence, My Culture?

   16 citations · 2018
4. 4
   Reinforcement Learning with Fairness Constraints for Resource Distribution in Human-Robot Teams

   15 citations · 2019
5. 5
   Robot Assisted Tower Construction - A Resource Distribution Task to Study Human-Robot Collaboration and Interaction with Groups of People

   14 citations · 2018
6. 6
   Using Expectancy Violations Theory to Understand Robot Touch Interpretation

   11 citations · 2020
7. 7
   Fairness and Transparency in Human-Robot Interaction

   7 citations · 2022
8. 8
   Fairness Considerations for Enhanced Team Collaboration

   6 citations · 2021
9. 9
   Interactive Vignettes: Enabling Large-Scale Interactive HRI Research

   5 citations · 2021
10. 10
    Multi-Armed Bandits with Fairness Constraints for Distributing Resources to Human Teammates

    4 citations · 2019

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links