Karon E. MacLean
Papers
29
Total Citations
1,380
H-Index
17
About
Karon E. MacLean is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, haptics, and social robotics, whose work has fundamentally shaped how humans and robots communicate through touch, gesture, and nonverbal cues. Best known for her groundbreaking Haptic Creature project, MacLean has explored how animal-like robots can convey emotion and provide comfort through physical touch, generating over 300 citations for her foundational work on affective touch in human-robot interaction. Her research extends into therapeutic applications, including the development of Calmer, a robot designed to reduce procedural pain in preterm infants — a striking example of her commitment to translating theory into real-world benefit. MacLean has also made significant contributions to industrial human-robot collaboration, developing intuitive gestural communication lexicons for manufacturing environments, and to robot handover interactions, demonstrating that humanlike gaze cues measurably improve coordination quality. Her broader scholarship on multisensory haptic design offers essential frameworks for interface developers worldwide. With over 1,000 citations across her most influential papers, MacLean stands as a leading voice in designing robots that communicate naturally, empathetically, and effectively with the humans who work and live alongside them.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Meet me where i'm gazing202 citations · 2014
- 3
- 4Gestures for industry Intuitive human-robot communication from human observation106 citations · 2013
- 5
- 6Design and assessment of the haptic creature's affect display77 citations · 2011
- 7
- 8Recognizing affect in human touch of a robot56 citations · 2014
- 9Pilot Testing a Robot for Reducing Pain in Hospitalized Preterm Infants48 citations · 2019
- 10Sketching CuddleBits39 citations · 2017