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About

Nicolas Rollet is a leading researcher at the intersection of conversation analysis (CA), human-robot interaction (HRI), and social robotics. His work fundamentally explores how robots can be designed to understand and participate in the nuanced, multimodal sequences of human social life, with a particular focus on the delicate phases of interactional disengagement and closure. Rollet’s major contributions include pioneering the application of CA methodologies to HRI, demonstrating through detailed corpus analysis how robots like Pepper must be capable of completing interactional sequences—not just starting them—to achieve natural, human-like engagement. His highly cited paper, “« Je dois y aller »” (12 citations), provides a multimodal study of terminal disengagement, while “Talk to you later” (11 citations) innovatively proposes integrating CA with machine learning to improve a robot’s detection of human disengagement cues. Rollet also developed the TURIN coding system for trust in HRI, a novel framework for operationalizing sociological concepts in robotic design. His work on epistemic balance and co-presence in quantified-self experiments further showcases his interdisciplinary approach. With a growing citation impact, Rollet is shaping the future of socially aware robotics, making him essential reading for students and researchers interested in creating truly conversational, interactionally competent artificial agents.