Skaiste Butkute

Papers

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About

Skaiste Butkute is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, with a focused expertise on robot personality and non-verbal communication. Her most influential work, "Creating Robot Personality" (2020), with 10 citations, explores how semantic free utterances (SFUs)—sounds like squeaks, clicks, and tones—can serve as audio gestures to convey emotion and build trust, acceptance, and emotional attachment between humans and robots. Drawing inspiration from iconic film robots like R2D2 and WALL-E, Butkute’s research bridges pop culture and engineering, demonstrating that even simple sounds can imbue machines with distinct personalities. Her contributions are vital for designing more relatable and socially engaging robots, impacting fields from assistive technology to entertainment. By showing that personality is a key factor in user acceptance, Butkute’s work lays the groundwork for future robots that communicate intuitively, fostering deeper human-robot bonds. Her innovative approach continues to inspire students and researchers exploring the emotional dimensions of artificial intelligence.