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About

Yulia Frumer is a historian of technology whose research illuminates the cultural and emotional dimensions of robotics, particularly in Japan. Her work bridges engineering history, cognitive science, and social attitudes, exploring how humanoid robots are designed to elicit specific emotional responses—from fear to affection—and how these designs reflect deeper cultural assumptions. In her highly cited 2018 paper, "Cognition and emotions in Japanese humanoid robotics" (17 citations), she traces how Japanese roboticists have, since the early twentieth century, deliberately engineered physical features to shape user reactions, a contribution that has influenced both robotics design and the study of human-robot interaction. Frumer also brings a critical historical lens to automation, as in her 2022 article "Manufacturing hands: robot fingers and human labour in post-war Japan" (3 citations), where she argues that 1960s Japanese robotics was tacitly shaped by colonial attitudes toward labor. Her 2020 piece on Gakutensoku—a giant, friendly pneumatic automaton that mysteriously vanished—reveals the forgotten, whimsical side of robot history. Through her work, Frumer offers students and researchers a compelling view of robots not just as machines, but as mirrors of human emotion, labor, and history.