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About

Anouk van Maris is a prominent researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction (HRI), robot ethics, and social robotics, whose work has fundamentally shaped how we understand the deployment of social robots in real-world settings. Best known for her longitudinal field studies with older adults, van Maris has made significant contributions to understanding how emotional expression, trust, and deception operate across extended human-robot relationships — work that has garnered nearly 100 citations and challenged assumptions about robot design ethics. Her research tackles pressing questions around acceptance and emotional attachment, investigating how robot and user characteristics influence whether people welcome robotic companions into their lives. Particularly noteworthy is her pioneering work on accountability mechanisms, including a proposed "ethical black box" standard — a flight recorder equivalent for social robots — designed to ensure transparency in autonomous decision-making. She has also advanced risk assessment frameworks tailored specifically to robotic systems, including smart robot toys. Van Maris's scholarship is distinguished by its methodological rigor and real-world applicability, combining empirical HRI studies with normative ethical analysis. Her growing citation record and multi-year research trajectory signal an increasingly influential voice in responsible robotics design, making her work essential reading for anyone navigating the ethical frontiers of human-robot coexistence.