David van der Pol

About

David van der Pol is a researcher specializing in human-robot interaction, social robotics, and assistive technology, with a particular focus on making robots more natural and persuasive communicators. His most influential work explores how robots can leverage human-like social cues — including gaze, gesture, and facial expression — to interact more effectively with people. His 2011 paper on persuasive storytelling robots, which has garnered over 100 citations, demonstrated that combining strategies such as gazing and gesturing significantly enhances a robot's persuasive impact, a finding with broad implications for social and therapeutic robotics. Complementing this, his research on artificial facial expressions (65 citations) and proxemic behavior (42 citations) further establishes his contributions to emotionally intelligent, spatially aware robotic systems. Van der Pol has also advanced practical computer vision techniques for head pose estimation in real-time and low-resolution environments, enabling robots to better interpret human attention and intent. His work on assisted living scenarios underscores a commitment to translating these capabilities into real-world care applications. Across his portfolio, Van der Pol's research consistently bridges the gap between technical robotics and the nuanced demands of human social behavior.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Making Robots Persuasive: The Influence of Combining Persuasive Strategies (Gazing and Gestures) by a Storytelling Robot on Its Persuasive Power

   101 citations · 2011
2. 2
   Imitating Human Emotions with Artificial Facial Expressions

   65 citations · 2013
3. 3
   Design of Robust Robotic Proxemic Behaviour

   42 citations · 2011
4. 4
   Region of Eye Contact of Humanoid Nao Robot Is Similar to That of a Human

   10 citations · 2013
5. 5
   Head pose estimation for a domestic robot

   9 citations · 2011
6. 6
   Learning Robot Vision for Assisted Living

   5 citations · 2012
7. 7
   Head pose estimation for real-time low-resolution video

   4 citations · 2010
8. 8
   Human robot interactions in care applications

   3 citations · 2012

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links