Diana Saplacan
Papers
22
Total Citations
147
H-Index
8
About
Diana Saplacan is a researcher specializing in care robotics, human-robot interaction, and welfare technology for elderly populations. Her work sits at the intersection of assistive robotics, privacy preservation, and ethical design, addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing aging Western societies: how to support independent living among older adults while maintaining dignity and safety. Saplacan's most influential contribution examines the ethical challenges surrounding care robots in home and healthcare settings, identifying critical regulatory and theoretical gaps that the field must urgently address (17 citations). She has also systematically reviewed randomized controlled trials evaluating welfare technology interventions for elderly people living independently (13 citations), and conducted qualitative analyses of European research projects on healthcare robotics (9 citations). A distinctive thread in her scholarship is the utility-privacy trade-off in care systems — her work on privacy-preserving sensors, human activity recognition datasets, and pose prediction algorithms demonstrates a rigorous technical approach to protecting vulnerable users without sacrificing care quality. Beyond technical contributions, Saplacan explores social dimensions of human-robot interaction, including intuitive responses to robot handshakes and motion-based feedback in domestic settings. With over 99 cumulative citations and a growing publication record spanning 2019 to 2025, she has established herself as an important voice shaping the ethical and practical future of robotic eldercare.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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- 10Robotics in Elderly Healthcare: A Review of 20 Recent Research Projects6 citations · 2023