Gang Ren

University of Bath, Xiamen University of Technology

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Gang Ren’s research lies at the vital intersection of human-robot interaction, emotional design, and technology acceptance, where he explores how robots can become more intuitive and welcome partners in our daily lives. His most influential work, “It’s Not the Way You Look, It’s How You Move” (2015, 10 citations), established a foundational scheme for designing robot affective behaviour, demonstrating that expressive movement—not just appearance—is key to helping people interpret a robot’s intentions during joint tasks. This contribution has shaped how researchers approach non-verbal communication in robotics. More recently, Ren has focused on real-world service adoption, investigating what drives potential users’ intentions to use hotel robots (2025, 3 citations) and how emotional design, communication style, and gender groups influence service robot acceptance (2025, 2 citations). By integrating the Technology Acceptance Model with the “Computers Are Social Actors” paradigm, his work provides actionable insights for deploying robots in hospitality and commercial settings. Ren’s research is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how to build robots that people not only tolerate, but genuinely want to work and interact with.