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About

Isabelle Cossin is a researcher whose work sits at the intersection of socially assistive robotics, design, and human-centered technology, with a particular focus on improving quality of life for elderly and rehabilitating populations. Her most influential contribution, "Perspectives on usability and accessibility of an autonomous humanoid robot living with elderly people" (2020, 43 citations), broke new ground by examining how continuous, real-world cohabitation with a social robot — over seven consecutive days — is experienced by elderly users, yielding practical recommendations for future home integration. This immersive field-based methodology has distinguished her approach from more controlled laboratory studies. Cossin extended this work into clinical settings, investigating patient experiences with the humanoid robot Pepper during week-long deployments in rehabilitation centers, demonstrating a consistent commitment to ecological validity in robotics research. Her broader intellectual contributions also engage the role of art and design in shaping robotic systems, arguing that aesthetic and user-experience considerations are fundamental — not peripheral — to effective robot development. A five-year discovery report on socially assistive robotics further underscores her longitudinal dedication to the field. Collectively, her research encourages practitioners and engineers to foreground human needs, accessibility, and thoughtful design when deploying robots in vulnerable care environments.