Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Jessica Sorenson is a leading voice in the ethical, legal, and societal (ELS) dimensions of human-robot interaction (HRI). Her research uniquely bridges engineering practice and ethnographic fieldwork, revealing how values are negotiated in real-world robotics design. Sorenson’s most cited work, “The Use of Ethnography to Identify and Address Ethical, Legal, and Societal (ELS) Issues” (9 citations), pioneers a methodological approach for surfacing ELS challenges as robots enter everyday life. She further argues for a paradigm shift in HRI—from studying ‘interaction’ to studying ‘experience’—in her 2023 paper “Towards HRI of Everyday Life” (7 citations). Her ethnographic study of Danish collaborative robotics engineers, published in “Toward a pragmatic and social engineering ethics” (7 citations), offers a rare, ground-level view of how engineering decisions intersect with formal ethics frameworks. As a key contributor to the REELER project (€1.99M EU funding), Sorenson’s work on pragmatic, sociomaterial design processes provides actionable guidance for responsible robotics innovation. With a growing portfolio that includes a special issue on ethnography in HRI, Sorenson is shaping how the field understands and practices ethical engineering.