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About

Judit Abdai is a pioneering researcher in the emerging field of ethorobotics, which bridges animal behavior and robotics to study social interactions. Her key research areas include animal-robot interaction (ARI), the methodological use of autonomous agents in behavioral studies, and the social cognition of domestic dogs. Abdai’s major contributions involve developing and refining experimental frameworks that use interactive robots as social partners for animals, offering unprecedented control over variables in ethological research. Her most-cited work, “Methodological challenges of the use of robots in ethological research” (24 citations), critically examines the potential and pitfalls of this approach, while her co-authored textbook “An Introduction to Ethorobotics” (13 citations) serves as a foundational resource for the discipline. Abdai’s empirical studies, such as “Influence of reward and location on dogs’ behaviour toward an interactive artificial agent” (3 citations), demonstrate how reward mechanisms shape canine responses to robotic agents. Her work has been instrumental in advocating for ARI as a routine method in behavioral science, with her papers collectively highlighting the transformative potential of autonomous robots in unraveling the principles of social behavior across species.