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About

Jutta Willamowski’s research lies at the intersection of human-robot interaction, privacy-sensitive design, and autonomous service robotics. Her work critically examines how robots can navigate shared human spaces—such as offices and elevators—while balancing functional efficiency with social acceptability. In her most-cited paper (2023, 14 citations), she investigates the trade-offs between human-like and machine-like robot behaviors during a shared elevator scenario, revealing how these design choices impact bystander comfort and trust. Her subsequent studies (2024) delve into privacy concerns surrounding autonomous delivery robots, exploring how continuous sensing for navigation and task execution can create user unease. Willamowski’s contributions are notable for their empirical rigor: she employs in-person wizard-of-oz experiments and user studies to ground her findings in real-world contexts. By highlighting the limits of privacy conversations and the need for transparent robot behaviors, her work informs the ethical deployment of service robots in sensitive environments. Her research is essential reading for students and engineers designing socially aware autonomous systems that respect human boundaries.