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About

Keith S. Jones is a human factors researcher whose work sits at the intersection of human-robot interaction, teleoperation, and assistive robotics. His most influential contribution, a comprehensive 2011 review of human-robot interaction literature (54 citations), has become a foundational resource for designers of personal service robots, synthesizing how people perceive, interact with, and respond to robotic systems. This work reflects Jones's broader commitment to making robots genuinely usable in real-world contexts. A significant thread of Jones's research addresses teleoperation in high-stakes environments, particularly urban search and rescue (USAR). His experimental work on aperture passability judgments—exploring whether operators can accurately assess if a robot can navigate through tight spaces—has meaningfully advanced understanding of operator perception and skill acquisition during remote robot control. These studies, spanning from 2009 through 2015, helped establish that training and perceptual learning are critical factors in teleoperation performance. More recently, Jones has turned toward caregiver robotics and aging-in-place applications, conducting formative analyses of elder care to inform robot design from the ground up. His 2021 work on affordance perception further demonstrates his evolving interest in equipping robots with socially intelligent capabilities. Across his career, Jones has consistently championed human-centered approaches to robotics research and design.