Lasse Blond

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Lasse Blond is a leading voice in human-robot interaction (HRI), specializing in the critical study of how social robots are integrated into real-world, culturally specific settings. His work bridges robotics, anthropology, and sociology, challenging the field to move beyond controlled lab experiments. Blond’s most influential contribution is his landmark paper, "Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography" (2019, 36 citations), which argues for long-term, ethnographic fieldwork to capture the messy, unpredictable realities of human-robot encounters. This research, based on a two-year study of a South Korean socially assistive robot in Danish elderly care, has become a foundational text for researchers advocating for more ecologically valid HRI methods. In his related work, "Unpacking the cultural baggage of travelling robots" (2019), he further demonstrates how robots are not neutral technologies but are transformed by—and themselves transform—the cultural practices of their host countries. By foregrounding the role of context, culture, and power dynamics, Blond has significantly shaped a more reflexive and socially aware approach to robotics, establishing himself as a key thinker in the emerging field of robot ethnography.