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About

Maaike Bleeker is a pioneering researcher working at the intersection of performance studies, human-robot interaction (HRI), and design, whose work has fundamentally reimagined how robots can engage meaningfully with people. Drawing on dramaturgical principles and improvisational techniques from the performing arts, Bleeker challenges conventional approaches to social robotics that prioritize task performance metrics, arguing instead that expressive movement and rule-based improvisation are essential to creating rich, sustained human-robot encounters. Her most influential contributions include developing frameworks for robotic improvisation as emergent, structured behavior rather than randomness — a distinction central to her 2022 paper (12 citations) — and pioneering the use of theater professionals and mixed reality stages as methodological tools for designing situated human-robot interactions (10 citations). Her work extends into practical real-world contexts, including expressive robot movement design for fine-dining restaurants and spherical robots promoting physical activity at home. Bleeker's earlier theoretical work tracing non-organic intelligence from Braitenberg to Theo Jansen's Strandbeesten reveals a longstanding ecological and philosophical dimension to her thinking. Across her career, she consistently bridges artistic practice and robotics research, offering the field a distinctive, humanistically grounded perspective on what robots can be and do.