Magdalena Bugajska
United States Naval Research Laboratory, United States Department of the Navy
Papers
20
Total Citations
448
H-Index
11
About
Magdalena Bugajska is a pioneering researcher in cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction, whose work bridges artificial intelligence, developmental psychology, and embodied cognition. Her key research areas include mental simulation in robots, spatial reasoning for human-robot collaboration, and the development of socially intelligent robotic systems that learn from and interact with humans. Bugajska’s most influential contribution is her work on integrating cognition, perception, and action through mental simulation (104 citations), which laid the foundation for robots that can anticipate and adapt to human partners. She also conducted groundbreaking studies on how children and robots learn to play hide and seek (67 citations), revealing that even young children can engage in perspective-taking during play—a finding with implications for both developmental psychology and robot learning. Her “Like-Me” simulation framework (53 citations) and embodied model of infant gaze-following (30 citations) demonstrate how robots can use cognitively plausible mechanisms to learn social behaviors. Bugajska’s collaborative work with NASA on humanoid robots for space exploration (15 citations) highlights the real-world impact of her research, aiming to make robotic teammates as intuitive and effective as human astronauts.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Integrating cognition, perception and action through mental simulation in robots104 citations · 2004
- 2Children and robots learning to play hide and seek67 citations · 2006
- 3Spatial representation and reasoning for human-robot collaboration60 citations · 2007
- 4
- 5An Embodied Model of Infant Gaze-Following30 citations · 2009
- 6An Architecture for Adaptive Algorithmic Hybrids25 citations · 2009
- 7Communicating and Collaborating with Robotic Agents20 citations · 2005
- 8COLLABORATING WITH HUMANOID ROBOTS IN SPACE15 citations · 2005
- 9Incorporating mental simulation for a more effective robotic teammate14 citations · 2008
- 10Robot-directed speech as a means of exploring conceptualizations of robots12 citations · 2009