Michelle Salvador

Papers

Total Citations

106

H-Index

About

Michelle Salvador’s research sits at the intersection of robotics, developmental psychology, and therapeutic intervention, with a focus on leveraging humanoid robots to support children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Her most influential work, an emotion recognition comparative study using the Zeno robot (60 citations), demonstrated that children with high-functioning ASD can engage with robotic platforms to recognize emotional expressions, often performing comparably to typically-developing peers. This finding challenged assumptions about social learning deficits in autism and opened new avenues for robot-assisted therapy. Salvador further advanced the field by developing a robot-based therapeutic protocol (33 citations) that uses humanoid agents to train social and behavioral skills, addressing the critical question of how robots can engage individuals with social deficits. Her subsequent work on an ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) intervention delivered by a humanoid robot (13 citations) represents a pioneering step toward scalable, consistent, and engaging therapeutic tools. Collectively, her contributions have shaped the emerging domain of socially assistive robotics, demonstrating that robots can serve as effective, patient, and non-judgmental partners in autism intervention. Salvador’s research continues to inspire new protocols and technologies that bridge engineering and clinical practice.