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About

Rika Hasegawa is a pioneering researcher in human–robot interaction and ethological robotics, whose work bridges animal behavior, emotion, and autonomous systems. Her most influential contribution, the 2003 paper “An ethological and emotional basis for human–robot interaction” (280 citations), established a foundational framework for designing robots that can engage humans through instinct-driven, emotionally expressive behaviors. She further advanced this approach with her 2002 study on ethological modeling for the Sony AIBO robot (82 citations), which demonstrated how high-fidelity models of animal behavior—specifically domestic dogs—could be implemented in entertainment robots to create more natural, lifelike interactions. Hasegawa also developed the EGO behavior control architecture (25 citations), enabling robots to autonomously select actions based on internal states and environmental stimuli, and introduced the concept of emotionally grounded symbols (18 citations), allowing robots to learn the significance of objects through both survival value and emotional experience. Her work has profoundly influenced the design of socially interactive robots, laying the groundwork for more intuitive and emotionally resonant human–robot relationships.