Robin Bekrater‐Bodmann

Central Institute of Mental Health, Heidelberg University

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About

Robin Bekrater-Bodmann is a leading researcher at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and human-robot interaction, whose work fundamentally explores how humans experience artificial body parts as their own. Her key research areas include the neuroscience of body ownership, the rubber hand illusion, and the psychological requirements for successful human-robot collaboration. Bekrater-Bodmann’s major contributions center on extending classic body-illusion paradigms into applied robotics. Her highly cited 2018 paper, "Feel-Good Robotics" (65 citations), established critical requirements for touch and embodiment in assistive robotics, arguing that the feeling of owning a robotic limb is essential for intuitive control and user acceptance. She further advanced this field with her 2019 study on the robotic hand illusion (29 citations), which systematically disentangled the roles of visuotactile and visuomotor feedback in creating a sense of ownership over a robotic hand. By translating fundamental principles of self-consciousness into engineering challenges, Bekrater-Bodmann’s work provides the empirical foundation for designing prosthetics and assistive robots that feel like natural extensions of the body, directly shaping how next-generation rehabilitation technologies are conceived and evaluated.