Robin Jeanne Kirschner
Technical University of Munich, Robotics Research (United States)
Papers
22
Total Citations
235
H-Index
10
About
Robin Jeanne Kirschner is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of human-robot interaction (HRI), robot safety, and assistive robotics. Her research has made substantial contributions to both the theoretical foundations and practical implementation of safe, trustworthy robotic systems operating alongside humans. Kirschner's most influential contributions address critical challenges in physical human-robot interaction safety. She has advanced the understanding of collision dynamics and injury prevention, notably through rigorous analyses of ISO/TS 15066 standards — the international benchmark for collaborative robot safety — and introduced the concept of "mean reflected mass" as a physically interpretable safety metric. Her work on involuntary human motion, including startle-surprise responses in HRI contexts, has opened an important and often-overlooked dimension of psychological safety alongside biomechanical concerns. Beyond safety, Kirschner has pioneered frameworks for robot motion planning that integrate both physical and psychological trust, developed energy consumption disaggregation pipelines for sustainable robotics, and explored user acceptance of assistive robots in healthcare. Her research on tactile robot benchmarking provides the field with standardized evaluation protocols essential for objective progress measurement. With over 170 cumulative citations across her top ten papers alone, Kirschner's work is rapidly shaping how the robotics community approaches the challenge of deploying robots safely and meaningfully in human-centered environments.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 7An MPC Framework For Planning Safe & Trustworthy Robot Motions17 citations · 2022
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