Sandra Engberg

Papers

Total Citations

258

H-Index

About

Sandra Engberg is a researcher whose work spans the intersection of robotics, automation, and human-centered technology, with a particular focus on how these innovations affect people in organizational and social contexts. Her most celebrated contribution comes from the landmark Nursebot project, captured in the widely cited 2002 paper "Pearl: A Mobile Robotic Assistant for the Elderly," which accumulated 250 citations and helped lay the groundwork for assistive robotics in elder care. This multi-disciplinary, multi-university initiative demonstrated the real-world potential of mobile robotic systems to support aging populations, a vision that was remarkably forward-thinking for its time. More recently, Engberg has turned her attention to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and its workforce implications. Her 2019 and 2020 publications examine how RPA reshapes job characteristics, particularly skill variety, drawing on job characteristics models and empirical interview data from organizational settings. While these works are still gaining traction in the academic community, they represent a meaningful contribution to an increasingly urgent conversation about automation's human consequences. Across her career, Engberg demonstrates a consistent commitment to understanding how robots and automated systems interact with human needs — whether supporting vulnerable individuals or transforming modern workplaces.