Satoru Kawakami
Papers
1
Total Citations
52
H-Index
1
About
Satoru Kawakami is a pioneering figure in human-robot interaction (HRI), whose work illuminates how people respond to robots not just as individuals, but as social groups. His landmark study, "Three's company, or a crowd?" (2015, 52 citations), broke new ground by examining how the number and behavior of robots affects human perception—a critical insight as multi-robot systems become commonplace. By conducting cross-cultural experiments in Japan and the USA, Kawakami revealed that cultural context fundamentally shapes our comfort with robot collectives, challenging the one-size-fits-all assumptions in robotics design. His research demonstrates that humans treat robot groups differently than single robots, with implications for everything from service robots in airports to companion robots in homes. Kawakami's work bridges engineering and social science, offering empirical evidence that robot presence is not merely technical but deeply social and cultural. For students and researchers, his findings serve as a vital reminder: the future of HRI lies not in perfecting individual machines, but in understanding how people will share their spaces—and their trust—with crowds of robots.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
- 1