Yacine Tsalamlal

Papers

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About

Yacine Tsalamlal is a leading researcher in the fields of haptic human-robot interaction and social robotics, with a particular focus on the nuanced role of touch in affective communication. His most cited work, "Haptic Human-Robot Affective Interaction in a Handshaking Social Protocol" (2015, 38 citations), represents a foundational contribution to understanding how physical contact can convey emotional states during human-robot encounters. In this landmark study, Tsalamlal systematically investigated how variations in haptic parameters—such as grip force, duration, and movement patterns during a handshake—influence a human's perception of emotional dimensions like valence and arousal. By demonstrating that a robot's touch can effectively communicate distinct affective messages, his research bridges critical gaps between social psychology, haptics, and robotics. This work has profound implications for designing more natural and emotionally intelligent social robots capable of engaging in culturally grounded greeting protocols. Tsalamlal's contributions are particularly notable for their methodological rigor in quantifying subjective emotional experiences through objective haptic variables, establishing a framework that continues to inspire subsequent studies in affective robotics and human-robot interaction design.