Papers
14
Total Citations
319
H-Index
9
About
Yuhan Hu is a researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, affective computing, and social robotics, with a particular focus on expanding how robots communicate and connect with humans through novel sensory modalities. Perhaps most distinctively, Hu has pioneered the concept of texture-changing robot skin as an expressive nonverbal channel, demonstrating through work like "Soft Skin Texture Modulation for Social Robotics" (40 citations) and "Using Skin Texture Change to Design Emotion Expression in Social Robots" (63 citations) that dynamic surfaces can meaningfully convey emotional states beyond conventional gestures or facial expressions. Her cross-domain facial expression recognition research (84 citations) reflects a complementary interest in machine understanding of human affect. Hu has also advanced tactile human-robot interaction through ShadowSense, an image-based approach enabling full-body gesture recognition beneath translucent robot skin. Her more recent work pushes boundaries further still — exploring plant-driven actuators that allow robots to grow and decay organically, and developing inclusive robotic platforms like Touchibo for children with mixed visual abilities. With nearly 310 total citations and contributions spanning wearable robotics, generative motion frameworks, and bio-inspired design, Hu's research envisions a future where robots engage humans through richer, more embodied, and more inclusive forms of expression.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Using Skin Texture Change to Design Emotion Expression in Social Robots63 citations · 2019
- 3Soft skin texture modulation for social robotics40 citations · 2018
- 4ShadowSense27 citations · 2020
- 5
- 6Hand Development Kit24 citations · 2017
- 7Designing Plant-Driven Actuators for Robots to Grow, Age, and Decay17 citations · 2024
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- 10