Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Yuki Okafuji is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI), with a particular focus on social and service robots deployed in real-world commercial environments. Their work explores how humanoid robots can effectively engage, attract, and persuade people in everyday settings such as shopping malls, bakeries, and offices — addressing one of the most pressing challenges in modern service industries: the practical integration of robots as labor support technology. Okafuji's most influential contributions examine the behavioral strategies robots use to capture pedestrian attention (31 citations), the collaborative dynamics between robots and human clerks (21 citations), and how robots can sustain user engagement over time (17 citations). Notably, their research on persuasion strategies for daily recommendation systems (15 citations) and the crowd-drawing effects of multi-robot configurations (15 citations) push the boundaries of robot advertising and influence. More recent work investigates novel trust-building mechanisms, such as pseudo-eating behaviors that make product recommendations feel more credible (8 citations), and long-term field deployments offering rare empirical insights into real-world robot performance. With over 130 cumulative citations, Okafuji's research meaningfully advances our understanding of how robots can authentically and effectively operate alongside humans in commercial spaces.