Yukie Nagai

About

Yukie Nagai is a pioneering researcher in developmental robotics and cognitive science, whose work bridges human infant development and artificial intelligence to advance our understanding of how intelligent behavior emerges. Best known for her groundbreaking 2003 paper on joint attention — which has garnered over 212 citations — Nagai demonstrated how robots can acquire fundamentally human social capabilities through embedded visual attention mechanisms and self-evaluative learning. Her research consistently draws inspiration from parent-infant interaction, as seen in her influential investigations into "Motionese," the specialized motion caregivers use when demonstrating actions to infants, which she computationally modeled to scaffold robot action learning. Nagai has made significant contributions to human-robot collaboration, exploring when and how robots should take initiative during shared tasks. Her 2021 work on world model learning reflects her broader ambition to unlock the principles of general-purpose intelligence through predictive learning frameworks. With multiple papers exceeding 80 citations and participation in premier venues like the ACM/IEEE HRI conference, Nagai's interdisciplinary contributions have profoundly shaped developmental robotics, making her an essential voice for researchers studying embodied cognition, imitation learning, and socially intelligent machines.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   A constructive model for the development of joint attention

   212 citations · 2003
2. 2
   Efficient human-robot collaboration: When should a robot take initiative?

   95 citations · 2017
3. 3
   Computational Analysis of Motionese Toward Scaffolding Robot Action Learning

   84 citations · 2009
4. 4
   Learning for joint attention helped by functional development

   82 citations · 2006
5. 5
   Initiative in robot assistance during collaborative task execution

   82 citations · 2016
6. 6
   World model learning and inference

   81 citations · 2021
7. 7
   Staged Development of Robot Skills: Behavior Formation, Affordance Learning and Imitation with Motionese

   79 citations · 2015
8. 8
   The Eleventh ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction

   74 citations · 2016
9. 9
   People modify their tutoring behavior in robot-directed interaction for action learning

   68 citations · 2009
10. 10
    Predictive learning: its key role in early cognitive development

    64 citations · 2019

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links