Human-Robot Interaction

Human-robot interaction (HRI) refers to the ways robots and humans communicate, coordinate, and share space. In humanoid robotics, HRI spans physical collaboration, voice and gesture interfaces, safety protocols, and shared autonomy. Robots working in warehouses, retail, service sectors, or households must adapt to human behavior in real time: not just executing commands, but responding to intent.

Modern systems combine voice recognition, gaze tracking, gesture sensing, and proximity detection to read subtle cues. Predictive models anticipate human actions to enable smoother coordination. Shared autonomy allows robots to manage low-level tasks while humans guide high-level goals. In some systems, it also underpins fallback strategies, where remote operators intervene seamlessly during failure cases. The challenge is making interaction natural, safe, and productive without retraining people to fit the machine.