Active & Interactive Robotics Lab

We have had many publications so far in 2025! See the list below.

IEEE-RAS Robotics and Automation Letters:

• "Real-time Sit-to-Stand Phase Classification with a Mobile Assistive Robot From Close Proximity Utilizing
  3D Visual Skeleton Recognition", A. Mahdi, Z. Dong, J. Lin, Y. Hu, Y. Hirata, K. Mombaur, 10 (3), pages 2160 - 2167
• "Quantifying Human Mental State in Interactive pHRI: Maintaining Balancing", N. Abdulazeem, Y. Hu, 10 (3), pages 2958 - 2965

International Journal of Social Robotics:

• "Exploring the Impact of Robots’ Facial Emotional Expressions on Physical Exercise Across Different Age
  Groups", N. Abdulazeem, Y. Hu, 1-21

IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Communication (ROMAN) accepted papers, to be presented August 24-29 https://www.ro-man2025.org/:

• "VAIRO: A Vision-Based Adaptive Impedance-Control Robotic Framework", J. Lee, A. Wong, Y. Hu
• "Leveraging GCN-based Action Recognition for Teleoperation in Daily Activity Assistance", T. Kwok*, J.
  Li, Y. Hu
• "Gaze to Grasp: Grasping Assistance for Teleoperation", K. Joseph, Y. Hu

International Conference on Social Robots + AI (ICSR+AI) accepted papers to be presented September 10-12 https://icsr2025.eu/:

• "Toward Safe Interaction with Social Robots: Children and Parents’ Mental Models of Security and Privacy in
  Humanoid Social Robots", J. Shin, B. An, A. Hamdi, Y. Hu, L. Zhang-Kennedy

International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) accepted paper, to be presented July 14-18 https://embc.embs.org/2025/:

• "Dual-Module Vision-Based Framework for Close-Proximity Real-Time Fall Detection", A. Mahdi, Z. Dong, Y. Hu, Y. Hirata and K. Mombaur

IFIP International Conference on ICT Systems Security and Privacy
Protection:

• "Uncovering Robot Joint-Level Controller Actions with Encrypted Network Traffic Analysis", C. Tang,
  D. Barradas, U. Hengartner, Y. Hu, pp 121-135

International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES) accepted paper to be presented August 10-12, https://2025.ares-conference.eu/:

• "Evaluating Privacy Implications of Robot Arms: Fingerprinting Joint-Level Controllers", C. Tang, D.
  Barradas, U. Hengartner,Y. Hu

We showcased our IISYest Baker solution at the Hannover Messe 2024 as one of the three finalists at the KUKA Innovation Award!

The team, Collaborative Deliciousness is formed by students and researchers of the University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering. The development of the solution was strongly supported by the RoboHub, which hosted the robot and arranged all the logistics.

The team's solution for the KUKA Innovation Award 2024 is the IISYest Baker - a robotic solution that revolutionizes craft bakeries by enabling human-robot collaboration, answering to this year's theme "Robots for the People". 

This innovative system allows bakers to seamlessly and safely integrate baking processes, enabling the robot to assist in creating artisanal-grade pastries. As the perfect helper in a bakery setting, the IISYest baker merges traditional techniques with modern technology, ensuring precision and efficiency in every batch of pastries it produces.

Prof. Yue Hu participated together with team members Cheng Tang (2nd-year undergraduate student in Computer Engineering), and Jeffrey Lee (first-year MASc student in Mechatronics Engineering). This was the first time that the University of Waterloo was selected as a finalist in this prestigious international competition.

Our paper on active physical human-robot interaction, which resulted from collaborations between social science and robotics, was finally published in the ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction! Thanks to Dr. Naoko Abe for her efforts in authoring this paper.

Check the paper here: Human Understanding and Perception of Unanticipated Robot Action in the Context of Physical Interaction