Personal profile
Overview
I am a professor of Human-Robot Interaction at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, the University of Hertfordshire. I am also a member of Adaptive Systems Research Group. Furthemore, I direct Robot House and Kaspar projects.
I am currently the University Theme Champion in Information and Security. I coordinated and completed the Accompany and SCRIPT projects funded by the framework 7 programme of the European Community.
My research is focused on human-robot interaction and is applied in the context of rehabilitation, assistive technology and more recently, over the past 7 years, takes an interest on deep learning and machine learning approaches for HRI.
I am a former member of the THINKlab, at University of Salford, UK, 2006-2008 where I held the position of Technical Director and was a member of Centre for Rehabilitation and Human Performance Research (CRHPR). Prior to that, I worked as a Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering Studies (CREST), Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, where I was involved with the i-match project, working with Prof Garth Johnson, 2003-2006. From 2000 to 2003, I worked as a Research Associate at the school of Cybernetics, the University of Reading, UK, where I worked with Prof Harwin and a pan-European team of researchers in developing the GENTLE/s robot for neurorehabilitation. Prior to these, from 1990-1999, I have been involved in different software/hardware engineering capacities, varying from hardware technician (1990) to junior programmer, senior programmer, system analyst and senior system analyst(1999).
Research interests
My research focuses on human-robot interaction, with the objective of getting robots to adapt to humans’ interaction. An adaptive robot will have many applications, for example a therapy machine which can tune to each individual’s therapy needs, in terms of assisting and resisting forces, can be a very useful tool in the gym.
My research interests divide into: rehabilitation, assistive and assessment robotics; human performance assessment using engaging interactions; robots for enhancing personal interaction; artificial intelligence; and safe human computer interaction. I have keen interest in statistics and mathematics.
I am also interested in Robot Safety and Ethics. I am working as a member of ISO TC299, working on standad development around robots and robotic devices.
Teaching specialisms
I have taught Robotics and Artificial Intelligence to first, second and third year BSc students. I am also involved in Master and BSc final year projects.
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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The Application of Knowledge Graphs for the Occupational Health Assessment Field
Amirabdollahian, F. (CoPI) & Sun, Y. (CoPI)
13/05/24 → 12/11/26
Project: Research
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SWAG: SOFT WEARABLE ASSISTIVE GARMENTS FOR HUMAN EMPOWERMENT
Amirabdollahian, F. (PI), Holthaus, P. (CoI), Lakatos, G. (CoI), Alingal-Meethal, S. (Researcher) & Shahabian Alashti, M. R. (Researcher)
4/03/24 → 1/03/27
Project: Research
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SWAG: SOFT WEARABLE ASSISTIVE GARMENTS FOR HUMAN EMPOWERMENT
Amirabdollahian, F. (PI), Holthaus, P. (CoI), Lakatos, G. (CoI), Resende Faria, D. (CoI) & Romero Moreno, F. (CoI)
1/11/23 → 31/10/27
Project: Research
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Hospital@home: Hospital at home, a virtual ward concept to bridge the health and social care gap
Amirabdollahian, F. (PI), Holthaus, P. (CoI), Lakatos, G. (CoI) & Dickinson, A. (CoI)
1/01/24 → 31/12/25
Project: Research
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A feasibility study of using Kaspar, a humanoid robot for speech and language therapy for children with learning disabilities
Amirabdollahian, F. (PI), Robins, B. (CoI), Wood, L. (CoI) & Lakatos, G. (CoI)
1/02/22 → 31/07/22
Project: Research
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Assistive Robotics for Healthy Aging: A Foundational Phenomenological Co-Design Exercise
Potter, S., Hawley, M., Higgins, A., Amirabdollahian, F., Dragone, M., Di Nuovo, A. & Caleb-Solly, P., 28 Jan 2026, In: Journal of Medical Internet Research. 28, 18 p., e77179.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Kaspar Explains: An Educational Platform using Causal Explanations to Support Children with Autism with Visual Perspective Taking
Holthaus, P., Lakatos, G., Sarda Gou, M., Moros Espanol, S., Wood, L., Robins, B., Araujo, H., Mousavi, M. & Amirabdollahian, F., 19 Jan 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: International Journal of Social Robotics.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Stereo-Based Single-Shot Hand-to-Eye Calibration for Robot Arms
Kadam, P., Fang, G., Amirabdollahian, F., Zou, J. J. & Holthaus, P., 12 Jan 2026, In: Computers. 15, 1, 21 p., 53.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Downloads (Pure) -
Effects of Perceived Robot Autonomy and Personal Differences on Trust in Human-Robot Interactions
Fallahi, A., Holthaus, P., Amirabdollahian, F. & Lakatos, G., 2 Jan 2026, Social Robotics: Proceedings of 16th International Conference on Social Robotics. Springer Nature , p. 459–471 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNAI,volume 16132)).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
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Ethical and Societal Challenges Facing Social and Educational Robots - Insights from the KASPAR Experience
Lakatos, G., Velmurugan, V., Menon, C., Wood, L., Robins, B. & Amirabdollahian, F., 2 Jan 2026, (E-pub ahead of print) Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Social Robotics + AI (ICSR+AI 2025). p. 375–386 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution