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Welcome to the Responses To Robots (ReTRo) Lab. Robots shifted from subordinate ‘tools’ to equal ‘partners’ and ‘teammates’ or even upper-level 'leaders'. With robots being increasingly deployed in human spaces, it is important to understand how we should design, deploy, and treat robots. Our work focuses on people's affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses to robots, and leverage that knowledge to design strategies for robots to recover from interaction breakdowns. Investigating the dynamics of human-robot interaction is pivotal in optimizing the ways in which we coexist and collaborate with robotic systems.
Welcome to the Responses To Robots (ReTRo) Lab. Robots shifted from subordinate ‘tools’ to equal ‘partners’ and ‘teammates’ or even upper-level 'leaders'. With robots being increasingly deployed in human spaces, it is important to understand how we should design, deploy, and treat robots. Our work focuses on people's affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses to robots, and leverage that knowledge to design strategies for robots to recover from interaction breakdowns. Investigating the dynamics of human-robot interaction is pivotal in optimizing the ways in which we coexist and collaborate with robotic systems.
The ReTRo Lab is part of the Human Centred Computing group and the Department of Information and Computing Sciences at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
The ReTRo Lab is part of the Human Centred Computing group and the Department of Information and Computing Sciences at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
If you would like to learn more about our research or are interested in doing a Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis research on social human-robot interaction, please contact Maartje de Graaf or join our weekly Robot Lab meetings in BBG 5.56. For the Spring 2025 semester, these meetings are scheduled on Friday’s from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
If you would like to learn more about our research or are interested in doing a Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis research on social human-robot interaction, please contact Maartje de Graaf or join our weekly Robot Lab meetings in BBG 5.56. For the Spring 2025 semester, these meetings are scheduled on Friday’s from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Current PhD Students
Current PhD Students
I currently do not have funded PhD vacancies. However, Utrecht University welcomes expressions of interest from prospective doctoral candidates with their own funding or those interested in applying for external fellowships, such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. We are happy to support strong applicants in preparing grant proposals.
Current Graduate and Undergraduate Students
Current Graduate and Undergraduate Students
Thomas Smakman, Graduate student
Skip Langenberg, Graduate student
Rafał Karpiński, Graduate student
Melissa Kragten, Graduate student
Former Students
Former Students
Lisa Al-Shughri, BSc – 2025
Stefan Huneker, Daan van der Putten, Robin Naafs, Honors Undergraduate Project
Loes Jonker, MSc – 2025
Shuyi Pan, PhD – Visiting 2024/2025 – Now Assistant Professor at Shanghai International Studies University
Anouk Neerincx, PhD – 2025 – Now Researcher & Lecturer at Hogeschool Utrecht
Lisa Hordijk, MSc – 2025
Åsmund Geitung, MSc – 2025
Paola Horvat, MSc – 2025
Julian Plat, BSc – 2024
Joséphine Mélot Chesnel, MSc – 2024 – Thesis research published at ICRA 2025.
Demetra Hadjicosti, MSc – 2024 – Thesis research published in university press.
Anouk van Santen, MSc – 2024
Alieke de Heer, BSc – 2024
Stan de Reuver, MSc – 2023
Benedetta Ghedi, MSc – 2023
Timea Nagy, MSc – 2023 – Thesis research published in THRI, now PhD student at Utrecht University.
Geertje Hendriks, MSc – 2023
Chandni Bagchi, MSc – 2023
Aafje Kapteijns, MSc – 2023 - Thesis research published at RO-MAN 2024
Jeffrey Post, BSc – 2023
Kelvin van de Sande, BSc – 2023 – Thesis research published at RO-MAN 2023
Jonathan Van Diermen, BSc – 2023
Maureen van Veen, BSc – 2022
Jessica Leven, MSc – 2022 – Thesis research published at HRI 2023
Andrew Kambel, MSc – 2022
Kelvin Koenders, MSc – 2022 – Thesis research as best paper award winner at RO-MAN 2024
Lisa Wagensveld, MSc – 2022
Leslie Bennink, MSc – 2022
Daan Veldhuis, BSc – 2022 – Part of thesis research published in journal article
Evangelos Tsakanikas, MSc – 2021
Thirza Hiwat, BSc – 2021 – Thesis research published at UMAP 2021
Joep Wegstapel, BSc – 2020
Elles van Timmeren, MSc – 2020
Denise Rodenburg, BSc – 2020 – Thesis research at HRI 2021 Late Breaking Report
Niels van Herwijnen, BSc – 2020
Sven Neuteboom, BSc – 2020 – Thesis research published at ICSR 2021
Ella Velner, MSc – 2020 – Thesis research as best paper award nominee at HRI 2020
Quinten Zuurbier, MSc – 2020
Diede van den Hoorn, BSc – 2020 – Thesis research published at HRI 2021
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