Thesis Work
Ph.D. Thesis: Expressive Motion for Low Degree-of-Freedom Robots. Carnegie Mellon University, Robotics Institute. Thesis Committee: Reid Simmons, Manuela Veloso, Aaron Steinfeld, and Guy Hoffman. August 2016.
M.S. Thesis: Real-time Social Touch Gesture Recognition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. M.S. Advisor: Cynthia Breazeal. May 2008.
Journal Articles
Knight, H. Design and Policy Considerations of Human-Robot Partnerships. The Robots are Coming: Series on Civilian Robotics. Brookings Institute, July 2014. View Online | Download PDF
Knight, H. Eight Lessons learned about Non-verbal Interactions through Robot Theater. Social Robotics. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. 42-51. Download PDF
Conference Papers
A. Fallatah, J. Urann and H. Knight. The Robot Show Must Go On: Effective Responses to Robot Failures on Stage. Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2019), Macau, China, November 2019. Download PDF
A. Agnihotri and H. Knight. Persuasive ChairBots: A (Mostly) Robot-Recruited Experiment. Proceedings of International Conference on Robot and Human Communication (Ro-Man 2019), New Dehli, India, October 2019. Download PDF
J. Rond, A. Sanchez, J. Berger and H. Knight. Improv with Robots: Creativity, Inspiration, and Co-Performance. Proceedings of International Conference on Robot and Human Communication (Ro-Man 2019), New Dehli, India, October 2019. Download PDF
S. Hedaoo, A. Williams, C. Wadgaonkar and H. Knight. A Robot Barista Comments on its Clients: Social Attitudes Toward Robot Data Use. Proceedings of International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2019), Daegu, Korea, March 2019, pp. 66-74. (24% acceptance rate) Download PDF
Knight, H., Lee, T., Hallawell, B., and Ju, W. I Get It Already! The Influence of ChairBot Motion Gestures on Bystander Response. International Conference on Robot and Human Communication (Ro-Man ’17), 2017. Download PDF
Knight, H., and Simmons, R. An Intelligent Design Interface for Dancers to Teach Robots. International Conference on Robot and Human Communication (Ro-Man ’17), 2017. Download PDF
Simmons, R. and Knight, H. Keep on Dancing: Effects of Expressive Motion Mimicry. International Conference on Robot and Human Communication (Ro-Man ’17), 2017.
Knight, H., Thielstrom, R., and Simmons, R. Expressive Path Shape (Swagger): Simple Features that Illustrate a Mobile Robot™s Attitude Toward its Goal . International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS ’16), 2016. Download PDF
Knight, H. and Simmons, R. Laban Head-Motions Convey Robot State: A Call for Robot Body Language. International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA, ’16), 2016. Download PDF
Knight, H, Veloso, M. and Simmons, R. Taking Candy from a Robot: Speed Features and Candy Accessibility Predict Human Response. In Proceedings of International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man ˜15), September 2015 in Kobe, Japan. Download PDF
Knight, H and Simmons, R. Expressive Motion with X, Y and Theta: Laban Effort Features for Mobile Robots. In Proceedings of International Symposium Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN ˜14), August 2014 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Download PDF
Knight, H. and Simmons, R. Estimating Human Interest and Attention via Gaze Analysis. In Proceedings International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA ˜13), May 2013 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Download PDF
Knight, H., Toscano, R., Steele, W. D., Chang, A., Wang, Y. and Breazeal, C. Real-time Touch Gesture Recognition for a Sensate Robot. In Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS ™09), October 2009 in St. Louis, Missouri. Download PDF
Harvey, A. and Knight, H. Anti-Paparazzi Fashion. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wearable Computing (ISWC ™09), September 2009 in Linz, Austria. Download PDF
Knight, H, Lee, J. and Ma, H. Chair Alarm for Patient Fall Prevention based on Gesture Recognition and Interactivity In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC ™08), August 2008 in Vancouver, Canada. Download PDF
Extended Abstracts
A. Bacula, H. Knight. Excluded by the Jellyfish: Robot Group Expressive Motion. ICRA-X Extended Abstract in Proceedings of Proceedings of International Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2019).
J. Urann, A. Fallatah and H. Knight. Dancing with ChairBots HRI Video in Proceedings of International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2019).
A. Agnihotri and H. Knight. Persuasive Chairbots: A Robot Recruited Experiment. HRI Pioneers Workshop @ International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2019).
A. Agnihotri, A. Shutterly, A. Fallatah, B. Layng, and H. Knight. ChairBot Café: Personality-Based Expressive Motion. Social Robots in the Wild Workshop @ International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2018).
A. Shutterly, Y. Menguc and H. Knight. Contextual Collision: The Social Consequences of Touch and Collision in Human Robot Interaction. Pioneers Workshop @ International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2018).
A. Shutterly, Y. Menguc and H. Knight. Foldable Emotive Robots. Folding in Robotics Workshop @ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017) (1 page Extended Abstract, talk at workshop).
Knight, H and Simmons, R. Layering Laban Effort Features on Robot Task Motions. Late Breaking Report at International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI ˜15), March 2015 in Portland, Oregon. Download PDF
Knight, H., Simmons, R.. Designing an Expressive Motion System for a Robot that Needs Your Help Extended Abstract for Women in Robotics Workshop at the International Conference on Robotics, Science and Systems (RSS ˜14), July 2014 in Berkeley, California. Download PDF
Knight, H. Acting Lesson with Robot: Emotional Gestures Video for the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, March 2012, in Boston, Massachusetts. Download PDF |Â View Video
Knight, H. and Simmons, R. Tracking Aggregate vs. Individual Gaze Behaviors during a Robot-led Tour Simplifies overall Engagement Estimates Late Breaking Report for the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, March 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts. Download PDF
Knight, H. Devilishly Charming Robots and Charismatic Machines. HRI Young Pioneers poster for the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, March 2011, Lausanne, Switzerland. Download PDF
Knight, H., Divvala, S. and Satkin, S. A Savvy Robot Standup Comic: Realtime Learning through Audience Tracking Work-in-progress paper for the International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI ™11), January 2011, in Funchal, Portugal. Download PDF
Knight, H., Chang, A., Steele, W. D., Toscano, R. Wang, Y. and Breazeal, C. Robot Design Rubrics for Social Gesture Categorization and User Studies with Children. Presented in Workshop on How to Integrate Social Robots into Society at the International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI ™09), March 2009 in San Diego, California. Download PDF
Additional Writing
H. Knight. “A Short History of Artificial Intelligence, A Student Perspective: CSAIL/NSF” Summary created as part of an National Science Foundation Grant to archive MIT’s Early Artificial Intelligence research, through films, interviews and independent research. Link to Website,
created 2006.