Together with my co-editors Matthijs Smakman (HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht), Denise Geiskkovitch (McMaster University), Mike Ligthart (VU Amsterdam), and Sofia Serholt (University of Gothenburg), I’m excited to share that we have initiated and are guest editing a new Special Issue in Frontiers in Robotics and AI entitled: Personalized Robotics: Capturing Variability in Child–Robot Interactions in Education, Healthcare, and Daily Life.
This Research Topic brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on how social robots can be personalized to support children across different contexts, including educational settings, therapeutic interventions, and everyday routines. A key focus lies on understanding individual differences — such as cognitive, emotional, or behavioral characteristics — and exploring how robotic systems can adapt to them in meaningful ways.
Together with my co-editors, we aim to create a platform that fosters research on:
- Methodologies for capturing variability in child–robot interactions
- Strategies for adaptive and personalized robot behavior
- Multimodal approaches to longitudinal interaction design
- Ethical and societal considerations in personalized child-robot interaction
The call is open for contributions in the form of original research, reviews, and methodological or theoretical advances. If you are working on related topics or know someone who might be, please feel free to share the link or get in touch.