Diana Saplacan

• Tørresen, Jim; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Baselizadeh, Adel; Mahler, Tobias & Bygrave, Lee Andrew (2026). Reducing Robot Vulnerabilities Through Joint Regulatory Assessment and User-Centered Development and Testing. In Weng, Yueh-Hsuan (Eds.), Social Robots and Ethical Design. Springer. ISSN 9789819225156. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This book chapter introduces research examples from a unique collaboration between legal scholars and technology scholars who have together endeavored to make progress in safe and privacy-preserving robot assistant development and deployment. This collaboration has taken place within the “Vulnerability in the Robot Society” (VIROS) research project at the University of Oslo, Norway (VIROS 2025). Institutionally, this is a joint research project between the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (NRCCL) at the Department of Private Law and the Robotics and Intelligent Systems (ROBIN) research group at the Department of Informatics. The project explores challenges regarding digital vulnerabilities that the adoption of robots in human environments poses, particularly as regards privacy, safety, and security, and how these challenges can be met from legal and technical perspectives. We have been particularly interested in exploring assistant and healthcare robots since this domain imposes high demands on the technology to be used. As part of the project, we have analyzed various European Union (EU) regulations that have been introduced in recent years, with a view to assessing their impact in the domain. The TIAGo robot from PAL Robotics has been the main robot platform for technical work and experimental studies in the project. A number of novel methods for robot sensing and control have been implemented. Further, several of them have been assessed through human–robot interaction studies. This chapter introduces the VIROS project and outlines some of our regulatory and technological research. We also highlight several of the conflicting trade-offs seen in the domain of HRI (Torresen et al. 2023).

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Kuoppamäki, Sanna; Bodenhagen, Leon & Tørresen, Jim (2026). Robots as Welfare Technologies and Actors within Future Homeand Healthcare Services. In Havinen, Laura & Hägglund, Susanne (Ed.), Adjunct Proceedings of the 14th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ISSN 9798400727986. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This workshop explores whether, how, and under which conditions Welfare Robots (WRs), may be meaningfully integrated into future home- and healthcare services and practices. Building on current debates on welfare technology, AI-driven robots, and post-growth Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), the workshop invites designers, roboticists, engineers, healthcare professionals, philosophers, sociologists, and other practitioners to critically examine and systematically engage in contributing to exploring design alternatives and co-design a future model for responsible integration of robots into future care services, using Story Dialogue Method.

• Bodenhagen, Leon; Treusch, Pat; Kruger, Norbert & Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Workshop: Robociety – Vision and Reality. In Seibt, Prof. Johanna; Alami, Prof. Rachid; Chatila, Prof. Emeritus Raja; Ess, Prof. Emeritus Charles; Fischer, Prof. Kerstin & Gunkel,, Prof. David (Ed.), Conference Proceedings of the Bi-Annual Conference Robophilosophy - "Connected Futures: Nature, Robots, and Society", 2026. Springer. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Robociety refers to the pervasive use of interactive robots in everyday life, which today is still more a vision than a reality. It is also a name of a project [1] with the overarching aim to ”unlock the benefits that robots can bring to society - while proactively addressing the potential risks they pose”. At the workshop, we will discuss the state of the art in interactive robots and their applications in real-world environments. By identifying technical, ethical, and procedural challenges, we aim to pinpoint promising application areas as well as societally meaningful and at the same time commercially viable use cases. These could pave the way for broader integration of interactive robots into daily life.

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Weng, Yueh-Hsuan; Bravo, Pedro Pablo Lucas; Baselizadeh, Adel & Tørresen, Jim (2026). A Cross-Cultural Video-Based Study between Norway and Japan on Informed Consent and Disclosure Mechanisms on the Use of Social Robots in Public and Private Spaces - Users' Perspectives. In Ishii, Kazuo; Shibata, Tomohiro; Howard, Ayanna; Rossi, Silvia & Clodic, Aurélie (Ed.), Proceedings of The 35th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2026). IEEE. ISSN 9798331588656. Full text in Research Archive
• Sikora, Claudia Magdalena; Otterdijk, Marieke van; Soma-Jestilä, Rebekka; Tørresen, Jim & Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). "There’s something human about it!” - Exploring users’ perception of nonverbal communication of robotic furniture. In Samani, Hooman & Akhond, Saina (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Confernece on Social Robotics (ICSR) + ART 2026. Springer International Publishing . Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Non-anthropomorphic robots are integrating into our homes. People attribute human-like characteristics to these robots, although they do not resemble humans. This raises the question of whether similar processes would occur when people interact with robot furniture. Thus, the presented exploratory pilot study investigates how users intuitively interpret and perceive the non verbal communication of such robots. In an instrumental case study, we had eleven participants interacting with the T-ABLE robot through expressive behavior. Participants were interviewed about their experience. Our findings indicate that the participants use their associations between behavior and prior to similar experiences to attribute personality to the robot table. These findings provide insights for theorizing the intuitive comprehension of the behavior of non-anthropomorphic robots.

• Murashova, Natalia; Bergsjø, Leonora Onarheim; Dahl, Heidi Elisabeth Iuell; Omerovic, Aida & Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Ethical risk assessment of AI in practice: a proposal of the methodology for organisational application. Nordic Machine Intelligence (NMI). 6(4), p. 43–52. doi: 10.5617/nmi.13138. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is incorporated into the workflow, several ethical issues and risks which can cause actual harms are being introduced. Despite the well-established frameworks of ethical AI principles, there are few practice-oriented approaches for structured interdisciplinary assessment of the ethical aspects associated with AI use and design. To supply the principles and address the increasing focus on AI-risks from an ethical perspective, an Ethical risk assessmeNt of Ai iN pracTice (ENACT) methodology is proposed. To develop ENACT together with a cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary consortium of Norwegian private and public businesses, the core principles of Design-Based Research (DBR) were applied including real context orientation, collaborative partnership and focus on testing and multiple interactions. Four aspects of the ENACT methodology were collaboratively developed and tested and are proposed in this paper including format, structure, scope and support tools. This paper describes and details three steps of the ENACT methodology and discusses its potential and limitations for qualitative ethical risk assessment of AI in organisational settings.

• Sarfraz, Burhan Mohammad; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Baselizadeh, Adel & Torresen, Jim (2026). The Privacy-Preserving Capabilities of a Service Robot in a Scenario-Based Healthcare Setting. In Baillie, Lynne; Smart, William D.; Graaf, Maartje De; Gombolay, Matthew & Torre, Ilaria (Ed.), Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI Companion '26). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ISSN 9798400723216. p. 675–679. doi: 10.1145/3776734.3794481. Full text in Research Archive
• Baselizadeh, Adel; Uddin, Md Zia; Khaksar, Weria; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan & Tørresen, Jim (2025). Privacy-Preserving 3D Lidar-Based Multi-Modal Activity Recognition in Human-Robot Interaction. International Conference on Control, Mechatronics and Automation. ISSN 2837-5114. 2025, p. 516–523. doi: 10.1109/iccma67641.2025.11369549. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Human activity recognition (HAR) involves using sensors to collect human data, which is then analyzed to identify their activities. HAR has numerous applications across various fields. One significant area is human-robot interaction (HRI). Recognizing user activities provides robots with valuable insights into the user’s status, enhancing the efficiency of HRI. However, developing HAR models presents privacy challenges due to the collection of user data, especially in robots, which are often equipped with diverse sensors. This paper proposes privacy-preserving HAR methods within the context of HRI.The paper investigates using privacy-preserving sensors, with a particular focus on 3D Lidar, to develop HAR models. It explores the integration of 3D Lidar with other sensors, including user-wearable sensors and robot-based sensors, including force/torque sensors, through multimodal deep learning (DL) approaches. Various DL-based sensor fusion methods, including data-level and feature-level fusion approaches, are thoroughly examined, and their accuracies for HAR are compared.A novel dataset was collected to train the multimodal DL models, capturing various user activities during HRI. This dataset leverages 10 different sensors, including 9 privacy-preserving sensors, along with an RGB camera for reference. The paper considers nine distinct user activities, including physical interactions with a robot and commanding a robot to perform specific tasks. The results indicate that integrating the sensors’ data at the feature-level achieves an 80.73% accuracy in recognizing various user activities during HRI.

• Meijer, Frida; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Baselizadeh, Adel & Tørresen, Jim (2025). "The wooden gripper was warmer and made the robot less threatening"– A Study on Perceived Safety based on Robot Gripper’s Visual and Tactile Properties. In Emilia, Barakova,; Ben, Allouch, Somaya; Kazuhiro, Nakadai, & Goldie, Nejat, (Ed.), Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2025. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9798331587710. p. 1091–1098. doi: https:/ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11217775. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  An ageing population and the need of providing adequate care have led to developing robots to relieve healthcare workers and to assist individuals in their own homes. However, the successful integration of robots in such settings relies on more than just ensuring physical safety associated with physical risks (e.g., collisions): it also requires the user’s perceived safety – the users perceiving the robot as not doing any harm. This paper explores the potential influence of a robot grippers’ visual and tactile properties, such as materials and texture, on the users’ perceived safety and comfort of human-robot interaction. An initial survey was distributed to 53 participants, exploring five (n=5) robot gripper designs focusing on the robots’ gripper shape. One design shape was thereafter selected to be constructed as a cover to be placed over the parallel grippers of the TIAGo robot, by using 1) wood filament and 2) plastic. The covers were then tested in an experimental setting with 11 participants. The covers were attached to the TIAGo mobile manipulator robot and participants interacted with both of the designed gripper covers within a controlled laboratory environment. A questionnaire was distributed to all 11 experiment participants, at different stages of the interactions. The findings indicate that the material of the gripper influenced participants’ sense of comfort, familiarity, and perceived capabilities of the robot. The study suggests that perceived safety in human-robot interaction (HRI) is shaped not only by physical factors but also by how materials are personally and contextually interpreted. To better support safe and comfortable interactions, further research is needed to understand how material choices shape users’ perceived safety.

• Otterdijk, Marieke van; Laeng, Bruno; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Baselizadeh, Adel & Tørresen, Jim (2025). Seeing Meaning: How Congruent Robot Speech and Gestures Impact Human Intuitive Understanding of Robot Intentions. International Journal of Social Robotics. ISSN 1875-4791. 17, p. 2279–2292. doi: 10.1007/s12369-025-01271-0. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Social communication between humans and robots has become critical as a result of the integration of robots into our daily lives as assistants. There is a need to explore how users intuitively understand the behavior of a robot and the impact of social context on that understanding. This study measures mental effort (as indexed by pupil response) and processing time, measured as the time taken to provide the correct answer, to investigate participants’ intuitive understanding of the robot’s gestures. Thirty-two participants participated in a charades game with a TIAGo robot, during which their eyes were tracked. Our findings show a relationship between mental effort and processing time, and indicate that robot gestures, congruence of speech and behavior, and the correctness of interpreting robot behavior influence intuitive understanding. Furthermore, we found that people focused on the robot’s limb movement. Using these findings, we can highlight what features contribute to the intuitive interaction with a robot, thus improving its efficiency.

• Khaksar, Weria; Saplacan, Diana; Bygrave, Lee Andrew & Tørresen, Jim (2025). Robotics in Elderly Healthcare: A Qualitative Analysis of 20 Recent European Research Projects. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. 14(2). doi: 10.1145/3711936. Full text in Research Archive
• Murashova, Natalia; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Omerovic, Aida; Dahl, Heidi Elisabeth Iuell & Bergsjø, Leonora Onarheim (2025). Ethical Risk Assessment of AI in Practice Methodology: Process-oriented Lessons Learnt from the Initial Phase of Collaborative Development with Public and Private Organisations in Norway. International Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions ACHI. p. 33–40. doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.30911861. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its ethical implications are not new for academia and business. Challenges of embedding principles for ethical AI in practice are obvious and even though the gap between theory and practice is decreasing, it does not meet the urgent need for responsible technology development and deployment. Embedding ethical principles in existing risk assessment practices is a novel, process-oriented approach that can contribute to operationalising AI ethics in organisational practice. This paper elaborates on initial phase of collaborative development of ethical risk assessment of AI methodology, involving private and public organisations in Norway. We reflect upon our experience and present key take-aways in a form of three lessons learnt from embedding a Model-based security risk analysis method (CORAS) and a Story Dialog Method (SDM) in the initial phase of the collaborative methodology development. This study concludes that ethical risk assessment of AI in practice is feasible and explores design issues related to cross-sectoral settings, flexibility of the methodology, and power-relationship.

• Baselizadeh, Adel; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Khaksar, Weria; Uddin, Md Zia & Tørresen, Jim (2024). Comparative Analysis of Vision-Based Sensors for Human Monitoring in Care Robots: Exploring the Utility-Privacy Trade-off. In Sgorbissa, Antonio & Wei, Lei (Ed.), 2024 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN). IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9798350375022. p. 1794–1801. doi: 10.1109/ro-man60168.2024.10731223. Full text in Research Archive
• Moen, Helga Wallin; Kjekshus, Lars Erik; Saplacan, Diana & Pajalic, Zada (2024). How do professionals in home-based health care services react to a new trust-based way of working? – A story dialogue study. Social Sciences & Humanities Open (SSHO). 11. doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.101251. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study explored professionals’ reflections regarding a new, trust-based way of working in municipal homebased services, in relation to the concept of trust. The new way of working represents an alternative to the purchaser–provider split model. Instead of decisions being made on behalf of the service user by an intermediate purchaser, small, interdisciplinary teams are to cooperate to make decisions. The study is qualitative and exploratory, and data were collected via workshops with home-based service professionals. Eight professionals with different backgrounds participated. Data were both collected and analyzed using the story dialogue method. Adopting a wider view on trust, this study contributes by discussing the results according to three interrelated platforms of trust: relational/interactional, pre-contractual, and structural/institutional. The results indicate that to build trust after transferring autonomy to horizontally organized teams, work needs to be done to develop relational and pre-contractual trust before the new practice has been formalized in new routines, new structural trust bases have been formed, and trust has become institutionally embedded.

• Baselizadeh, Adel; Uddin, Md Zia; Khaksar, Weria; Saplacan, Diana & Tørresen, Jim (2024). PriMA-Care: Privacy-Preserving Multi-modal Dataset for Human Activity Recognition in Care Robots. In Grollman, Dan & Broadbent, Elizabeth (Ed.), HRI '24: Companion of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ISSN 9798400703232. p. 233–237. doi: 10.1145/3610978.3640701. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In the field of robotics, caregiving robots and personal assistants are assuming an increasingly prominent role, directly impacting human lives. Especially in healthcare domains, these systems are starting to provide continuous 24/7 care by monitoring patients and delivering real-time insights into their activities. The effective deployment of future robots relies on equipping them with sophisticated Human Activity Recognition (HAR) algorithms. Many HAR algorithms are based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models. The development of these models necessitates suitable datasets. This paper introduces a Privacy-preserving Multimodal dataset for HAR in the context of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) for Care robots (PriMA-Care). Tailored for care robots, PriMA-Care includes 27 diverse user activities, spanning daily tasks to physical HRI, with data from 10 privacy-preserving sensors and 17 participants. PriMA-Care addresses critical gaps in existing datasets, offering a suitable resource for HAR research in care robots.

• Saplacan, Diana; Pajalic, Zada & Tørresen, Jim (2024). Should Social and Assistive Robots Integrated within Home- and Healthcare Services Be Universally Designed? In Barfield, Woodrow; Weng, Yueh-Hsuan & Pagallo, Ugo (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Law, Policy, and Regulation for Human–Robot Interaction. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009386708. p. 252–287. doi: 10.1017/9781009386708.018. Full text in Research Archive
• Otterdijk, Marieke van; Laeng, Bruno; Saplacan, Diana & Tørresen, Jim (2024). The Effect of Expressive Robot Behavior on Users’ Mental Effort: A Pupillometry Study. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems. ISSN 2379-8920. 16(2), p. 474–484. doi: 10.1109/TCDS.2024.3352893. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Robots are becoming part of our social landscape. Social interaction with humans must be efficient and intuitive to understand because nonverbal cues make social interactions between humans and robots more efficient. This study measures mental effort to investigate factors influencing the intuitive understanding of expressive nonverbal robot motions. Using an eye tracker to measure pupil response and gaze, fifty participants were asked to watch eighteen short video clips featuring three different types of robots performing expressive robot behaviors. Our findings indicate that the appearance of the robot, the viewing angle, and the expression shown by the robot all influence the cognitive load. Therefore, they may affect the intuitive understanding of expressive robot behavior. Furthermore, we found differences in the fixation time for different features of the various robots. With these insights, we identified possible improvement directions for making interactions between humans and robots more efficient and intuitive.

• Saplacan, Diana; Otterdijk, Marieke van & Tørresen, Jim (2024). Qualitative Observational Video-Based Study on Perceived Privacy in Social Robots’ Based on Robots Appearances. Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO). ISSN 2162-7568. doi: 10.1109/ARSO60199.2024.10557941. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Privacy has recently got attention, especially since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, the new Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) and the new Machinery Regulation. Privacy can be defined as someone’s right to keep personal matters, including personal life, personal information, or relationships, to themselves. A social robot’s appearance (=the combination of embodiment and motion) may contribute to how human users perceive them, including how these robots are perceived in relation to privacy. If these robots are part of certain services such as home- or healthcare, these may also have consequences on how these services are perceived. This study aims at showcasing the users’ perception of privacy based on the perceived robot’s appearance. Three social robots were chosen for this purpose: PLEO (with a zoomorphic appearance), Pepper (with a childlike anthropomorphic appearance), and TIAGo (with a mechanical and asymmetrical appearance). The data was collected through an in-lab observational video-based study from 50 participants with very limited- or no experience with robots. Our findings show that PLEO was perceived as preserving most of the users' privacy, while Pepper was perceived as more privacy-invasive than PLEO but less than TIAGo. TIAGo was perceived as hard to interpret in terms of privacy. Our findings also point out that designing robots with a cute appearance, such as PLEO, may contribute to participants trusting the robot more and thus being willing to share their data. The paper provides a list of characteristics that participants associated with a social robot as preserving or not their privacy. Further, the paper discusses the appearance of these social robots in terms of “cuteness” as a dark pattern in the design of social robots that may lead to data myopia, but also the possible consequences this may have, for vulnerable users, while trying to design more inclusive robots.

• Kwak, Dongho; Baselizadeh, Adel; Otterdijk, Marieke van; Saplacan, Diana & Tørresen, Jim (2024). "Noisy" Matching of Motion Velocity of an Assistive Robot to the Users' Walking Velocity. ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). ISSN 2167-2121. doi: 10.1145/3610978.3640546. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study investigates the impact of dynamic matching of robot motion velocity to users' walking velocity in a human-robot approach scenario on three categories: perceived comfort, interactivity, and naturalness. Considering age diversity, participants were divided into two age groups. Young participants tended to rate higher for all three categories when the robot's approaching velocity was dynamically matched. In contrast, elderly participants preferred a steady and slow robot approach for comfort and predictability. These findings contribute to the ongoing effort to design assistive robots that effectively cater to diverse user groups, ultimately enhancing user satisfaction and acceptance. Taken together, this study highlights the importance of dynamically tailoring robot behaviors based on user demographics for positive Human-Robot Interactions.

• Otterdijk, Marieke van; Saplacan, Diana; Laeng, Bruno & Tørresen, Jim (2024). An Exploratory Study on People's Intuitive Understanding of Expressive Robot Behavior. ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). ISSN 2167-2121. p. 1072–1076. doi: 10.1145/3610978.3640568. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Robots are anticipated to communicate with humans in our social context. Using nonverbal communication by robots increases communication comprehension because humans intuitively understand such behavior due to their experience of human-human interaction. Thus, this behavior is suitable for studying what makes robot motion intuitive to understand in human-robot interaction (HRI). We study how robot features help humans intuitively grasp expressive robot gestures, concentrating on what makes behavior easy to interpret. After watching eighteen nine-second videos of three robot kinds demonstrating expressive robot actions, 50 participants completed an open-ended survey. Our findings highlight the inputs, mediating factors, and outputs that users reported based on observing examples of expressive robot behavior. These insights are a starting point for analyzing robot behavior from the perspective of intuition and provide a foundation for a theoretical framework for intuition in HRI.

• Pajalic, Zada; Olsen, Sofia E.Gustafsson; Hamre, Annabel; Strøm, Benedicte Sørensen; Clausen, Celine & Saplacan, Diana [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). Home living older adults' subjective perceptions, evaluation, and interpretations of various welfare technology: A systematic review of qualitative studies. Public Health in Practice. 7, p. 1–10. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2024.100470. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Objectives: This paper aims to map home-living older adults' subjective perceptions, evaluations, and interpretations of various welfare technologies. Study design: Systematic literature review. Methods: The study was designed as a systematic literature review of qualitative studies. This systematic literature review was carried out according to the PRISMA statement and was prospectively registered in PROSPERO registration number CRD42020190206. The international electronic bibliographic databases included AMED, Academic, CINAHL, Cochrane Reviews, EMBASE, Google Scholar, MEDLINE via PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. The scientific evidence was synthesized using qualitative analysis. All aspects of the study method followed COREQ guidelines. Results: Following a detailed systematic search and screening of 1405 studies, 10 were included in the systematic review. The study shows that implementing Welfare Technology seems to prolong older adults' independent living in their own homes and was perceived as a complement to face-to-face contact with health care providers. Conclusions: This study indicated that older adults consider accepting Welfare Technology as it contributes to a sense of security and empowerment in their everyday lives.

• Pajalic, Zada; Rauckiene, Alona; Savosnick, Grethe; Bartels, Irena; Calleja-Agius, Jean & Saplacan, Diana [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2023). Digital solutions to follow up on discharged new parents—A systematic literature review. PLOS Digital Health. 2(8). doi: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000317. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  New parents and their newborns are followed up after discharge either through home visits from midwives/nurses or using information and communication technology. This follow-up focuses on individual needs related to breastfeeding and infant feeding, practical advice on caring for babies, supporting and strengthening the new mother’s knowledge and self-confidence concerning child development and parenting skills, and supporting the relationship between parents and baby. This systematic review aims to integrate available research results that describe new parents’ experiences when health and care providers used telemedicine as a platform for follow-up after discharge from the childbirth department. This literature review was conducted following the PRISMA statement and was prospectively registered in PROSPERO CRD42021236912. The studies were identified through the following databases: AMED, Academic, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Ovid MEDLINE via PubMed, Cochrane database, and CINAHL. Results from these studies were compiled using thematic analysis. A total of 886 studies were identified. Screening resulted in eight studies that met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis produced the following themes: a) Flexibility and convenience of digital support, b) Digital literacy, c) Parents feeling safe with digital support, and d) Adequate substitute for physical meetings. New parents who live in a home environment with a relaxed atmosphere and around-the-clock digital support experience a sense of control, security, full attention, and encouragement. Digital follow up at home has proven effective because it can meet the support needs of new parents when necessary.

• Pajalic, Zada; Sousa, Diana Agular de; Strøm, Benedicte Sørensen; Lausund, Hilde; Breievne, Grete & Kisa, Sezer [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2023). Welfare technology interventions among older people living at home—A systematic review of RCT studies. PLOS Digital Health. 2(1), p. 1–18. doi: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000184. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The main goal of health services is for the elderly to maintain their mental and physical health and live at home independently for as long as possible. Various technical welfare solutions have been introduced and tested to support an independent life. The aim of this systematic review was to examine different types of interventions and assess the effectiveness of welfare technology (WT) interventions for older people living at home. This study was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020190316) and followed the PRISMA statement. Primary randomized control trial (RCT) studies published between 2015 and 2020 were identified through the following databases: Academic, AMED, Cochrane Reviews, EBSCOhost, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Ovid MEDLINE via PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Twelve out of 687 papers met the criteria for eligibility. We used risk-of-bias assessment (RoB 2) for the included studies. Based on the RoB 2 outcomes that showed a high risk of bias (>50%) and high heterogeneity of quantitative data, we decided to narratively summarize the study characteristics, outcome measures, and implications for practice. The included studies were conducted in six countries, namely the USA, Sweden, Korea, Italy, Singapore, and the UK. One was conducted in three European countries (the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland). A total of 8437 participants were sampled, and individual study sample sizes ranged from 12 to 6742. Most of the studies were two-armed RCTs, except for two that were three-armed. The duration of the welfare technology tested in the studies ranged from four weeks to six months. The employed technologies were commercial solutions, including telephones, smartphones, computers, telemonitors, and robots. The type of interventions were balance training, physical exercise and function, cognitive training, monitoring of symptoms, activation of emergency medical systems, self-care, reduction of death risk, and medical alert protection systems. The latter studies were the first of their kind and suggested that physician-led telemonitoring could reduce length of hospital stay. In summary, welfare technology seems to offer solutions to supporting elderly people at home. The results showed a wide range of uses for technologies for improving mental and physical health. All studies showed encouraging results for improving the participants’ health status.

• Tørresen, Jim; Saplacan, Diana; Baselizadeh, Adel & Mahler, Tobias (2023). Machine Excellence Tradeoffs to Ethical and Legal Perspectives, Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IEEE CAI). IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9798350339840. p. 237–240. doi: 10.1109/CAI54212.2023.00109. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract—We appreciate well-functioning technology being able to also personalize its services. However, to protect privacy and avoid a potential misuse of personal data, we are encouraged to limit the amount of personal data we share through apps and Internet services. While some services do not really need all the data they ask us to provide, others depend on it to provide the best possible performance of its service. That regards systems that apply data in machine learning for tasks like medical diagnostics. Especially deep learning algorithms perform better by using a large amount of data and are now able to benefit from the large amount as well with limited training time given access to high-performance computing resources. This paper address and discuss the tradeoffs like the one we have between data sharing minimalization for increased privacy and data maximization for machine learning systems. Perspectives related to ethics, legal, and social issues are considered in the paper. There is no single conclusion on the challenge, but attention to it can increase the awareness that the best balance differs depending on the application addressed.

• Baselizadeh, Adel; Khaksar, Weria; Uddin, Md Zia; Saplacan, Diana & Tørresen, Jim (2023). Privacy-Preserving User Pose Prediction for Safe and Efficient Human-Robot Interaction, Proceedings of the 2023 19th IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE). IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9798350320701. doi: 10.1109/CASE56687.2023.10260298. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Enhancing user privacy is crucial in improving the safety and efficiency of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), as it is a key factor for establishing user trust in the robot. Using privacy-preserving sensors and local processing of the user's data are ways to enhance privacy in HRI. This paper presents a privacy-preserving sensing system for real-time tracking and predicting the user's movements in HRI. As privacy-preserving sensors, a thermal and a depth camera are used to monitor the user's movements and determine their current pose. In order to improve the robot's perception of the user's situation and enhance the quality of real-time user monitoring, a Deep Learning (DL) model has been developed to estimate the future poses of the user. The developed model is based on the Sequence to Sequence mechanism (Seq2Seq). Modifications have been made to Seq2Seq so it can be run locally on the robot. As a result of these modifications, the computational cost of the model has been reduced by 34%. Experimental studies have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the sensing system in tracking and predicting the user's movements in HRI. According to the test results, the proposed sensing system is able to track the movements of the user appropriately. Additionally, it is shown that the estimation of the user's movement through the proposed system with the prediction model can improve the safety and efficiency aspects of the HRI experiments by up to 24% and 17%, respectively.

• Pajalic, Zada; Saplacan, Diana; Josefsson, Kristina Areskoug; Moen, Helga Wallin; Naustdal, Iril & Rao, Nima [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2023). What are the disadvantages of having a foreign background as a female academic and working at a university in Europe? Social Sciences & Humanities Open (SSHO). 8(1). doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100551. Full text in Research Archive
• Pajalic, Zada; Saplacan, Diana; Borgen, Iren; Olsen, Sofia E.Gustafsson & Rao, Nima (2023). Female university academics' reflections on the development of their academic careers in the Norwegian higher education context. Social Sciences & Humanities Open (SSHO). 8(1). doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100548. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The present study aims to get insight into how female university academic staff in teaching positions at various levels reflect on the development of their careers in higher education. A qualitative method was used with a participatory action research approach. The data were collected in the form of a workshop and analysed using the story dialogue method. Academic jobs, which are a mixture of teaching and research-related tasks, require that individuals prioritize their time well to be able to do research. In addition, the understanding and support of colleagues and management are crucial to achieving expected research results.

• Otterdijk, Marieke van; Saplacan, Diana; Baselizadeh, Adel; Laeng, Bruno & Tørresen, Jim (2023). To Shake or Not to Shake: Intuitive Reactions of Senior Adults to a Robot Handshake in a Western Culture, Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2023. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9798350336719. p. 890–896. doi: 10.1109/RO-MAN57019.2023.10309608. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana; Schulz, Trenton; Tørresen, Jim & Pajalic, Zada (2023). Health Professionals’ Views on the Use of Social Robots with Vulnerable Users: A Scenario-Based Qualitative Study Using Story Dialogue Method, Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2023. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9798350336719. p. 421–428. doi: 10.1109/RO-MAN57019.2023.10309644. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We used the story dialog method (SDM) to gather the viewpoints of health professionals about the use of social ro-bots in the home and healthcare services with vulnerable users. SDM consists of participants bringing stories that are discussed together. The aim of the study was to address universal design and accessibility issues with robots in specific use situations. Three social robots were used for this purpose in four stories: TIAGo, Romibo and robot companions. SDM method was used in two workshops with eight participants (33 invited, 12 re-cruited, and 8 participated in the end). The participants uncov-ered issues regarding ethics, responsibility, use of data, infra-structure, design, and user concerns based on provided stories and own experiences. These issues provide important aspects that should be considered when using robots with vulnerable us-ers and ensuring that a robot is usable by as many people as pos-sible. The main contribution of the paper is introducing the SDM method to Human-Robot Interaction community, as well as find-ings around universal design and accessibility of robots, in order to create more inclusive social robots.

• Saplacan, Diana & Tørresen, Jim (2022). Robots as Welfare Technologies to Reduce Falls Amongst Older Adults: An Explorative Study from Norway, Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technology in Everyday Living. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. LNCS 13331. Springer Nature Switzerland AG. ISSN 9783031056543. p. 88–106. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-05654-3_6. Full text in Research Archive

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• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Kuoppamäki, Sanna; Bodenhagen, Leon & Tørresen, Jim (2026). Presentation during Workshop at NordiCHI 2026 at the 1st Workshop on Robots as Welfare Technologies and Actors within Future Home- and Healthcare Services: Co-Designing an Integration Model through Story-Dialogue Method. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Presentation at the Robophilosophy Conference: Robots as Welfare Technologies in Home and Healthcare - Some of the Lessons Learned So Far. doi: https:/www.ucd.ie/robophilosophy2026/workshops/robociety-visionandreality/. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  he talk will present some of the lessons learned so far in some of the previous or ongoing research projects (Vulnerabilities in Robot Society-VIROS, Predictive and Intuitive Robot Companion – PIRC, and ROBOWELL- Robots as Welfare Technologies and Actors for Elderly Care). It addresses, amongst others, some of the practical and ethical challenges of integrating social robots, as actors, within care environments, seen from the user perspectives (e.g., elderly, healthcare professionals). These practical examples and ethical challenges, in their turn, will eventually lead to the more complex societal and philosophical questions about if and when, and how social robots or socially assistive robots would be appropriate to be integrated within home- and healthcare. The talk also aims to raise questions about looking at advanced (AI-based) social robots as an integrated part of a larger (healthcare or societal) system, rather than looking at these as isolated technological entities often used in single-use cases or experiments.

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). A Cross-Cultural Video-Based Study between Norway and Japan on Informed Consent and Disclosure Mechanisms on the Use of Social Robots in Public and Private Spaces - Users' Perspectives. doi: https:/ro-man2026.org/program-at-a-glance/. Full text in Research Archive
• Sikora, Claudia Magdalena; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan & Tørresen, Jim (2026). Presentation of accepted paper: “There’s something human about it!” - Exploring users’ perception of nonverbal communication of robotic furniture. doi: https:/icsr2026.uk/programme/. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Non-anthropomorphic robots are integrating into our homes. People attribute human-like characteristics to these robots, although they do not resemble humans. This raises the question of whether similar processes would occur when people interact with robot furniture. Thus, the presented exploratory pilot study investigates how users intuitively interpret and perceive the non verbal communication of such robots. In an instrumental case study, we had eleven participants interacting with the T-ABLE robot through expressive behavior. Participants were interviewed about their experience. Our findings indicate that the participants use their associations between behavior and prior to similar experiences to attribute personality to the robot table. These findings provide insights for theorizing the intuitive comprehension of the behavior of non-anthropomorphic robots.

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Newsletter ROBOWELL #1 2026. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Kuoppamäki, Sanna; Bodehagen, Leon & Tørresen, Jim (2026). Webpage for 1st Workshop on Robots as Welfare Technologies and Actors within Future Home- and Healthcare Services: Co-Designing an Integration Model through Story-Dialogue Method ROBOWELL. doi: https:/sites.google.com/view/robowell-nordichi26/home?pli=1&authuser=1. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Prestes, Edson; Caleb-Solly, Praminda & Takahashi, Toshie (2026). Diversity and International Perspectives. doi: https:/sites.google.com/view/icra2026-workshop-robot-ethics/home/programme?authuser=1. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Robots as Welfare Technologies and Actors in Home and Healthcare – Challenges and Opportunities. doi: https:/sites.google.com/view/icra2026-workshop-robot-ethics/home/programme?authuser=1. Full text in Research Archive
• Tørresen, Jim; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Prestes, Edson; Schweighofer, Erich; Caleb-Solly, Praminda & Weng, Yueh hsuan (2026). 2nd ICRA 2026 Workshop on Robot Ethics Ethical, Legal and User Perspectives in Robotics & Automation WOROBET. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Presentation of ROBOWELL project for Robotics and Intelligent System Research Group - Thursday lunch seminar. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan & Sorensen, Helle (2026). Presentation of ROBOWELL project for Nordic Welfare Center. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Irai, Hamid Reza; Strøm, Benedicte Sørensen & Tørresen, Jim (2026). Presentation of ROBOWELL project for Elderly Facility Center. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Advocaat, Johnny; Tørresen, Jim & Sørensen, Linda (2026). Presentation of ROBOWELL project for Oslo Municipality. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Sørensen, Linda; Tørresen, Jim; Bodenhagen, Leon & Palinko, Oskar (2026). Presentation of ROBOWELL project for Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Presentation of ROBOWELL research project during MishMash launch. doi: https:/mishmash.no/events/aulaen2026/. Full text in Research Archive
• Nord, Jakob; Garmy, Pernilla; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Wetterstrand, Martin; Mello, Alexander & Aronsen, Jenny (2026). When personal experience can outform research. [Internet]. hkr.se. Full text in Research Archive
• Kuoppamäki, Sanna; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan & Pauletto, Sandra (2026). Presentation at the Welfare Technology Fair. Full text in Research Archive
• Kuoppamäki, Sanna; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Pauletto, Sandra & Lu, Tien-Ying (2026). Exhibition at the Welfare Technology Fair. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). Webpage - Robot as Welfare Technologies and Actors for Elderly Care: A Nordic Model for Integration of Advanced Assistive Technologies. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). A Cross-Cultural Study between Norway and Japan on Consent in HRI. doi: https:/2025.roboethics.design/program. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Kuoppamäki, Sanna; Bodenhagen, Leon; Tørresen, Jim; Baselizadeh, Adel & Palinko, Oskar (2025). Organization of meeting for ROBOWELL project. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). Presentation: ROBOts as Welfare Technologies and Actors for ELderLy Care: A Nordic Model for Integration of Advanced Assistive Technologies (ROBOWELL) pre-kickoff. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  ROBOWELL - meeting with the project partners (UiO, KTH, SDU)

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan & Murashova, Natalia (2025). AI in Society: Virtual and Physical AI. doi: https:/www.uio.no/om/samarbeid/skole/fagped-dag/program.html. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This talk explores the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence in various societal contexts, focusing on the integration and implications of AI (virtual) tools such as e.g., ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, but also the use of "physical AI", such as in social robots. It showcases practical cases, showing some insights from our initial fieldwork applying the Ethical Risk Assessment of AI in practice (ENACT) in various private and public (learning) organizations, as well as some insights from our work within Human-Robot Interaction and social robots area in the Vulnerability in Robot Societies (VIROS), Predictive and Intuitive Robot Companion (PIRC) research projects, and our recently funded ROBOts as Welfare Technologies and Actors for ELderLy Care: A Nordic Model for Integration of Advanced Assistive Technologies (ROBOWELL) project.

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). A Cross-Cultural Study between Norway and Japan on Consent in HRI; The Use of Social Robots in Public and Private Spaces – Users’ Perspectives. doi: https:/2025.roboethics.design/program. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergsjø, Leonora Onarheim; Torvatn, Hans Yngvar; Mikalef, Patrik & Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). AI Copilots - etiske utfordringer. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  De såkalte KI agentene som Microsoft Co-Pilot og andre kan hjelpe opss med å jobbe mer effektivt. Men de skaper også en god del nye etiske utfordringer. Enact prosjektet presenterer faglgie begreper for å diskutere disse og går gjennom tre konkrete eksempler på bruk av slike løsninger.

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). Panel Debate on Ethical Risk Assessment of AI in Practice. doi: https:/www.nora.ai/events/2025/enact-etisk-risikovurdering-av-kunstig-intelligens.html. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). Overview of my research: background, results, experiences, publications and future directions. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). "The Wooden Gripper Was Warmer and Made the Robot Less Threatening"– a Study on Perceived Safety Based on Robot Gripper’s Visual and Tactile Properties. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). Robots in Home and Healthcare Settings: Empirical and Design Perspectives. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Presentation during Vulnerability in Robot Society Final Conference, June 2025

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2025). Panelist during Panel Discussion: Teaching Robotics in Light of Cross-Disciplinary Challenges. Full text in Research Archive
• Bergsjø, Leonora Onarheim; Torvatn, Hans Yngvar; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan & Mikalef, Patrik (2025). ENACT: Etisk risikovurdering av kunstig intelligens - erfaringer fra praksis. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2025). Overview of the Robotics and Intelligent Research Group work within Human-Robot Interaction from the past years. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2025). Overview of the Work Within HRI Focusing on Elderly Care and Healthcare Professionals Views on the Use of Robots within Home- and Healthcare: Lessons Learned. Full text in Research Archive
• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2024). Healthcare Professionals’ Attitudes Towards Caregiving Through Teleoperation of Robots in Elderly Care. Seminar at RITMO Centre of Excellence for Time, Rhythm, and Motion. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This week's Food and Paper will be given by Diana Saplacan.

• Saplacan, Diana (2024). User Studies in HRI: A Qualitative Research Perspective. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2024). Social Robots and Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) within Elderly Care: Lessons Learned So Far. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2024). Human Robot Interaction: Studies with Users. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2024). Qualitative Observational Video-Based Study on Perceived Privacy in Social Robots’ Based on Robots Appearances. Full text in Research Archive
• Kwak, Dongho; Baselizadeh, Adel; Otterdijk, Marieke van; Saplacan, Diana & Torresen, Jim (2024). "Noisy" Matching of Motion Velocity of an Assistive Robot to the Users' Walking Velocity. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2024). Healthcare Professionals’ Attitudes Towards Caregiving Through Teleoperation of Robots in Elderly Care. Full text in Research Archive
• Schulz, Trenton & Saplacan, Diana (2023). Universal Design of Robots / Universell Utformning av Robottar. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2023). AI and Ethical Considerations. Examples from HRI studies. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2023). Presentation of the paper "Health Professionals’ Views on the Use of Social Robots with Vulnerable Users: A Scenario-Based Qualitative Study Using Story Dialogue Method". Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2023). Comment on "Vulnerability in Social and Health Robotics" - presentation by Rachele Carli (Univ. of Bologna and Univ. of Luxembourg), as part of the Vulnerability in Robot Society (VIROS) Annual Symposium, Session I on "Vulnerability and Cognitive Sovereignty". Full text in Research Archive
• Tørresen, Jim; Saplacan, Diana & Mahler, Tobias (2023). Ethical, Legal and User Perspectives on Social and Assistive Robots (ELUPSAR) workshop. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2023). Introduction on my background and on the University of Oslo, Robotics and Intelligent Systems Research Group, Norway for Human-Robot Interaction Lab, Department of Social Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan. Full text in Research Archive
• Cheung, Anne; Saplacan, Diana; Pietropaoli, Stefano & Weng, Yueh-Hsuan (2022). SORO – INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP ON THE GOVERNANCE FOR SOCIAL ROBOTS (HALF DAY). Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Ethics and Social Robots: A Universal Design Perspective - Presentation during Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Governance for Social Robots (SORO) at JURIX 2022 (The 35th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems). Full text in Research Archive
• Anderson, Adrian Bergflødt,; Søyseth, Vegard & Saplacan, Diana (2022). OPEN ZONE FOR EXPERIMENTAL INFORMATICS (ÅPEN SONE FOR EKSPERIMENTELL INFORMATIKK) as part of "Signals and noise in artificial intelligence" - SENT Festival at the Technical Museum, Oslo, Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Ethics: Autonomous Technologies for All (ATA)? Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Presentation at The 2nd Workshop on Design-Centered HRI and Governance. Title: Making Care Robots Understandable: An Introduction to Universal Design Principles as Design and Ethical Guidelines of Social Assistive Robots. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Robots as Welfare Technologies to Reduce Falls Amongst Older Adults: An Explorative Study from Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Ongoing research with Social and Assistive Robots - Presentation for the National Commitee in Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT). Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Tutorial presentation. Title: "Robots and Society: Challenges and Opportunities within social Human-Robot Interaction" at 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication. Full text in Research Archive
• Tørresen, Jim; Atsushi, Nazawa; Saplacan, Diana; Prestes, Edson; Mahler, Tobias & Weng, Yueh-Hsuan (2022). Tutorial at IROS 2022 - Ethical, Legal and User Perspectives on Robots and Systems (ELAUPORAS) – Assessments and Potential Measures. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Ethical challenges and opportunities with (care) robots - Universal Design as an ethical charter for inclusive robot design and interaction. Full text in Research Archive
• Brinck, Ingar; Paiva, Ana; Saplacan, Diana & Bensch, Suna (2022). Debate during the symposium: "The Future of Human-Robot Interaction Science" at the Trandisciplinary AI for Good of All (TAIGA) Inauguration Conference, leaded by Prof. Thomas Hellström and Ass. Prof. Niclas Kaiser leading TAIGAS focus area on Embodied interactive AI, at Umeå University, Sweden. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana; Tørresen, Jim; Weng, Yueh-Hsuan & Li, Phoebe (2022). Tutorial: Robots and Society (RO-SO 2022) / Ethical perspectives and technical challenges and opportunities with care robots. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Introduction to Universal Design - A case of digital learning environments and situated abilities. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). Some experiences about analysis and writing. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana (2022). A talk on robots as connected devices or smart "things" in the home, part of the AI & Ethics workshop. Full text in Research Archive
• Fedotovs, Nikita; Erdem, Cagri; Griwodz, Carsten; Simonetta, Examiner Federicco & Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Examiner for Master thesis: Creating Immersive Musical Human-AI Interactions. University of Oslo (UiO). Full text in Research Archive
• Slåttum, Sigmund Kleivene; Høvin, Mats Erling; Wallace, Benedikte & Lindblom, Diana Saplacan (2026). Supervisor for Master thesis: "Moving with the Music: A Novel Robotic Floor for Motion-Enhanced Music Experience" (60 ECTS). University of Oslo (UiO). Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This thesis investigates how synchronized whole-body movement shapes the experience of listening to music. The two research questions ask whether floor movement changes the listening experience, and whether the specific character of the movement matters for that experience. To address these questions, a one-degree-of-freedom robotic floor was designed and built from scratch. The system, named Harmonic Audio-Reactive Platform (HARP), lifts a person standing on it in a vertical rolling motion derived from features extracted from the music. Two motion patterns were implemented for use in the study: a simple pattern oscillating at the beat frequency, and a complex pattern that combines two sinusoids whose amplitudes vary with the spectral content of the music. The hardware, software, and trajectory generation are described in detail in the thesis, and form a methodological contribution alongside the empirical findings. Six participants took part in a within-group user study. Each experienced three songs from contrasting genres (classical, EDM, and metal) under three motion conditions (no motion, simple, and complex), giving nine conditions per participant. A qualitatively-driven mixed methods design was used. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed with reflexive thematic analysis, alongside Likert ratings, amplitude adjustment logs, synchronization measurements, and video observations. Three themes were constructed from the interviews: Enjoyment, Emotion, and Congruence. Across all data sources, the most consistent finding is that motion pattern preference is personal. No single pattern worked for everyone, and the same pattern could feel mismatched or stressful to one participant and meaningful to another. The movement was mostly received as adding to the listening experience, with Likert ratings, qualitative themes, and participants’ own descriptions of real-world use pointing the same way. Synchronization between music and motion shaped the experience but its specific role could not be settled within this study.

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Tørresen, Jim & Hakimi, Nina (2024). Dynamic Dimensions of Safety - How robot height and velocity affect human-robot interaction: An explorative study on the concept of perceived safety. University of Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Schulz, Trenton; Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Tørresen, Jim & Badescu, Claudia Andreea (2024). Teach Me How To Dance: An exploration of motion translation methods using the ZTL framework for use with children with autism in educational settings. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Baselizadeh, Adel; Tørresen, Jim; Saplacan, Diana; Khaksar, Weria & Mahler, Tobias (2024). Advancing Safety and Privacy in Human-Robot Interaction: Exploring Learning-Based Control and Multi-Modal Sensing Approaches. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  As robots are imported from industrial settings to homes and healthcare environments, new risks emerge. Chief among these are concerns about user safety and privacy, which must be carefully considered during the development and integration of robots into daily life. Ensuring these aspects is essential for building trust between humans and robots, allowing them to function effectively and safely in close proximity to people. This thesis addresses these challenges by focusing on two key areas: improving safety through addressing the human-robot collision avoidance problem, and enhancing privacy through the use of privacy-preserving sensors in robots. In terms of safety, advanced control frameworks grounded in machine learning algorithms, control theory methods, and the integration of these two approaches have been developed to address the collision avoidance problem for robotic arms, ensuring safe operation without compromising efficiency. Regarding privacy, the thesis explores the use of privacy-preserving sensors such as thermal cameras and 3D lasers. These sensors offer effective monitoring while minimizing the collection of sensitive data, maintaining a balance between utility and privacy. By integrating these sensors with multimodal deep learning models, robots can recognize human activities and monitor users during human-robot interaction without invading personal privacy. This thesis contributes to safer and more private human-robot interactions, particularly in sensitive environments like healthcare, paving the way for more trusted and widely accepted robotic systems in daily life.

• Lindblom, Diana Saplacan; Tørresen, Jim & Meijer, Frida (2023). In Safe Hands: Contribution of gripper material on HRI and perceived safety: An explorative study. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Saplacan, Diana; Tørresen, Jim & Sarfraz, Burhan Mohammad (2023). Supervisor for the master thesis: "The Privacy-Preserving Capabilities of a Service Robot in a Scenario-based Healthcare Setting - Providing de-identification with face obfuscation through a face recognition system" (Master candidate: Sarfraz, Burhan Mohammad). Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  As the population ages and people’s life expectancy increases, there is a need for more healthcare personnel. The worrying sign is that the number of people who educate themselves to become healthcare personnel is predicted to decrease in the coming years. One countermeasure for the decreasing workforce is introducing service robots into the healthcare sector. The introduction of service robots in the healthcare sector raises numerous privacy challenges. There is the question of ensuring service robots follow current laws and regulations regarding personal data collection and privacy like humans and the introduction of robots from a well-controlled industrial environment to an unconstrained healthcare environment populated by humans. This thesis focuses on the privacy aspect of the Vulnerability in Robot Society project and machine ethics using the service robot TIAGo from PAL Robotics. The aim is to investigate how a service robot can provide de-identification for the privacy protection of individuals it encounters while performing autonomous tasks in an unconstrained healthcare environment. The proposed privacy-preserving method for de-identification is face obfuscation through a face recognition system. With the face obfuscation method, the face recognition system can be considered a privacy-enhancing technology since it tries to enhance the privacy-preserving capabilities of the service robot. The results from the scenario-based experiment, which replicates a doctor’s office as an unconstrained healthcare setting, show that the face recognition system is unreliable with decreased robustness when multiple real-life conditions, such as pose variation, occlusion and illumination, are present as they negatively affect the system. Since the face obfuscation method is interconnected and integrated into the face recognition system, it depends entirely on a well-functioning face recognition system to function correctly. Thus, it cannot preserve the privacy of individuals, making the service robot not comply with current laws and regulations for privacy and correct personal data collection, storage and processing. This master thesis is part of the Robotics and Intelligent Systems research group, and the Vulnerability in Robot Society project at the University of Oslo. The Norwegian Research Council funds the Vulnerability in Robot Society project with project number 288285.

• Schulz, Trenton & Saplacan, Diana (2022). Notes from Literature about Universal Design, Accessibility & Robots. Norsk Regnesentral. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This document collects results from a search that was done to find out what research have been done regarding universal design and accessibility of robots. The search turned up 13 articles in this topic. Articles about universal design focused more on how an environment could be made to be universally designed for a robot. There were also several articles about how robots can be an assistive technology for people with vision impairment or hearing impairment. There were a couple of articles that raised the topic of accessibility requirements for a robot. This was further developed in a PhD thesis from earlier this year that provides a promising starting point for future work.

• Schulz, Trenton & Saplacan, Diana (2022). Performing Accessibility Evaluations for Social Robot. Norsk Regnesentral. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This note is a compilation of several evaluations that were done as part of the UD-Robots project. The method used is based on WCAG-EM and initially introduced by Al-Qbilat. We have given it a name: Accessible Socially Assistive Robots Evaluation Method (ASAR-EM). We evaluate 5 robots: a NAO, a Pepper, AV1, Berntsen, and Tiago, and present the results from the evaluation.

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