53 citations · 84 across the 27 of their papers we have counts for
31 papers
HiBRIDGE: A Hierarchical Bayesian Neural Network Framework for Interpretable Dialogue Management in Group-Robot Interaction
Massimiliano Nigro, Hatice Gunes, Micol Spitale +1
In multi-party human-robot interaction, a robot must continuously decide whom to address and what to say to participate effectively in the conversation. In real-world interactions,…
ERR@HRI 3.0 Challenge: Multimodal Detection of Errors and Anticipation in Human-Robot Interactions
Maria Teresa Parreira, Micol Spitale, Maia Stiber +5
As robots become increasingly integrated into human environments, their ability to detect and respond to errors remains critical for maintaining user trust and interaction quality.…
Understanding LLM Intervention Explanations in Multi-Party Human-Robot Interaction
Micol Spitale, Massimiliano Nigro, Emily Cross
Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly embedded in social robots to support natural group interactions, yet their role in complex multi-party settings remains underexplored.…
REACT 2026: The Fourth Multiple Appropriate Facial Reaction Generation Challenge: Personalised MAFRG and Appropriate EEG Reaction Prediction
Siyang Song, Micol Spitale, Zijian Wu +11
In dyadic interactions, various human facial reactions could be appropriate for responding to each human speaker behaviour. Following the successful organisation of the REACT 2023,…
Inclusive AI for Group Interactions: Predicting Gaze-Direction Behaviors in People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Giulia Huang, Maristella Matera, Micol Spitale
Artificial agents that support human group interactions hold great promise, especially in sensitive contexts such as well-being promotion and therapeutic interventions. However, cu…
ERR@HRI 2.0 Challenge: Multimodal Detection of Errors and Failures in Human-Robot Conversations
Shiye Cao, Maia Stiber, Amama Mahmood +5
The integration of large language models (LLMs) into conversational robots has made human-robot conversations more dynamic. Yet, LLM-powered conversational robots remain prone to e…
Critical Insights about Robots for Mental Wellbeing
Guy Laban, Micol Spitale, Minja Axelsson +2
Social robots are increasingly being explored as tools to support emotional wellbeing, particularly in non-clinical settings. Drawing on a range of empirical studies and practical…
REACT 2025: the Third Multiple Appropriate Facial Reaction Generation Challenge
Siyang Song, Micol Spitale, Xiangyu Kong +12
In dyadic interactions, a broad spectrum of human facial reactions might be appropriate for responding to each human speaker behaviour. Following the successful organisation of the…
Exploring the Use of Social Robots to Prepare Children for Radiological Procedures: A Focus Group Study
Massimiliano Nigro, Andrea Righini, Micol Spitale
When children are anxious or scared, it can be hard for them to stay still or follow instructions during medical procedures, making the process more challenging and affecting proce…
Exploring Causality for HRI: A Case Study on Robotic Mental Well-being Coaching
Micol Spitale, Srikar Babu, Serhan Cakmak +2
One of the primary goals of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research is to develop robots that can interpret human behavior and adapt their responses accordingly. Adaptive learning m…
"Can you be my mum?": Manipulating Social Robots in the Large Language Models Era
Giulio Antonio Abbo, Gloria Desideri, Tony Belpaeme +1
Recent advancements in robots powered by large language models have enhanced their conversational abilities, enabling interactions closely resembling human dialogue. However, these…
Concerns and Values in Human-Robot Interactions: A Focus on Social Robotics
Giulio Antonio Abbo, Tony Belpaeme, Micol Spitale
Robots, as AI with physical instantiation, inhabit our social and physical world, where their actions have both social and physical consequences, posing challenges for researchers…
Social Group Human-Robot Interaction: A Scoping Review of Computational Challenges
Massimiliano Nigro, Emmanuel Akinrintoyo, Nicole Salomons +1
Group interactions are a natural part of our daily life, and as robots become more integrated into society, they must be able to socially interact with multiple people at the same…
Multimodal Gender Fairness in Depression Prediction: Insights on Data from the USA & China
Joseph Cameron, Jiaee Cheong, Micol Spitale +1
Social agents and robots are increasingly being used in wellbeing settings. However, a key challenge is that these agents and robots typically rely on machine learning (ML) algorit…
ERR@HRI 2024 Challenge: Multimodal Detection of Errors and Failures in Human-Robot Interactions
Micol Spitale, Maria Teresa Parreira, Maia Stiber +7
Despite the recent advancements in robotics and machine learning (ML), the deployment of autonomous robots in our everyday lives is still an open challenge. This is due to multiple…
Small but Fair! Fairness for Multimodal Human-Human and Robot-Human Mental Wellbeing Coaching
Jiaee Cheong, Micol Spitale, Hatice Gunes
In recent years, the affective computing (AC) and human-robot interaction (HRI) research communities have put fairness at the centre of their research agenda. However, none of the…
Underneath the Numbers: Quantitative and Qualitative Gender Fairness in LLMs for Depression Prediction
Micol Spitale, Jiaee Cheong, Hatice Gunes
Recent studies show bias in many machine learning models for depression detection, but bias in LLMs for this task remains unexplored. This work presents the first attempt to invest…
Appropriateness of LLM-equipped Robotic Well-being Coach Language in the Workplace: A Qualitative Evaluation
Micol Spitale, Minja Axelsson, Hatice Gunes
Robotic coaches have been recently investigated to promote mental well-being in various contexts such as workplaces and homes. With the widespread use of Large Language Models (LLM…
REACT 2024: the Second Multiple Appropriate Facial Reaction Generation Challenge
Siyang Song, Micol Spitale, Cheng Luo +9
In dyadic interactions, humans communicate their intentions and state of mind using verbal and non-verbal cues, where multiple different facial reactions might be appropriate in re…
"Oh, Sorry, I Think I Interrupted You'': Designing Repair Strategies for Robotic Longitudinal Well-being Coaching
Minja Axelsson, Micol Spitale, Hatice Gunes
Robotic well-being coaches have been shown to successfully promote people's mental well-being. To provide successful coaching, a robotic coach should have the capability to repair…
VITA: A Multi-modal LLM-based System for Longitudinal, Autonomous, and Adaptive Robotic Mental Well-being Coaching
Micol Spitale, Minja Axelsson, Hatice Gunes
Recently, several works have explored if and how robotic coaches can promote and maintain mental well-being in different settings. However, findings from these studies revealed tha…
A Systematic Review on Reproducibility in Child-Robot Interaction
Micol Spitale, Rebecca Stower, Elmira Yadollahi +4
Research reproducibility - i.e., rerunning analyses on original data to replicate the results - is paramount for guaranteeing scientific validity. However, reproducibility is often…
REACT2023: the first Multi-modal Multiple Appropriate Facial Reaction Generation Challenge
Siyang Song, Micol Spitale, Cheng Luo +8
The Multi-modal Multiple Appropriate Facial Reaction Generation Challenge (REACT2023) is the first competition event focused on evaluating multimedia processing and machine learnin…
ReactFace: Online Multiple Appropriate Facial Reaction Generation in Dyadic Interactions
Cheng Luo, Siyang Song, Weicheng Xie +4
In dyadic interaction, predicting the listener's facial reactions is challenging as different reactions could be appropriate in response to the same speaker's behaviour. Previous a…