publications

2026

1. 

   HRI 2026 23%

   Designing Robots for Families: In-Situ Prototyping for Contextual Reminders on Family Routines

   Michael F. Xu, Enhui Zhao, Yawen Zhang, Joseph Michaelis, Sarah Sebo, and Bilge Mutlu

   In Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’26), 2026

   Abs DOI arXiv Bib

   Robots are increasingly entering the daily lives of families, yet their successful integration into domestic life remains a challenge. We explore family routines as a critical entry point for understanding how robots might find a sustainable role in everyday family settings. Together with each of the ten families, we co-designed robot interactions and behaviors, and a plan for the robot to support their chosen routines, accounting for contextual factors such as timing, participants, locations, and the activities in the environment. We then designed, prototyped, and deployed a mobile social robot in a four-day, in-home user study. Families welcomed the robot’s reminders, with parents especially appreciating the offloading of some reminding tasks. At the same time, interviews revealed tensions around timing, authority, and family dynamics, highlighting the complexity of integrating robots into households beyond the immediate task of reminders. Based on these insights, we offer design implications for robot-facilitated contextual reminders and discuss broader considerations for designing robots for family settings.

   @inproceedings{xu2026designing,
     author = {Xu, Michael F. and Zhao, Enhui and Zhang, Yawen and Michaelis, Joseph and Sebo, Sarah and Mutlu, Bilge},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’26)},
     title = {Designing Robots for Families: In-Situ Prototyping for Contextual Reminders on Family Routines},
     year = {2026},
     volume = {},
     number = {},
     pages = {356-365},
     keywords = {Co-design, Contextual reminder, Family-robot interaction, In-situ prototyping, Social robot},
     doi = {10.1145/3757279.3788654}
   }

2. 

   IDC 2026 23%

   Supporting Family-School Partnerships with Robot-Facilitated Home-Based Activities

   Michael F. Xu, Qiyao Yang, Heather Kirkorian, and Bilge Mutlu

   In Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, 2026

   Abs DOI arXiv Bib

   Family-school partnerships (FSP) are critical to children’s development, yet families often face barriers such as time constraints, fragmented communication, and limited opportunities for meaningful engagement. As a step toward facilitating broader family-school partnerships, we explore a novel approach that integrates a social robot into family settings, specifically supporting home-based activities. Through interviews and co-design sessions, we designed and developed a robotic system informed by both parents and children, that supported, among other interactions, family communication about school topics. We evaluated the robot in a week-long, in-home study with 10 families. Our findings show how families integrated the robot into daily life, how parental facilitation styles shaped use, and how families perceived both the helpfulness and challenges of the robot. We contribute empirical insights, a modular system, and design implications for family- and child-robot interactions. We discuss ethical and privacy considerations, and broaden the design space for technologies supporting family-school partnerships.

   @inproceedings{xu2026supporting,
     author = {Xu, Michael F. and Yang, Qiyao and Kirkorian, Heather and Mutlu, Bilge},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference},
     title = {Supporting Family-School Partnerships with Robot-Facilitated Home-Based Activities},
     year = {2026},
     pages = {83--102},
     doi = {10.1145/3773077.3806112}
   }

3. 

   IDC 2026 23%

   Designing Robots to Support Parent-Child Connections: Opportunities Through Robot-Mediated Communication

   Michael F. Xu, Bengisu Cagiltay, Yaxin Hu, Anjun Zhu, and Bilge Mutlu

   In Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, 2026

   Abs DOI arXiv Bib

   The sense of family connectedness may support positive outcomes including individual well-being, resilience, and healthy family functioning. However, as technologies advance, they often replace human-human interactions instead of nurturing them. In this work, we investigate how robot-facilitated communication tools might instead create new opportunities for family connection. We conducted two studies with families with children aged 5-12. We first explored the design space through in-home technology probe sessions with six families. These probes inspired us to explore two key interaction design dimensions: the robot’s behavior strategy (passive, reactive, proactive) and the mode of communication (synchronous, asynchronous). We then conducted a laboratory study with 20 families to examine how the two dimensions shaped parent-child interaction and connection. Our findings characterize how parents and children appropriated robot-mediated exchanges, the tensions they experienced around initiative, timing, and privacy, and the opportunities they envisioned for supporting everyday connectedness.

   @inproceedings{xu2026connections,
     author = {Xu, Michael F. and Cagiltay, Bengisu and Hu, Yaxin and Zhu, Anjun and Mutlu, Bilge},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference},
     title = {Designing Robots to Support Parent-Child Connections: Opportunities Through Robot-Mediated Communication},
     year = {2026},
     pages = {140--154},
     doi = {10.1145/3773077.3810976}
   }

2025

1. 

   HRI 2025 25%

   Exploring the Use of Robots for Diary Studies

   Michael F. Xu, and Bilge Mutlu

   In Proceedings of the 20th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI ’25), 2025

   Abs DOI arXiv Bib

   As interest in studying in-the-wild human-robot interaction grows, there is a need for methods to collect data over time and in naturalistic or potentially private environments. HRI researchers have increasingly used the diary method for these studies, asking study participants to self-administer a structured data collection instrument, i.e., a diary, over a period of time. Although the diary method offers a unique window into settings that researchers may not have access to, they also lack the interactivity and probing that interview-based methods offer. In this paper, we explore a novel data collection method in which a robot plays the role of an interactive diary. We developed the Diary Robot system and performed in-home deployments for a week to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach. Using traditional text-based and audio-based diaries as benchmarks, we found that robots are able to effectively elicit the intended information. We reflect on our findings, and describe scenarios where the utilization of robots in diary studies as a data collection instrument may be especially applicable.

   @inproceedings{xu2025exploring,
     author = {Xu, Michael F. and Mutlu, Bilge},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI ’25)},
     title = {Exploring the Use of Robots for Diary Studies},
     year = {2025},
     volume = {},
     number = {},
     pages = {174-182},
     keywords = {Diary study;Social robots;Robots;Methods;Data collection},
     doi = {10.1109/HRI61500.2025.10974118}
   }

2. 

   HRI 2025 LBR

   Developing Robot Prototypes to Explore Robot-Facilitated Family Routines

   Xinning He, Michael F. Xu, Bengisu Cagiltay, and Bilge Mutlu

   In Proceedings of the 20th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI ’25), 2025

   Abs DOI Bib

   In this late-breaking report, we present our design process motivated to build tangible, cost-effective, child- and family-friendly social robot prototypes aimed to (1) support the practical needs of families, as well as (2) serve as a feasible research platform to mitigate technical and logistical challenges faced within conducting inhome HRI studies. We apply a research through design approach, combined with participatory design methods, to produce functional prototypes. In future work, we are preparing to continue improving prototype design by conducting (1) iterative co-design sessions with artists and product designers focusing on the hardware design, (2) iterative co-design sessions with families focusing on the interaction design, and (3) long-term technology probe studies in homes to evaluate the effectiveness of the technological platform. We aim to solicit feedback from the HRI community on our design process and prototype research platform.

   @inproceedings{he2025developing,
     author = {He, Xinning and Xu, Michael F. and Cagiltay, Bengisu and Mutlu, Bilge},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI ’25)},
     title = {Developing Robot Prototypes to Explore Robot-Facilitated Family Routines},
     year = {2025},
     volume = {},
     number = {},
     pages = {1342-1346},
     keywords = {Family-robot interaction;Family-centered design;Social robots;Family routines},
     doi = {10.1109/HRI61500.2025.10974104}
   }

2024

1. 

   RO-MAN 2024

   Robots in Family Routines: Development of and Initial Insights from the Family-Robot Routines Inventory

   Michael F. Xu, Bengisu Cagiltay, Joseph Michaelis, Sarah Sebo, and Bilge Mutlu

   In 2024 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN), 2024

   Finalist: Pioneering Research Award in Robot and Human Interactive Communication

   Abs DOI arXiv Bib

   Despite advances in areas such as the personalization of robots, sustaining adoption of robots for long-term use in families remains a challenge. Recent studies have identified integrating robots into families’ routines and rituals as a promising approach to support long-term adoption. However, few studies explored the integration of robots into family routines and there is a gap in systematic measures to capture family preferences for robot integration. Building upon existing routine inventories, we developed Family-Robot Routines Inventory (FRRI), with 24 family routines and 24 child routine items, to capture parents’ attitudes toward and expectations from the integration of robotic technology into their family routines. Using this inventory, we collected data from 150 parents through an online survey. Our analysis indicates that parents had varying perceptions for the utility of integrating robots into their routines. For example, parents found robot integration to be more helpful in children’s individual routines, than to the collective routines of their families. We discuss the design implications of these preliminary findings, and how they may serve as a first step toward understanding the diverse challenges and demands of designing and integrating household robots for families.

   @inproceedings{xu2024robots,
     author = {Xu, Michael F. and Cagiltay, Bengisu and Michaelis, Joseph and Sebo, Sarah and Mutlu, Bilge},
     booktitle = {2024 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN)},
     title = {Robots in Family Routines: Development of and Initial Insights from the Family-Robot Routines Inventory},
     year = {2024},
     volume = {},
     number = {},
     pages = {1070-1077},
     keywords = {Surveys;Systematics;Social robots;Buildings;Frequency estimation;Planning;Interviews;Robots},
     doi = {10.1109/RO-MAN60168.2024.10731432}
   }