Interdisciplinary Exchange between RRLab and HFI Mainz

We are happy to share a recent research exchange visit between the Robotics Research Lab (RRLab), RPTU Kaiserslautern, led by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Karsten Berns and the Human Factors and Engineering Psychology (HFI) group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, led by Prof. Dr. Johannes Kraus. The idea for this visit originated at the RO-MAN 2025 conference in Eindhoven, where Ashita Ashok and Prof. Kraus realized that their research roots were both in Rhineland-Palatinate. Following an initial visit by the Mainz team to Kaiserslautern in Oct 2025, we visited Mainz in Jan 2026 for a joint workshop. During these discussions, both groups presented their ongoing research, discussed methodological perspectives from psychology and robotics, and explored possible future collaborations. The exchange involved Nadezhda Kushina and Ashita Ashok (RRLab, RPTU), Dr. Ann-Kathrin Beck and Hana Jeong (Center for Cognitive Science, Kaiserslautern), and Maike L. and Tim Niewalda (HFI Mainz).

We see this exchange as a valuable step toward strengthening interdisciplinary research connections within Germany on overlapping interests in trust, expectations, and social perception in human-robot interaction.

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