Henny Admoni Is Building Better Robots By Studying Humans

When Henny Admoni tells people she's a roboticist who primarily studies humans, she gets strange looks. "It might seem a little weird," Admoni says, "but the goal of my research is to understand how to make robots good for people." Admoni leads the Human and Robot Partners Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, where, along with a team of researchers, she studies the ways robots and AI can improve people's lives. The lab has worked on robotic arms that assist people in eating food and preparing meals; they've observed robots that encourage artists to think outside the box, and they've looked at how robots can help search and rescue teams collaborate more effectively. With a library of published papers, awards, and international speaking engagements under her belt, one might think that, for Admoni, robotics has been a lifelong passion.