The Robotics Lab was founded by Dr. Holly Yanco in 2001. Research focuses on human-robot interaction (HRI), ranging from visual displays to evaluation methods to a new HRI architecture for robots. Application domains include assistive technology, urban search and rescue (USAR), explosive ordinance disposal (EOD), and hazardous materials (HAZMAT) response.

Research in the lab is funded by the National Science Foundation (DUE-0231363, IIS-0308186, IIS-0415224, IIS-0546309, IIS-0534364, SES-0623083), the Army Research Office (W911NF-07-1-0216), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (70NANB3H116), and Microsoft.