2026 Holly A. Yanco: Computer Science Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Computer Science	47	6548	6359	2894	2787	188	8096

Research.com Recognitions

2021 - Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) For foundational contributions to the field of human-robot interaction and for exceptional leadership in education and broadening participation.
2020 - ACM Senior Member

Overview

Holly A. Yanco is affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the United States and conducts research primarily in engineering and psychology. Their work spans several subfields including social psychology, control and systems engineering, artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering.

Their research topics cover a broad range of areas related to robotics and human interaction, such as:

Social Robot Interaction and HRI
Robot Manipulation and Learning
Human-Automation Interaction and Safety
Robotics and Automated Systems
Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization

Yanco has published extensively, with notable recent papers including:

"A Roadmap for US Robotics - From Internet to Robotics 2020 Edition" (2021, Foundations and Trends in Robotics)
"The Need for Verbal Robot Explanations and How People Would Like a Robot to Explain Itself" (2021, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction)
"Building the Foundation of Robot Explanation Generation Using Behavior Trees" (2021, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction)
"Methods for Expressing Robot Intent for Human-Robot Collaboration in Shared Workspaces" (2021, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction)
"Benchmarking Protocols for Evaluating Grasp Strength, Grasp Cycle Time, Finger Strength, and Finger Repeatability of Robot End-Effectors" (2020, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters)

Frequent coauthors of Yanco include:

Adam Norton
Han Zhao
Jordan Allspaw
Alexander S. Wilkinson
Jenna Parrillo

Their work has been published predominantly in venues such as:

arXiv (Cornell University)
ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
Foundations and Trends in Robotics
Journal of Biomechanics
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

Yanco's contributions have been recognized with several distinctions including being named a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) in 2021 for foundational contributions to human-robot interaction and leadership in education and broadening participation. They were also designated as an ACM Senior Member in 2020.

Best Publications

Classifying human-robot interaction: an updated taxonomy

H.A. Yanco;J. Drury

501
Citations
Awareness in human-robot interactions

J.L. Drury;J. Scholtz;H.A. Yanco

375
Citations
Beyond usability evaluation: analysis of human-robot interaction at a major robotics competition

Holly A. Yanco;Jill L. Drury;Jean Scholtz

357
Citations
Wheelesley: A Robotic Wheelchair System: Indoor Navigation and User Interface

Holly A. Yanco

339
Citations
Exploring use cases for telepresence robots

Katherine M. Tsui;Munjal Desai;Holly A. Yanco;Chris Uhlik

295
Citations
Evaluation of human-robot interaction awareness in search and rescue

J. Scholtz;J. Young;J.L. Drury;H.A. Yanco

252
Citations
A Taxonomy for Human-Robot Interaction

Holly A. Yanco;Jill L. Drury

243
Citations
Impact of robot failures and feedback on real-time trust

Munjal Desai;Poornima Kaniarasu;Mikhail Medvedev;Aaron Steinfeld

215
Citations
Are Robots Ready to Deliver Autism Interventions? A Comprehensive Review

Momotaz Begum;Richard W. Serna;Holly A. Yanco

206
Citations
"Where am I?" Acquiring situation awareness using a remote robot platform

H.A. Yanco;J. Drury

203
Citations
An adaptive communication protocol for cooperating mobile robots

Holly Yanco;Lynn Andrea Stein

203
Citations
Improved interfaces for human-robot interaction in urban search and rescue

M. Baker;R. Casey;B. Keyes;H.A. Yanco

195
Citations
Effects of changing reliability on trust of robot systems

Munjal Desai;Mikhail Medvedev;Marynel Vazquez;Sean McSheehy

172
Citations
Automation as Caregiver: A Survey of Issues and Technologies

Karen Zita Haigh;Holly A. Yanco

146
Citations
Analysis of Human-robot Interaction at the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials

Holly A. Yanco;Adam Norton;Willard Ober;David Shane

134
Citations
Essential features of telepresence robots

Munjal Desai;Katherine M. Tsui;Holly A. Yanco;Chris Uhlik

133
Citations
Pyro: A python-based versatile programming environment for teaching robotics

Douglas Blank;Deepak Kumar;Lisa Meeden;Holly Yanco

128
Citations
“I want that”: Human-in-the-loop control of a wheelchair-mounted robotic arm

Katherine M. Tsui;Dae-Jin Kim;Aman Behal;David Kontak

100
Citations
Development and evaluation of a flexible interface for a wheelchair mounted robotic arm

Katherine Tsui;Holly Yanco;David Kontak;Linda Beliveau

95
Citations
LASSOing HRI: analyzing situation awareness in map-centric and video-centric interfaces

Jill L. Drury;Brenden Keyes;Holly A. Yanco

92
Citations
Evolving interface design for robot search tasks: Research Articles

Holly A. Yanco;Brenden Keyes;Jill L. Drury;Curtis W. Nielsen

10
Citations
Multi robot mapping using force field simulation: Research Articles

Rolf Lakaemper;Nagesh Adluru;Longin Jan Latecki;Raj Madhavan

7
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Jean Scholtz Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Aaron Steinfeld Carnegie Mellon University

Thomas B. Shea University of Massachusetts Lowell

Maja J. Matarić University of Southern California

Tucker Balch Emory University

Odest Chadwicke Jenkins University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Peter M. Todd Indiana University

Matthew T. Mason Carnegie Mellon University

Aaron M. Dollar Yale University

Aman Behal University of Central Florida

External Links

Personal website of Holly A. Yanco Google Scholar page

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