SRIDATTA CHATTERJEE

I connect Physical AI with real-life environments and real human needs.
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Do people get confused about how to use your robot? Maybe it does the job, but nobody around it can tell what it is doing, or why. Does it take a few more trials to get people comfortable with your robot? That gap between what people need and how a robot behaves is where I work. I study the environment your robot will live in and the people it will work with, and turn what I learn into features and behaviour your robot can actually have.

Hi! I am Sridatta, a psychologist with a PhD in Human-Robot Interaction.

I have been doing this since 2021. Let's connect and make your robot the new kid on the block that everyone loves to work with.

To get an overview of my work just scroll below; for more details, please click on the 'Project Page' tab. Looking forward to connect!

So, exactly what do I do you ask?

Turning what people need into what a robot does.

My doctorate began with a robot arm on a desk, and with a finding that has shaped everything since — people make up their minds about a machine before it ever moves, and they understand its movements when those movements resemble something they already know. Next came a telepresence robot, built for a visitor who could not travel but still wanted to wander a museum at their own pace, which is where autonomous navigation and a view they controlled came from. On a factory floor the problem was speed: workers needed to know what a tug robot was about to do next, so it got a screen, lights and sounds they could read without breaking stride. In a special-education classroom the gap ran the other way, since teachers had lesson goals and a very small robot had very narrow senses, and my job was turning the first into play the second could actually carry out. With older adults the constraint is time, because trust is slow, so the companion robot opens up in stages and goes deeper only as the relationship does.

Every feature starts in a real room.

I start in the room with the people who are going to live with the robot, and I come back with what the machine has to do, and why it has to do that.

A robot arm on a desk — my doctorate. People make up their minds about a machine before it ever moves, and they understand its movements when those movements resemble something they already know. That finding has shaped everything since.
ARTBot — telepresence. A visitor who could not travel still wanted to wander a museum at their own pace. That became autonomous navigation and a view they steered themselves.
Sherpa tug robots — ATI Motors. Workers needed to know what the robot was about to do next, so it got a screen, lights and sounds they could read without breaking stride.
Cozmo — a special-education classroom. Teachers had lesson goals, a very small robot had very narrow senses, and my job was turning the first into play the second could actually carry out.
CC — a companion robot for older adults. Here the constraint is time. Trust is slow, so CC opens up in stages and goes deeper only as the relationship does.

Would you like to work with me?

Email me

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Technology must be effortless to be impactful—if it doesn't reach people, it doesn't change lives.

Highlights

Companion bots for seniors

A tabletop companion robot for people living in senior care, where I owned the roadmap, the requirements and every customer conversation.

Trust is slow at that stage of life, so CC opens up in stages and goes deeper only as the resident's own signals allow.

Wellbeing and cognitive checks became play, scored against each person's own baseline, and four surfaces around the resident — family, caregiver, clinician, operator — each show only what that person can act on.

Please find details under the 'Projects' tab.

DemCare 360

Leading the user research and product validation for an AI-driven SaaS solution for home-based care, ensuring accessibility and usability for elderly users and caregivers
DemCare360 is a comprehensive AI-powered system designed to support individuals with dementia and their caregivers. Please find details under the 'Projects' tab.

Telepresence solutions for museum

The ARTbot- the first flagship product of AHAM Robotics, one of the pre-seed funded ventures.

ARTbot enables remote visitors with autonomous mobility and free neck movements to get a live experience of the remote location.

Industrial AMR

The Sherpa TUG is the flagship product of ATI Motors, an Indian AMR manufacturer that boasts of clients such as Bosch, Forvia Faurecia, Hyundai and others.

The TUGS needed an onboard HMI for quick and smooth interactions with fellow factory workers.

User research for
Focus Buddy

Conducted a needs assessment study towards the development of an AI-integrated learning management system, 'FocusBuddy,' designed to support students struggling with attention deficits. Please find details under the 'Projects' tab.

PhD work- Personal robot assistant

(Doctoral dissertation work) Complete experience design of a personal robot arm assistant.

A personal robot has a few layers of relationship with its users. Here, we explored the human-robot interactions from psychological and experiential perspectives to inform the design process in a phase-wise manner and finally conclude with strategies for designing pleasureable experience.

Social assistive robots

A project at the Dept. of Computer Science and Automation, IISc Bangalore involves developing a teaching assistant robot for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (cASD).

This robot partakes an important role in in-person classes alongside special educators, wearing different hats of either a peer or a teacher to the student.

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