Photo of Hannah Pelikan

Hannah Pelikan

Assistant Professor

My research combines human-robot interaction and ethnomethodologic interaction design

Interacting with mobile autonomous systems

I take an ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EMCA) perspective on human-robot interaction to study robots in everyday interaction.

My current work studies robots in public and I am particularly interested in the human wrangling work that makes robots (appear as) autonomous. I draw on a background in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, human-computer interaction and cognitive science to contribute an empirical understanding of how people interact with robots in everyday interaction. I draw on video recordings for analytical purposes and to develop methods for designing human-centered robots. My work advances interactional and embodied theories of human sociality and artificial intelligence.

Prior to my current position, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the WASP-HS AI in Motion project led by Barry Brown (Copenhagen/Stockholm) and Mathias Broth (Linköping), and a visiting researcher at the University of Nottingham (2025) where I collaborated with Stuart Reeves through a RAi UK international partnership. I graduated with a PhD in Language and Culture from Linköping University advised by Leelo Keevallik and Mathias Broth and I have been affiliated with Malte Jung’s Robots in Groups lab at Cornell University through multiple research visits. I hold a Dutch engineering degree in Interaction Technology from the University of Twente in the Netherlands and a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science from Osnabrück University, Germany.

Research Interests

  • Robots in public
  • Embodiment and Multimodality
  • Interaction design
  • Sound design

News

Research

Publications

2026

Hannah Pelikan, Daniel Rudmark, Cilli Sobiech, Niklas Arvidsson, Stuart Reeves, Bern Grush (2026) Autonomous Delivery Robots in Dense Urban Environments: Stockholm's First Unaccompanied Fleet Deployment

2025

Stuart Reeves, Hannah Pelikan, Marina N. Cantarutti (2025) Opening Up Human-Robot Collaboration Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 9, Article CSCW459 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Anna Dobrosovestnova, Franziska Babel, Hannah Pelikan (2025) Beyond the User: Mapping Subject Positions for Robots in Public Spaces 2025 20th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), p. 163-173 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI
Ilaria Torre, Sarah Schömbs, Katie Winkle, Sara Ljungblad, Erik Lagerstedt, Maria Teresa Parreira, Hannah Pelikan (2025) Sustainability-4-HRI, HRI-4-Sustainability Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, p. 1991-1993 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI
Hannah Pelikan, Bilge Mutlu, Stuart Reeves (2025) Making Sense of Public Space for Robot Design Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, p. 152-162 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI

Education

Teaching

If you are a student in cognitive science or product design interested in working with me, please check my current projects for inspiration. I generally supervise user studies and interaction design projects. My main focus is on qualitative methods such as interaction analysis and ethnography as well as human-centered design. I have also supervised a number of survey and interview studies over the years.

I teach in the following courses:

Google Scholar

Visit my profile on Google Scholar for more details on my publications. 

Website

Visit my website for more information about my research.

Organisation