Welcome to the website of the Interactive Machines Group (IMG)!
IMG is an interdisciplinary research group led by Marynel Vázquez in Yale's Computer Science Department.









Our group studies fundamental problems at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Robotics. In particular, our current research agenda is focused on enabling situated social interactions between robots and multiple people. We spend our day-to-day building novel computational tools, prototyping interactive systems, and running user experiments to both better understand interactions with technology and validate our methods. More information about current research directions can be found in the research page.
News
Two IMG papers are accepted at HRI 2021!
One full paper and one late-breaking report by members of our lab will appear this March at the 2021 International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.Nathan Tsoi becomes a member of the 2021 HRI Pioneers cohort!
Each year, the HRI Pioneers Workshop brings together a cohort of the world's top student researchers and provides opportunities for students to discuss their research with distinguished peers and senior scholars in HRI.Our Social Environment for Autonomous Navigation is recognized at HAI 2020
Congratulations to all the authors!Two IMG short papers appear at HAI 2020 this week
The papers describe our recent work on studying human-agent interactions through Space Invaders and leveraging simulations for social robot navigation.New WSJ article describes IMG research
The article is entitled 'What Makes People Abuse Robots. A new study suggests the way we treat robots says a lot about ourselves'. It describes a recent project about prosocial human behavior in HRI.Two IMG papers are accepted at IROS 2020!
The papers will be presented at the conference this October.
Lab Location
Yale University, AKW 400
51 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511