RoboCARE Lab

The RoboCARE Lab (Socially Intelligent Robotics for Healthcare Laboratory) is a research group within the Department of Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. The lab is directed by Dr. Fengpei (Fiona) Yuan, an Assistant Professor in WPI's Robotics Engineering department who holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee (2024) and a bachelor's degree in mechatronics from Harbin Institute of Technology (2016).

The lab's mission is to develop socially intelligent robots that can interact with, connect to, assist, and care for people in healthcare settings. Its interdisciplinary research integrates socially assistive robotics (SAR), multimodal human-robot interaction (HRI), human-centered AI including large language models and affective computing, multimodal perception, and person-centered care methodologies. The overarching goal is to bridge the gap between advanced AI and robotics technology and real-world healthcare needs, keeping patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals at the center of the design process.

Active research projects include: Robot-assisted Daily Routine Activities, developing adaptive interaction systems to help persons with dementia complete activities of daily living and support independence; Robot-facilitated Conversational Engagement, creating personalized, empathetic conversation systems for people in dementia care to enhance social interaction; Robot-mitigated Physical Inactivity, building systems that monitor sedentary behavior and engage individuals in physical exercise through robotic interaction; and Robot-assisted Emotional Education, a multimodal progressive emotional learning system for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Published research includes work on adaptive robotic assistance for medication management in dementia care. The lab is actively recruiting fully funded PhD students in social robotics, HRI, and human-centered AI. RoboCARE Lab does not manufacture commercial products; its output is academic research, prototypes, and published findings intended to advance healthcare robotics. Note: the slug suffix 'fr' is a legacy database artifact; the lab is located in the United States.