HUMAN-ROBOT ENGAGEMENT
in the Home, Workplace and Public Spaces
Social robots work closely with people safely and efficiently and are designed to add value to people's lives. Social robots are a disruptive technology, poised to have a profound impact on business, society and the global economy.
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Softbank Robotics have joined forces to organise an exciting workshop at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence on Human-Robot Engagement in the home, workplace and public spaces.
A self-driving vehicle is an example of a social robot, not only does it need to drive on the road safely but it must also create enjoyable experiences for humans inside the vehicle, while at the same time communicating with and anticipating nearby cars, pedestrians, city infrastructure, land and space based technologies. Other social robots include robots that care for people in hospitals and in their home; robots that play with children and teach them. The key to success of any social robot is how well it can engage people around it as it pursues its design goals. The critical research question is how can we design social robots to enhance the human experience and improve people's lives?
The purpose of this workshop is to explore how social robots can gain people's attention when required, and create engaging experiences. The workshop will focus on social robots in the home, workplace and public spaces. Robot encounters in public spaces will be different to those in workplaces where a robot is a long-term partner and expected to help humans be more productive. The key research challenges are autonomy, proactivity and intelligence, sociability.
Social robotics is a transdisciplinary field. We seek to bring together research interests that are not traditionally 'close'. In particular, the workshop will provide a venue for fruitful discussion between artificial intelligence researchers exploring pervasive computing, social robotics, cognitive science, software engineering, law, AI planning and knowledge representation.
Relevant topics include, but are not limited, to the following:
Human-robot interaction and collaboration
Social intelligence for autonomous robots
Law abiding autonomous robots
Engagement and disengagement in HRI
Human attention, proactive decision making and behaviour
Autonomy, learning and intelligence
Joint attention and emotional connection
Connected robots in an Internet of Things ecosystem
Privacy and security
Legal and ethical implications of social robots
Invited Speakers

Professor Holly Yanco
Founder of the Robotics Lab
Director New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE)
University of Massachusetts Lowell USA
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Head Principal Scientist (Chief Scientist)
Scientific Coordinator - Collaborative Projects
SoftBank Robotics, Paris, France
IMPORTANT DATES
Paper Submission Deadline: June 15, 2017 (EasyChair Submission Website)
Acceptance Notification: June 20, 2017
Camera-Ready Version: July 10, 2017
Workshop Date: August 19, 2017
If you need an invitaiton letter to attend the workshop, please complete the form
PAPER SUBMISSION
Submitted papers must be original work of no more than 6 pages in length and formatted according to IJCAI guidelines and submitted electronically through the Workshop Easychair submission site.
Formatting Guidelines, LaTeX Styles and Word Template can be dowloaded from here.
Submissions must be in electronic form. Additional material such as videos may also be submitted.
At least one author of each accepted paper is required to attend the workshop to present the work.
Submissions received after the deadline or that do not meet the length or formatting requirements will not be considered for review. No email or fax submissions will be accepted.
Notification of receipt of an electronically submitted paper will be emailed to the designated contact author soon after receipt.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Mary-Anne Williams, University of Technology Sydney and CodeX Stanford University (Chair and Primary Contact)
Benjamin Johnston, University of Technology Sydney and d.school Stanford University
William Judge, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Amit Kumar Pandey, Softbank Robotics Europe
Meg Tonkin, University of Technology Sydney
Xun Wang, University of Technology Sydney and Commonwealth Bank of Australia Jonathan Vitale, University of Technology Sydney
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Nic Carey, Harvard University, USAMichael Genesereth, CodeX and the Dept of Computer Science, Stanford University, USA
Hatice Gunes, University of Cambridge, UK
Eryk Korfel, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Mahya Knox, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Séverin Lemaignan, University of Plymouth, UK
William Mailer, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Lilia Moshkina, Neato Robotics, USA
Yukie Nagai, Osaka University, Japan
Bernhard Nebel, University of Freiburg, Germany
Suman Ojha, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
David Parkes, Harvard University, USA
Pavlos Peppas, Patras University, Greece
Sammy Pfeiffer, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Brian Scassellati, Yale University, USA
Julie Shah, MIT, USA
Harry Surden, University of Colorado and Stanford University, USA
Manuela Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Roland Vogl, CodeX and the Law School, Stanford University, USA
Holly Yanco, UMass Lowell, USA