CALL FOR PAPERS
 
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3rd Symposium on Language and Robots - LANGRO'2009
September 9-11, Paris, France
http://isir.robot.jussieu.fr/langro09/
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Aims and Scope and Topics
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This symposium, organized by the Distributed Language Group (DLG), aims to explore synergies and identify areas of collaboration between robotics and the language sciences. As starting point for the discussions, a perspective is proposed in which language is seen as a dynamic and distributed cognitive process. This edition will also enquire into and discuss links between language and neurons and the possible existence of a "neural theory of language" that can be applied to intelligent biorobotics.
The origins, evolution and acquisition of language and its role in human societies have long been studied by philosophers, linguists, psychologists, neuroscientists and cognitive scientists. In recent years, a distributed view of cognition and language has emerged.
Control of embodied action is seen as an emergent property of a distributed system composed of brain, body and environment.  Language ceases to be a formal underlying system and, instead, becomes a heterogeneous set of culturally distributed processes. As a representation, language is a cultural product, perpetually open- ended and incomplete, and partly ambiguous. Language acquisition and evolution involve not only internal, but also cultural, social and affective processes.
In this context, many research questions open up: How does language transform human cognitive processes? How is language grounded in perception and action? In what ways does human phenomenology depend on linguistic experience? Can a distributed perspective on language clarify the nature of silent rehearsal (internal thought processes)? How does this relate to consciousness? How is language used to achieve joint experience? What is the embodied basis of cognition and social semiosis? 
 
While the language sciences have, until now, focused on language in human societies, the robotics and artificial intelligence communities are becoming increasingly active in developing user-friendly robots. These machines are flexible, adaptable and easy to command and instruct. As artificial agents, they need to cognitively interpret perception and action, accumulate and manipulate semantic information for decision-making and interact with human subjects using natural language.
 
The symposium will explore the following issues:
 
* How can robots ground and use language for practical applications?
* How can robots be used for empirical work in the language sciences?
* How can robots engage with distributed language ?
* What does robotics imply for the language sciences?
* What questions do roboticists want to ask the language sciences?
* How can the language sciences contribute to the theoretical and practical study of how humans interact with robots?
* How can the language sciences evolve to address societies that include robots?
 
With the growth of research in neuroscience, questions on the following issues are especially welcome:
 
* Can a neural theory of language exist? If so, what would it look like? If not, how can linguistics be linked with neuroscience?
* What is the possible basis of neural semantics? How can that connect to the interaction-based/distributed perspective on language?
* How can the neuroscience of language inspire new developments in robotics robots?
 
We invite papers that address these questions. To encourage interaction, we welcome speakers from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds.
 
Symposium format.
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The symposium will be a 3 days event that gathers researchers from a wide range of backgrounds. The symposium format includes a number of Invited Speakers and a public call for papers. After the symposium, participants will be invited to submit a paper to a special issue of the journal "Adaptive Behavior".
 
Important Dates
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Deadline for paper submission:     June 12, 2009
Notification of paper acceptance:  July 15, 2009
Deadline for final versions:       August 1, 2009
Conference dates:                  September 12-15, 2009
 
Submission and Reviewing Process
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Authors are invited to submit either an abstract or a full-length paper. 
Full papers can have a length of between 6 and 10 pages, abstracts can have a maximum length of 2 pages.
Submitted abstracts and papers will be refereed and selected for half-hour oral presentations on the basis of quality and relevance to the issues the symposium is addressing. 
Submission should be sent to langro2009 (at isir.fr) in either MS Word or Adobe PDF format.
All papers will be reviewed by, at least, three members of the
 
Publication
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Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings and will be made accessible through the web. Copies of the proceedings will be available at the symposium.
Papers of higher quality will be selected for publication in the special issue of Adaptive Behaviour Journal
published by SAGE Publicatiion.
 
Organizers
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Ryad Benosman, ryad.benosman@upmc.fr (University Pierre and Marie Curie)
Remi Van Trijp, remi@csl.sony.fr, 5, (SONY CSL)
Sio-Hoï Ieng, sio-hoi.ieng@upmc.fr, (University Pierre and Marie Curie)
Angelo Arleo, angelo.arleo@upmc.fr, (University Pierre and Marie Curie)
 
Program Committee
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Luís Seabra Lopes, (Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal)
Tony Belpaeme, (University of Plymouth, United Kingdom)
Stephen Cowley, (University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom)
Michael L. Anderson, (University of Maryland)
Luc Steels, (SONY CSL)
Ryad Benosman, (University Pierre and Marie Curie)
Remi Van Trijp, (SONY CSL)
Sio-Hoï Ieng, (University Pierre and Marie Curie)
Angelo Arleo,  (University Pierre and Marie Curie)