Dear colleagues, 

the programme for the “Second International Symposium on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction” is now available at:
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/AISB2010-HRI-Programme-Draft.pdf
The programme consists of 21 oral presentations and the symposium will have an emphasis on discussion and scientific discourse. A panel with the theme of 
How social do robots really need to be? complements the programme. 

Registration for the symposium is still open and does not depend on an accepted paper. 

Regards, Kerstin Dautenhahn
---
Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn
Symposium Chair


Second International Symposium on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction

A two-day symposium at AISB 2010, 30 March - 1 April 2010, De Montfort
University, Leicester, United Kingdom

http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb10/AISB2010.html (Convention)

http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/HRI-AISB2010-Symposium.html
(Symposium)

Confirmed Keynote Speakers and talks:
Patrizia Marti (University of Siena, Italy): Expressive robots and expressive interaction with robots: a design perspective
Yorick Wilks (University of Sheffield, UK): Is a Companion a distinctive kind of relationship with a machine?
Giorgio Metta (IIT, Italy): From biology to robots: the RobotCub project

Motivation:

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is a growing research field with many application
areas that could have a big impact not only economically, but also on the way
we live and the kind of relationships we may develop with machines. Due to its
interdisciplinary nature different views and approaches towards HRI need to be
nurtured. This symposium will provide a platform to discuss collaboratively
recent findings and challenges in HRI.

The first symposium on "New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction" was held as
part of AISB 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland, see programme:
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/HRI-AISB2009-Symposium.html

The symposium organized in 2009 was characterized by excellent presentations as
well as extensive and constructive discussions of the research among the
participants.

Different categories of submissions are encouraged that reflect the different
types of research studies that are being carried out. The symposium will
encourage a diversity of views on HRI and different approaches taken. In the
highly interdisciplinary research field of HRI, a peaceful dialogue among such
approaches is expected to contribute to the synthesis of a body of knowledge
that may help HRI sustain its creative inertia that has drawn to HRI during the
past 10 years many researchers from HCI, robotics, psychology, the social
sciences, and other fields.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

*       Developments towards robot companions
*       User-centred robot design
*       Robots in personal care and health care
*       Robots in search and rescue
*       Sensors and interfaces for HRI
*       Human-aware robot perception
*       Dialogue and multi-modal human-robot interaction
*       Robot architectures for socially intelligent robots
*       HRI field studies in naturalistic environments
*       Robot assisted therapy
*       Robots in HRI collaborative scenarios
*       Robots in schools and in other educational environments
*       Robots as personal assistants and trainers
*       Robot and human personality
*       New methods and methodologies to carry out and analyze human-robot
interaction
*       Robots as companions and helpers in the home
*       Robots as assistive technology
*       Long-term or repeated interaction with robots
*       Creating relationships with robots
*       Expressiveness in robots
*       Sustaining the engagement of users
*       Personalizing robots and HRI interfaces
*       Human-robot teaching
*       Robots that learn socially and adapt to people
*       User experience in HRI
*       User needs and requirements for HRI
*       Robots as autonomous companions
*       Robots as remote-controlled tools
*       Embodied interfaces for smart homes
*       Ethnography and field studies
*       Cross-cultural studies

The symposium encourages submissions in any of the following categories. The
submission should clearly state which category the article falls under:

*N* Completed empirical studies reporting novel research findings
In this category we encourage submissions where a substantial body of findings
has been accumulated based on precise research questions or hypotheses. Such
studies are expected to fit within a particular experimental framework (e.g.
using qualitative or quantitative evaluation techniques) and the reviewing of
such papers will apply relevant (statistical and other) criteria accordingly.
Findings of such studies should provide novel insights into human-robot
interaction studies.

*E* Exploratory studies
Exploratory studies are often necessary to pilot and fine-tune the
methodological approach, procedures and measures. In a young research field
such as HRI with novel applications and various robotic platforms, exploratory
studies are also often required to derive a set of concrete research questions
or hypothesis, in particular concerning issues where there is little related
theoretical and experimental work. Although care must be taken in the
interpretation of findings from such studies, they may highlight issues of
great interest and relevance to peers.

*S* Case studies
Due to the nature of many HRI studies, a large-scale quantitative approach is
often neither feasible nor desirable. However, case study evaluation can
provide meaningful findings if presented appropriately. Thus, case studies with
only one participant, or a small group of participants, are encouraged if they
are carried out and analyzed in sufficient depth.

*P* Position papers
While categories N, E and S require reporting on HRI studies or experiments,
position papers can be conceptual or theoretical, providing new interpretations
of known results. Also, in this category we consider papers that present new
ideas without having a complete study to report on.  Papers in this category
will be judged on the soundness of the argument presented, the significance of
the ideas and the interest to the HRI community.

*R* Replication of HRI studies
To develop as a field, HRI findings obtained by one research group need to be
replicated by other groups. Without any additional novel insights, such work is
often not publishable. Within this category, authors will have the opportunity
to report on studies that confirm or disconfirm findings from experiments that
have already been reported in the literature. This category includes studies
that report on negative findings.

*D* Live HRI Demonstrations
Contributors may have an opportunity to provide live demonstrations (live or
via Skype), pending the outcome of negotiations with the local organization
team. The demo should highlight interesting features and insights into HRI.
Purely entertaining demonstrations without significant research content are
discouraged.

*Y* System Development
Research in this category includes e.g. the design and development of new
sensors, robot designs and algorithms for socially interactive robots.
Extensive user studies are not necessarily required in this category.

If authors feel that their particular paper does not fit any of the above
mentioned categories, then they should indicate this when submitting their
paper so that the reviewing process can take this into consideration.

Symposium chair: Kerstin Dautenhahn (University of Hertfordshire, UK)

Programme Committee members:

Adriana Tapus, USC, USA
Alan Wing, University of Birmingham, UK
Aris Alissandrakis, Tokio Institute of Technology, Japan
Astrid Weiss, University of Salzburg, Austria
Ben Krose, UVA, the Netherlands
Ben Robins, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Bipinchandra Bhakta, University of Leeds, UK
Christoph Bartneck, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
Dirk Wollherr, TUM, Germany
Dong-Soo Kwon, KAIST, South Korea
Farshid Amirabdollahian, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Haizhou Li, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore
Hatice Kose-Bagci, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Hisato Kobayashi, Hosei University, Japan
Holly Yanco, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, USA
Julie Adams, Vanderbilt University, USA
Karl F. MacDorman, Indiana University, USA
Kerstin Severinson Eklundh, KTH, Sweden
Kheng Lee Koay, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Kolja Kuehnlenz, TUM, Germany
Matthias Scheutz, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Manfred Tscheligi, University of Salzburg, Austria
Michael A. Goodrich, Brigham Young University, USA
Michael Hillman, Bath Institute of Medical Engineering, UK
Michael L. Walters, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Monica Nicolescu, University of Nevada, Reno, USA
Nuno Otero, University of Minho, Portugal
Reid Simmons, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Sandra Hirche, TUM, Germany
Sylvain Calinon, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy
Takayuki Kanda, ATR, Japan
Tatsuya Nomura, Ryukoku University, Japan
Wolfram Erlhagen, University of Minho, Portugal
Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College, UK
Yorick Wilks, University of Sheffield, UK
Yoshihiro Miyake, Tokio Institute of Technology, Japan