MY ROBOT COMPANION -
CALL FOR POSTER PROPOSALS: ROBOT COMPANION DESIGN CONTEST FOR STUDENTS
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RO-MAN 06: The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human
Interactive Communication, 6-8 September 2006, University of
Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
Sponsored by: COGNIRON, the IST-FET Integrated Project on "Cognitive Robot
Companions" (www.cogniron.org). Submit a robot design and you may win a
prize!
A Robot Companion in the Home: Robot Design Poster Contest for Students
======================================================================
Why submitting a poster proposal?
Much has been published in the media about service robots and
correspondingly expectations are high. New robots are turned out by
industry and academia at an increasing rate and the variety is enormous:
many look humanoid, others machine-like or cartoon-like. Some robots seem
funny, others intimidating. Of particular interest are service robots,
i.e. robots that can perform a variety of assistive tasks in
human-inhabited environments. It is unclear at present which designs will
be best accepted by customers and thus succeed on the market.
Of special interest are robots that have to deal with humans in a natural
setting. This requires a thorough evaluation of the requirements of the
human partners and the design of the robots, taking into account not only
technological advancement but also issues like safety, expectation, trust,
ease of use etc. Therefore, increasingly science and engineering
activities are devoted to the area of Human-Robot Interaction. Intense
research efforts are in demand of groundbreaking ideas especially
regarding straightforward solutions to hard problems. Building robots that
have to function reliably with humans in a real home environment is far
from trivial and a number of problems seem almost insurmountable. But
maybe we.re just too traditional and old fashioned in our approach? The
ROBOT DESIGN POSTER CONTEST FOR STUDENTS gives you the possibility to
shake up the robot community in a non-formal and enjoyable way with your
own fancy proposals for developing and building robots. Ideas should
develop the concept of a ROBOT COMPANION, i.e. a robot for a home
environment that can perform a variety of tasks, assist people and will be
accepted as a companion.
Smart engineering, creative designs or unorthodox materials might solve
some of the hard problems in a surprisingly original . and sometimes even
embarrassingly simple - way. To come up with such revolutionary approaches
requires flexible and open minds from researchers that are not (yet)
biased by academic traditions and established networks. In other words, we
need YOU, the enthusiast and daring student (undergraduate or
postgraduate) and we want to know about your ideas. We therefore invite
you to take part in our Robot Design Poster Contest for Students.
The aim of the contest is to collect a good number of high quality posters
containing novel, unusual, artistic, and entertaining ideas about the
design and/or construction of robots that have to interact with humans.
Posters should provide sufficient details about the novel idea(s), the
size and appearance of the robot that is portrayed, functionalities, as
well as behavioural, communicative and interactive abilities. The posters
will be on display during the conference. Only a limited number of poster
boards are available, thus a pre-selection based on novelty of the ideas
and relevance to the conference will be made.
How to Submit:
To be liable for participation, we need a short (up to 500 words) summary
of your poster briefly outlining the initial idea that will be further
elaborated on the final poster. The summary should be text only (no
drawings, pictures etc.) and send as an e-mail (no attachments) by 15 July
2006 to [log in to unmask] Poster proposers will be notified by 24
July 2006 about the availability of poster space and the acceptance of
their proposal.
Poster presenters will have to register for the conference. The deadline
for early registration fees will be extended, for authors of accepted
poster contributions only, to 30 July 2006.
The best 2 posters will be announced at the conference and their designers
will have an opportunity to present their work to the IEEE RO-MAN06
audience.
***The COGNIRON project sponsors a prize for the two best posters of 800
Euros for the first prize and 500 Euros for the second prize***
Let your imagination run free and unrestricted, but be sure that your
poster presented at the conference attracts attention by short but easy to
grasp justifications of the design and a visually pleasing layout.
Looking forward to your submissions!
Kerstin Dautenhahn and Rene te Boekhorst
(Organizers of Robot Design Poster Contest)
INFORMATION ABOUT RO-MAN06:
---For electronic registration and information about accomodation and
travel see: http://ro-man2006.feis.herts.ac.uk/
Plenary Speakers:
==================
Prof. Shuji Hashimoto (Waseda University, Japan): "KANSEI Robotics to Open
a New Epoch of Human-Machine Relationship - Machine with a Heart"
Prof. Illah R Nourbakhsh (Carnegie Mellon University, USA): "A Roadmap for
Technology Literacy and a Vehicle for Getting There: Educational Robotics
and the TeRK Project"
Prof. Lucy Suchman (Lancaster University, UK): "Reconfiguring Human-Robot
Relations"
Half-day tutorials:
====================
Cognitive Robotics (Lecturers: Kazuhiko Kawamura, Vanderbilt University,
USA; Will Browne, University of Reading, UK)
Coding Video Data in Human-Robot Social Interaction: Behavior and
Reasoning
(Lecturers: Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Nathan G. Freier, Rachel L. Severson, Cady
Stanton, University of Washington, USA)
Socio-Emotional Interaction with Virtual Humans (Lecturers: Stacy Marsella
and Jonathan Gratch, University of Southern California, USA)
Social Interactions with Robot Companions (Lecturers: Britta Wrede,
University of Bielefeld, Germany; Kerstin Dautenhahn, University of
Hertfordshire, UK; Rachid Alami, LAAS, France)
All conference attendees will receive 30 days free online access to the
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
http://www.ars-journal.com/
Demonstration event:
====================
Including three European Integrated Projects: Cogniron, Neurobotics,
I-Swarm, part of the European IST .Beyond Robotics Proactive. Initiative
(http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/fet/ro-sy1.htm)
Attendance of the Conference Banquet at Hatfield House is included in the
registration fee. Also, all conference attendees will receive 30 days free
online access to the journal database of the International Journal of
Advanced Robotic Systems
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