Robots are becoming more pervasive in society, playing different roles from tutors to physical therapy assistants to playmates, to name a few. Child-robot interaction (CRI) is an emerging and multidisciplinary field that brings numerous challenges to researchers. Many of the challenges come from the fact that children are cognitively immature, and their perspectives on robots are different from adults. 

The primary purpose of this special issue is to publish the state-of-the-art in the field of child-robot interaction related to recent innovative developments, existing challenges, and plausible future solutions. We want to address (1) recent developments of hardware and software technologies that impacted CRI, for example, AI and machine learning; (2) technological, design and empirical challenges related to the assessment of usability, deployment, efficacy, and sustaining of long-term interactions.; and finally (3) novel or emerging solutions for the future of CRI, including adaptations made to work in CRI during the pandemic, focusing not only on what changed but also on what we can carry for the future and lessons learnt. We started trying to address some of these challenges at the ICSR 2020 workshop "CRI: Present and Future Relationships". To continue this journey, we are organizing this special issue on Interaction Studies to gather the latest research on CRI addressing the above challenges. We welcome high-quality submissions from authors, regardless of their affiliation(s) and relationship to the Workshop. Full paper submissions may include original research, focused review papers, and opinion papers. In addition to full papers, we will also consider submissions of brief research reports in a communication/note form.

Authors are requested to submit their full research papers, complying with the general scope of the journal. The submitted papers will undergo the standard peer-review process before they can be accepted. Notification of acceptance will be communicated as we progress with the review process.

Topics of Interest 

• Robot embodiment and behaviour design for children

• Evaluation studies (hypothesis-driven, exploratory, and long-term)

• Children and stakeholders' involvement in design and development 

• Novel applications of robots for children

• Perceptions and expectations (measuring, evaluating, and interpreting)

• Impact on cognitive development

• Ethical concerns 

Timeline

• Deadline for Manuscript Submissions: July 15, 2021 

• Feedback Reviews (1st round): September 15, 2021

• Paper Resubmission(1st round): October 15, 2021

• Feedback Reviews (2nd round): December 1, 2021

• Paper Resubmission(2nd round): January 1, 2022

• Publication Date (Tentative date): February 2022 

More information about the special issue can be found here.

Submission Instructions

Submissions need to be made via the journal’s editorial manager at https://benjamins.com/catalog/is/submission

Guest Editors & Contact Information

Marta Couto, INESC-ID, GAIPS, Portugal [log in to unmask]

Shruti Chandra, University of Waterloo, Canada [log in to unmask]  Elmira Yadollahi, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland & INESC-ID, GAIPS, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon in Portugal. [log in to unmask] Vicki Charisi, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission Vasiliki.CHARISI@ec.europa.eu