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[meetings] CALL for posters to IROS 2019 Workshop: Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR)
by Karinne Ramirez-Amaro 16 Sep '19

16 Sep '19

*4th Workshop on Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR)* November 8, 2019 - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems - Macau, China ----*Call for Papers* We are calling for contributions to our IROS 2019 workshop. We would like to invite the attendees of this workshop to submit an extended abstract explaining their current work or developed systems on the areas of reasoning, perception, control, planning, and learning applied to robotic systems. This workshop is intended for roboticists interested in improving the reliability and autonomy of robots. We hope to bring together outstanding researchers and graduate students to discuss current trends, problems, and opportunities in semantic action (policy) representations, encouraging communication and common practices such as sharing data-sets among scientists in this field. We encourage 1-2 pages extended abstract of relevant work that has been previously published, or is to be presented at the main conference. The accepted abstracts will be posted on the workshop website in a compiled yearbook and will not appear in the official IEEE proceedings. We encourage researchers as well as companies (both hardware and software companies) to contribute to the workshop. The reviewing is single blind, and will be carried out by the workshop chairs. Please submit your abstract to the workshop official email address spar.workshop(a)gmail.com before *September 27*, 2019. The accepted papers will have the opportunity to present their work/ideas in a poster session. Two selective submissions will give a 15 min talk at the workshop. Please indicate in your email if you want to present as a poster or oral presentation. ----*Important Dates* Paper submission deadline: September 27, 2019 Notification of acceptance: October 20, 2019 Camera ready submission: October 31, 2019 Workshop day: November 08, 2019 ----*Workshop URL* https://sites.google.com/view/spar2019/home Contact email: spar.workshop(a)gmail.com ----*Workshop objectives* It has been a long-standing question whether robots can reach human level of intelligence that understands the essence of observed actions and imitates them even under different circumstances. Contemporary research in robotics and machine learning has attempted to solve this question from two different perspectives: One in a bottom-up manner by, for instance, solely relying on perceived continuous sensory data, whereas the other by approaching rather from the symbolic level in a top-down fashion. Although there have been shown encouraging results in both flows, understanding and imitation of actions have yet to be fully solved. Action semantics stands as a potential glue for bridging the gap between a symbolic action representation and its corresponding continuous signal level description. Semantic representation provides a tool for capturing the essence of action by revealing the inherent characteristics. Thus, semantic features help robots to understand, learn, and generate policies to imitate actions even in various styles with different objects. Thus, more descriptive semantics yields robots with greater capability and autonomy. In this full-day workshop, we aim at answering two major questions. 1. What have we learned from action semantics? In recent years, there has been a substantial contribution in semantic policy and action representation in the fields of robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. In this respect, we would like to invite experts in academia and motivate them to comment on the recent advances in semantic reasoning by addressing the problem of linking continuous sensory experiences and symbolic constructions to couple perception and execution of actions. This is of fundamental importance to ease the symbol grounding problem in robotics. 2. How much of semantic policy and action representation have been transferred from controlled lab setups to industrial environments? We would like to invite researchers from industry and initiate a discussion between academic and industrial communities. Such a provocative discussion catalyzes the interaction between the two communities by addressing the scalability and generalization problems which still remain unsolved. In this respect, we would like to discuss how to transfer our current knowledge and experience about semantic policies to new domains, for instance, industrial assembly tasks, with very little human intervention. This workshop focuses on new technologies that allow robots to learn generic semantic models for different tasks. In this workshop, we will bring together researchers from diverse fields, including robotics, computer vision, and machine learning in order to overview the most recent scientific achievements and the next break-through topics, and also to propose new directions in the field. ----The topics that are indicative but by no means exhaustive are as follows: ● AI-Based Methods o Learning and adaptive systems o Probability and statistical methods o Action grammars/libraries o Machine learning techniques for semantic representations o Spatiotemporal event encoding ● Reasoning Methods in Robotics and Automation o Signal to symbol transition (Symbol grounding/Object anchoring) o Different levels of abstraction o Semantics of manipulation actions o Semantic policy representation o Context modeling methods o Concept formulation ● Human Behavior Recognition o Learning from demonstration o Object-action relations o Bottom-up and top-down perception ● Task, Geometric, and Dynamic Level Plans and Policies o PDDL high-level planning o Task and motion planning methods ● Human-Robot Interaction o Prediction of human intentions o Linking linguistic and visual data ----*Invited Speakers (all confirmed)* * Kei Okada, The University of Tokyo. Japan. http://www.jsk.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~k-okada/index-e.html * Tanja Schultz, University of Bremen. https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/csl/team/staff/prof-dr-ing-tanja-schultz/ * Georg von Wichert, Siemens. Germany. https://www.linkedin.com/in/georg-von-wichert-7a74796/ * Stefanos Nikolaidis, University of Southern California. USA https://stefanosnikolaidis.net/ * Xiaoping Chen, University of Science and Technology of China. http://ai.ustc.edu.cn/en/people/xpchen.php * Joseph Lim, University of Southern California. https://viterbi-web.usc.edu/~limjj/ * Darius Burschka, Technical University of Munich. http://robvis01.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/ * Chris Paxton, Nvidia Robotics lab. https://research.nvidia.com/person/chris-paxton * Jesse Thomason, University of Washington https://jessethomason.com/ ----*Organizers* * Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden * Eren Erdal Aksoy, Halmstad University, Sweden * Yezhou Yang, Arizona State University, USA * Shiqi Zhang, SUNY Binghamton, USA ----*Advisory Board* * Michael Beetz, University Bremen, Germany * Yiannis Aloimonos, University of Maryland, USA * Tamim Asfour, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany * Florentin Wörgötter, University of Göttinngen, Germany -- Asst. Prof. Karinne Ramirez Amaro Chalmers University of Technology Department of Electrical Engineering Systems and Control Division Mechatronics Group IEEE Associate Vice President - Conference Operations E-mail:karinne@chalmers.se Office telephone: +46-31-772-1074 Address: SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden www.chalmers.se

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RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) 2019: Pre-registration Extended!
by Asad Norouzi 02 Sep '19

02 Sep '19

######################## 2nd Call for Participation ##################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP 2019) Competition and Symposium 6 – 10 November 2019, Competition 11 November 2019, Symposium Moscow, Russia http://www.robocupap2019.org ###################### RoboCup Asia Pacific 2019 ###################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Competition and Symposium will be held in Moscow, Russia, 6-11 November 2019. This is the third official RoboCup Super Regional event in the Asia-Pacific region. *The pre-registration deadline has been extended to the 8th of September.* *Leagues* The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Humanoid Leagues - Kid Size - Small Size League - Standard Platform League *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Education *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line Primary - Rescue Line Secondary - Rescue Maze Primary - Rescue Maze Secondary - Rescue Simulation Primary - Rescue Simulation Secondary - OnStage - Preliminary Primary - Preliminary Secondary - Advanced Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The RCAP 2019 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - RCAP Junior Humanoid - RCAP RoboCup@Home Education - RCAP Junior @Home Education - RTC Cup *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to pre-register through the online form here: https://forms.gle/ENjvpQnFH7Gqbwmt8 The pre-registered teams are required to submit the relevant qualification materials as per the leagues requirements. Teams are requested to contact their league’s technical committee for more information about submission of qualification materials. Junior teams must take note that they should also submit a Team Description Paper (TDP). *Important dates* - Pre-Registration: 12 August – 08 September, 2019 - Announcement of qualified teams: 15 September, 2019 - Regular Registration: 16 September – 06 October, 2019 For further information please visit our official website at http://www.robocupap2019.org For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries and Travel Support: rusrcap(a)gmail.com Registration, Competition, Leagues: moscow2019(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) Organizing Committee

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Call for Participation – Join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE | USD $10 million robotics competition
by Colin Peartree 23 Aug '19

23 Aug '19

Dear RoboCup @Home league, This message is to encourage you to join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE<http://avatar.xprize.org/>, a four-year USD $10 million competition focused on the development of a robotic avatar system that will transport a human’s senses, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time. The winning team will integrate multiple emerging technologies such as robotics, haptics, advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and more to enable a human operator to see, hear, and interact within a remote environment in a manner that feels as if he or she is truly present there. This is a highly challenging competition that we believe can change the way we interact with each other across the world. The ANA Avatar XPRIZE is currently in the Team Recruitment phase of the competition, which is open through September 30, 2019. We are seeking highly skilled teams to join the 69 other teams from 17 countries who are currently registered to compete. XPRIZE competitors come from a diversity of backgrounds, with teams forming out of universities, start-ups, major companies and individuals alike. Joining an XPRIZE is an excellent opportunity to become involved in an international cross-disciplinary project to develop cutting-edge technology, and your work in the RoboCup @Home League is a clear path toward developing Avatar technology. If you want to be part of this challenge, check out the links below for more information, and remember to register by September 30, 2019. TO REGISTER, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: VISIT OUR WEBSITE<http://avatar.xprize.org/> + VIEW OUR FACT SHEET<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SlqiTSMnKVdcF4MRP4pImr20T8y-8lvq/view?usp=…> + EMAIL US<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE> FIND A WINNER: Not interested in competing, but know someone who has what it takes to win? Through our Find a Winner Program, you can refer competitors to take on this challenge. If the team you refer goes on to win the competition, you’ll be awarded with USD $25,000! Refer a competitor by clicking here<https://www.xprize.org/prizes/avatar/findawinner>. If you want to talk more about participating in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, we would be glad to continue the conversation with you. Please send us a message at Avatar(a)XPRIZE.org<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE>. We look forward to hearing from you! Best regards, Colin Peartree, ANA Avatar XPRIZE Team Liaison

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[jobs] Neural Ego-Noise Reduction for Interactive Robots
by Stefan Wermter 22 Aug '19

22 Aug '19

The Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences / Department of Informatics invites applications for a RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Ego-Noise Reduction for Interactive Robots - SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L - The position in accordance with Section 28 subsection 1 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) commences on the earliest possible date. This is a fixed term contract in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The position calls for 75% of standard work hours per week. (Full-time positions currently comprise 39 hours per week.) Responsibilities: Research associates will be expected primarily to teach and conduct research. The research associate will also have the opportunity to pursue further academic qualifications, in particular a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third of set working hours will be made available for the research associate’s own academic work. Specific Duties: The candidate will work in the Signal Processing and the Knowledge Technology groups and will do research on modern methods for single and multichannel speech enhancement for human-robot interfaces. The particular task is to take the specific ego-noise of an interactive robot into account, such as the sound of the motors and the cooling systems of specific robotic platforms. Teaching duties are expected to be 3 hours/week at the BSc Informatics level. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant field. Examples are Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics or Electrical Engineering. We require the candidate to have excellent knowledge in signal processing and neural network learning as well as good programming skills in Python and neural network frameworks. Experience in speech processing is helpful. Fluent English, spoken and written, and good communications skills are mandatory. Knowledge of German is desired; we expect the willingness to learn German for non-native German speakers. The University aims to increase the number of women in research and teaching and explicitly encourages women to apply. Equally qualified female applicants will receive preference in accordance with the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG). Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. For further information, please contact Stefan Wermter (stefan.wermter(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) or Timo Gerkmann (timo.gerkmann(a)uni-hamburg.de) or consult our website athttp://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ orhttp://uhh.de/inf-sp. Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 25.08.2019 to:sp-office@informatik.uni-hamburg.de in a single PDF document. Please start the subject of your Email with [Application Kooperationspromotion]. Please do not submit original documents as we are not able to return them. *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) 2019: Call For Participation
by Asad Norouzi 15 Aug '19

15 Aug '19

######################## Call for Participation ######################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP 2019) Competition and Symposium 6 – 10 November 2019, Competition 11 November 2019, Symposium Moscow, Russia http://www.robocupap2019.org ###################### RoboCup Asia Pacific 2019 ###################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Competition and Symposium will be held in Moscow, Russia, 6-11 November 2019. This is the third official RoboCup Super Regional event in the Asia-Pacific region. *Leagues* The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Humanoid Leagues - Kid Size - Small Size League - Standard Platform League *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Education *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line Primary - Rescue Line Secondary - Rescue Maze Primary - Rescue Maze Secondary - Rescue Simulation Primary - Rescue Simulation Secondary - OnStage - Preliminary Primary - Preliminary Secondary - Advanced Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The RCAP 2019 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - RCAP Junior Humanoid - RCAP RoboCup@Home Education - RCAP Junior @Home Education - RTC Cup *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to pre-register through the online form here: https://forms.gle/ENjvpQnFH7Gqbwmt8 The pre-registered teams are required to submit the relevant qualification materials as per the leagues requirements. Teams are requested to contact their league’s technical committee for more information about submission of qualification materials. Junior teams must take note that they should also submit a Team Description Paper (TDP). *Important dates* - Pre-Registration: 12 August – 01 September, 2019 - Announcement of qualified teams: 15 September, 2019 - Regular Registration: 16 September – 06 October, 2019 For further information please visit our official website at http://www.robocupap2019.org For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries and Travel Support: rusrcap(a)gmail.com Registration, Competition, Leagues: moscow2019(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) Organizing Committee

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Past year's publications relating to RoboCup, or other big activities
by Justin W Hart 09 Aug '19

09 Aug '19

Teams! Did you publish a paper in the past year based on your work for RoboCup@Home? Did you do a big demo or make another big scientific achievement? Please drop me an email (hart(a)cs.utexas.edu) explaining what it is that you did. This is for reporting up the chain in the RoboCup organization and showing off the accomplishments of our league. Thanks! Justin

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Call for Participation – Join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE | USD $10 million robotics competition
by Colin Peartree 01 Aug '19

01 Aug '19

Dear RoboCup @Home league, This message is to encourage you to join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE<http://avatar.xprize.org/>, a four-year USD $10 million competition focused on the development of a robotic avatar system that will transport a human’s senses, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time. The winning team will integrate multiple emerging technologies such as robotics, haptics, advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and more to enable a human operator to see, hear, and interact within a remote environment in a manner that feels as if he or she is truly present there. This is a highly challenging competition that we believe can change the way we interact with each other across the world. The ANA Avatar XPRIZE is currently in the Team Recruitment phase of the competition, which is open through September 30, 2019. We are seeking highly skilled teams to join the 69 other teams from 17 countries who are currently registered to compete. XPRIZE competitors come from a diversity of backgrounds, with teams forming out of universities, start-ups, major companies and individuals alike. Joining an XPRIZE is an excellent opportunity to become involved in an international cross-disciplinary project to develop cutting-edge technology, and your work in the RoboCup @Home League is a clear path toward developing Avatar technology. If you want to be part of this challenge, check out the links below for more information, and remember to register by September 30, 2019. TO REGISTER, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: VISIT OUR WEBSITE<http://avatar.xprize.org/> + VIEW OUR FACT SHEET<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SlqiTSMnKVdcF4MRP4pImr20T8y-8lvq/view?usp=…> + EMAIL US<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE> FIND A WINNER: Not interested in competing, but know someone who has what it takes to win? Through our Find a Winner Program, you can refer competitors to take on this challenge. If the team you refer goes on to win the competition, you’ll be awarded with USD $25,000! Refer a competitor by clicking here<https://www.xprize.org/prizes/avatar/findawinner>. If you want to talk more about participating in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, we would be glad to continue the conversation with you. Please send us a message at Avatar(a)XPRIZE.org<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE>. We look forward to hearing from you! Best regards, Colin Peartree, ANA Avatar XPRIZE Team Liaison [X] CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message by error, please delete it from your records.

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[CFP] AI-HRI 2019: Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction
by Ross Mead 18 Jul '19

18 Jul '19

UPDATES: Please note the following updates for this 2nd call for papers: • Submission deadline extended to July 31, 2019 • Changed link to the paper template material (AAAI 2019 author kit) CALL FOR PAPERS: The sixth annual AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) will take place on November 7-9 at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA, USA, and is now open for paper submissions as indicated below. For more information, please visit the symposium website (https://ai-hri.github.io). IMPORTANT DATES: • SUBMISSION: July 31, 2019 (EXTENDED) • NOTIFICATION: August 10, 2019 • SYMPOSIUM: November 7-9, 2019 OVERVIEW: The past few years have seen rapid progress in the development of service robots. Universities and companies alike have launched major research efforts toward the deployment of ambitious systems designed to aid human operators performing a variety of tasks. These robots are intended to make those who may otherwise need to live in assisted care facilities more independent, to help workers perform their jobs, or simply to make life more convenient. Service robots provide a powerful platform on which to study Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in the real world. Research sitting at the intersection of AI and HRI is crucial to the success of service robots if they are to fulfill their mission. This symposium seeks to highlight research enabling robots to effectively interact with people autonomously while modeling, planning, and reasoning about the environment that the robot operates in and the tasks that it must perform. AI-HRI deals with the challenge of interacting with humans in environments that are relatively unstructured or which are structured around people rather than machines, as well as the possibility that the robot may need to interact naturally with people rather than through teach pendants, programming, or similar interfaces. TOPICS: • Architectures and systems supporting autonomous HRI • Interactive learning • Interactive dialog systems and natural language • Field studies, experimental, and empirical HRI • Tools for autonomous HRI • Design ethnography for service robots • Development, fielding, and experimentation for service robots • Physical human-robot interaction • Knowledge representation and reasoning to support HRI and robot tasking • Applications of autonomous service robots FORMAT: In addition to oral and poster presentations of accepted papers, the symposium will include panel discussions, position talks, keynote presentations, and a hack session with ample time for networking. • SPEAKERS: Keynote talks will give different perspectives on AI-HRI and showcase recent advances towards humans interacting with robots on everyday tasks. Moderated discussions and debates will allow participants to engage in collaborative public discussion on controversial topics and issues of interest to the AI-HRI community. • NETWORKING: A large part of this effort is to bring together a community of researchers, strengthen old connections, and build new ones. Ample time will be provided for networking and informal discussions. PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION: All accepted full and short papers will be presented orally and published in the proceedings through Arxiv. Authors will be notified as to whether they have been assigned a “full-length” or “lightning” presentation slot. Authors assigned to full-length talks will be invited to participate in a panel discussion. Authors assigned to lightning talks will be invited to participate in a poster session. SUBMISSIONS: Authors may submit under one of these paper categories: • FULL PAPERS (6-8 pages) highlighting state-of-the-art HRI-oriented interacting learning research, HRI research focusing on the use of autonomous AI systems, or the implementation of AI systems in commercial HRI products. • SHORT POSITION PAPERS (2-4 pages) outlining new or controversial views on AI-HRI research or describing ongoing AI-oriented HRI research. In addition, philosophy and social science researchers are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the design, implementation, or analysis of HRI studies. Industry professionals are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the development, enhancement, or deployment of HRI technologies in the real world. Please see the AAAI Author Kit ( https://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit19.zip) for paper templates to ensure that your submission has proper formatting. Contributions may be submitted here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aihri2019 Kind regards, The AI-HRI 2019 program chairs • Justin W. Hart (UT Austin) • Nick DePalma (Samsung Research of America) • Richard G. Freedman (Smart Information Flow Technologies and UMass Amherst) • Luca Iocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) • Matteo Leonetti (University of Leeds) • Katrin Lohan (Heriot-Watt University) • Ross Mead (Semio) • Emmanuel Senft (Plymouth University) • Jivko Sinapov (Tufts University) • Elin A. Topp (Lund University) • Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines) -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO Semio <http://semio.ai> ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600

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[CFP] AI-HRI 2019: Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction
by Justin W Hart 18 Jun '19

18 Jun '19

Hi everyone! Apologies if you see this posting multiple times. I'm the lead organizer of this years AI-HRI, and the theme is Service Robots. I think that this will be really relevant to participants in the league. Let me know if you have any questions. CALL FOR PAPERS: The sixth annual AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) will take place on November 7-9 at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA, USA, and is now open for paper submissions as indicated below. For more information, please visit the symposium website (https://ai-hri.github.io). IMPORTANT DATES: • SUBMISSION: July 20, 2019 • NOTIFICATION: August 10, 2019 • SYMPOSIUM: November 7-9, 2019 OVERVIEW: The past few years have seen rapid progress in the development of service robots. Universities and companies alike have launched major research efforts toward the deployment of ambitious systems designed to aid human operators performing a variety of tasks. These robots are intended to make those who may otherwise need to live in assisted care facilities more independent, to help workers perform their jobs, or simply to make life more convenient. Service robots provide a powerful platform on which to study Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in the real world. Research sitting at the intersection of AI and HRI is crucial to the success of service robots if they are to fulfill their mission. This symposium seeks to highlight research enabling robots to effectively interact with people autonomously while modeling, planning, and reasoning about the environment that the robot operates in and the tasks that it must perform. AI-HRI deals with the challenge of interacting with humans in environments that are relatively unstructured or which are structured around people rather than machines, as well as the possibility that the robot may need to interact naturally with people rather than through teach pendants, programming, or similar interfaces. TOPICS: • Architectures and systems supporting autonomous HRI • Interactive learning • Interactive dialog systems and natural language • Field studies, experimental, and empirical HRI • Tools for autonomous HRI • Design ethnography for service robots • Development, fielding, and experimentation for service robots • Physical human-robot interaction • Knowledge representation and reasoning to support HRI and robot tasking • Applications of autonomous service robots FORMAT: In addition to oral and poster presentations of accepted papers, the symposium will include panel discussions, position talks, keynote presentations, and a hack session with ample time for networking. • SPEAKERS: Keynote talks will give different perspectives on AI-HRI and showcase recent advances towards humans interacting with robots on everyday tasks. Moderated discussions and debates will allow participants to engage in collaborative public discussion on controversial topics and issues of interest to the AI-HRI community. • NETWORKING: A large part of this effort is to bring together a community of researchers, strengthen old connections, and build new ones. Ample time will be provided for networking and informal discussions. PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION: All accepted full and short papers will be presented orally and published in the proceedings through Arxiv. Authors will be notified as to whether they have been assigned a “full-length” or “lightning” presentation slot. Authors assigned to full-length talks will be invited to participate in a panel discussion. Authors assigned to lightning talks will be invited to participate in a poster session. SUBMISSIONS: Authors may submit under one of these paper categories: • FULL PAPERS (6-8 pages) highlighting state-of-the-art HRI-oriented interacting learning research, HRI research focusing on the use of autonomous AI systems, or the implementation of AI systems in commercial HRI products. • SHORT POSITION PAPERS (2-4 pages) outlining new or controversial views on AI-HRI research or describing ongoing AI-oriented HRI research. In addition, philosophy and social science researchers are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the design, implementation, or analysis of HRI studies. Industry professionals are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the development, enhancement, or deployment of HRI technologies in the real world. Please see the AAAI Author Kit ( http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit18.zip) for paper templates to ensure that your submission has proper formatting. Contributions may be submitted here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aihri2019 Kind regards, The AI-HRI 2019 program chairs • Justin W. Hart (UT Austin) • Nick DePalma (Samsung Research of America) • Richard G. Freedman (Smart Information Flow Technologies and UMass Amherst) • Luca Iocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) • Matteo Leonetti (University of Leeds) • Katrin Lohan (Heriot-Watt University) • Ross Mead (Semio) • Emmanuel Senft (Plymouth University) • Jivko Sinapov (Tufts University) • Elin A. Topp (Lund University) • Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines)

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Two full-time PhD positions in AI and robotics @Chalmers
by Karinne Ramirez 03 May '19

03 May '19

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce two PhD research positions at the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The *application deadline is 15 July* 2019. We are looking for two talented and motivated researchers that would like to pursue a PhD in the areas of AI and Robotics. Both positions will start in September 2019 or soon after that. Each position is limited to a maximum of five years. We are looking for candidates for the following topics: **Topic one:* Intelligent Agents that Learn from their Past Experiences (Ref 20190206) *Description:* Embodied Artificial Intelligence is a multidisciplinary area that requires the cooperation of different fields such as computer science, engineering, robotics and dynamical systems. This PhD thesis will develop a novel learning algorithm to allow high-level intelligence, such as problem-solving and reasoning to be applied to real-world physical systems, e.g. robots. Mainly, this work will be focused on investigating learning methods on the semantic aspects of intelligence to develop general purpose solutions for robotic applications. The goal of this PhD thesis is to develop compact and flexible model representations to allow robots the transference of their past experiences to current situations. These compact models should be human-readable to provide adequate feedback to the person interacting with the intelligent agent, e.g. a robot. This feedback should provide information to users, in an efficient form, about possibly hazardous situations and potential errors, by predicting ahead-of-time the actions performed by either a human or a robot to infer their potential consequences. Thus, the communication between the users and the robots should be meaningful and bi-directional. *Further information about this position*, please visit: http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/Working-at-Chalmers/Vacancies/Page… **Topic two:* Learning & Understanding Human-Centred Robotic Manipulation Strategies (Ref 20190182) *Description:* Human-robot collaboration is one of the most promising applications of autonomous robots. For this, robots need to interact with humans in a meaningful, flexible and adaptable manner, especially when new situations are faced. Currently, the new emerging technologies such as virtual reality and wearable devices allow capturing natural human movements of multiple users. Then, the next generation of learning methods should take advantage of and bootstrap the learning of new activities by adapting to the massive processing of information obtained from these enhanced sensors. The goal of this PhD project is to develop semantic-based learning algorithms able to cope with a large amount of data generated from multi-modal/multi-level sensors and react to dynamically changing environments in real-time to produce robots with enhanced autonomy levels and manipulation capabilities. The massive collection of data will also contain information about the different styles of human demonstrations which will help in developing a more human-centred control solution. *Further information about this position*, please visit: http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/Working-at-Chalmers/Vacancies/Page… Both PhD positions are offered at the Department of Electrical Engineering in the area of Systems and Control within the Mechatronics group. We offer a dynamic and international work environment with about 200 employees from more than 20 countries, and with extensive national and international research collaborations with academia, industry and society. Chalmers offers a cultivating and inspiring working environment in the dynamic city of Gothenburg. **Qualifications** By the starting date, the applicant should have a Master of Science degree or equivalent in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Math or in a related discipline. A successful applicant should have a strong background in machine learning methods and robotics as well as be familiar with reasoning methods and AI tools. Programming skills in C++ are strongly required and knowledge in ROS (Robot Operating System), Python, Prolog, Unity, and C# are welcome. A genuine interest and curiosity in the subject, excellent oral and written English communication skills are needed. **Application procedure** The application should be marked with Ref XXXX (depending on the topic, see above) and written in English. The application should be performed with the link provided earlier. Please include the following documents: CV: (Please name the document: CV, Family name, Ref. number) • CV • Other, for example, previous employment or leadership qualifications and positions of trust. • Two references that we can contact. Personal letter: (Please name the document as: Personal letter, Family name, Ref. number) • 1-3 pages where you introduce yourself and present your qualifications. • Previous research fields and main research results. • Future goals and research focus. Are there any specific projects and research issues you are primarily interested in? Other documents: • Copies of bachelor and/or master’s thesis. • Attested copies and transcripts of completed education, grades and other certificates, e.g. TOEFL test results. ***Application deadline: 15 July 2019*** Please, do not hesitate to contact me for further information. Best regards, Karinne

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