Making robots more intuitive to use

Over the last couple of years, robots have been deployed well beyond the production line. Robots are slowly making their way into our households, and we see practical uses in e.g. search & rescue missions, and maintenance in underwater or planetary operations. An important consequence of this wider deployment is that robots are now more likely to interact with non-export users. This raises serious issues for human-robot interaction. Ultimately, the usefulness of a robot will depend on how easy it is to deal with it, to interact with it. Intuitive modes of interaction are thus likely to be a determining factor in how well robots can be integrated into our working environments and lives.

The purpose of this workshop, organized in conjunction with Robotics: Systems & Science 2006, is to discuss methodologies for establishing, developing, and evaluating mission-dependent intuitive forms of human-robot interaction. To this end, we have invited several speakers from industrial, academic, and governmental research on human-robot interaction, and we have an open call for participation for background and position papers, and full papers (for presentation).

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: July 3 2006

The workshop takes place on August 18, 2006, (planned) from 1330h until 1915h.

Geert-Jan M. Kruijff, Dirk Spenneberg, Frank Kirchner