AR4W: Affective Robotics for Well-being

The main topic of this workshop is affective robotics for well-being, which aligns strongly with the ACII 2022 main theme of affective computing for mental and physical well-being that invites research work that "utilises Affective Computing to address the negative consequences on mental and physical well-being brought about by the current challenging circumstances". During the last decade, an increasing number of people with well-being related concerns has been observed. In addition, the current COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this growth leading to societal changes (such as social isolation and work-from-home arrangements) that have severely impacted mental and physical well-being. This has resulted in a more urgent need to support people’s well-being. Robotics has been employed in growing applications, such as, among others, logistics, medical treatments, transportation, and clinical contexts, and they have been playing an even greater role in socially assistive settings.

The workshop aims to:

• include the advances in affective computing and machine learning into a social robotics context

• investigate the crucial topic of well-being in clinical and non-clinical contexts during a post-pandemic era

• advance the field of affective computing applied to social robotics focusing on open challenges

We aim to bring together a multidisciplinary group of researchers to identify and address key challenges for studying affective robotics for well-being and its relevant applications in the lab and in the field.