Robots that help
and ask for help
RSS 2024 Half-Day Workshop
July 19th, 2024
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
Roboticists have always strived to prevent their robots from failing and yet, failures inevitably occur. Devising strategies to manage and recover from them becomes a fundamental aspect for the development of robotics, particularly in contexts where these systems work in close proximity with humans.
Beyond the mere assurance of safety - a necessary condition for human-robot interaction -, robots should also suitably recover from the failure. If water is spilled when a robot is serving a person, should it clean it? Or should the cleaning be left to the human? Indeed, there should be a negotiation between the two agents, with situations in which the human helps the robot in recovering from the failure, e.g., by indicating where the spilled liquid is. In entertainment scenarios failing might even be a desirable feature in a robot. Knowing that a robotic character may fall while walking, and recover from it might make it more acceptable to users. Next to these questions others arise. For example, an important aspect concerns how robots respond not only to failures during task execution, but also to damages on their own hardware. Soft materials have opened important perspectives in this context, as well as the introduction of self-growing and self-healing robots.
This workshop will bring together a diverse and multi-disciplinary cohort of experts in assistive robotics, mechanical design, human-robot interfaces, soft materials, social robotics, and machine learning to discuss how robots can respond to the unintended consequences of their actions, with a focus on how and to which extent humans react to robot failures and whether human intervention can facilitate successful recovery.
PROGRAM (tentative)
13:45 - 14:00 Welcome and presentation of workshop objectives
14:00 - 15:30 SESSION I: Robots that help
14:00 - 14:15: "Sensorimotor interfaces enable assistive robotic augmentation" - Domenico Prattichizzo (University of Siena, IT)
14:15 - 14:30: "Towards Robotic Caregiving: Building robots that work with humans in the loop" - Tapo Bhattacharjee (Cornell University, US)
14:30 - 14:45: "Caregiver-inspired Robot-assisted Dressing" - Jihong Zhu (University of York, UK)
14:45 - 15:00: "Personal Assistive Robots for improved human mobility and independence" - Yiannis Demiris (Imperial College London, UK)
15:00 - 15:20: Q&A and discussion
15:20 - 16:00 Poster Session and Coffee Break
16:00 - 16:45 SESSION II: Robots that ask for help
16:00 - 16:15: "Humanoid robots that recognize the need of help" - Tamim Asfour (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, DE)
16:15 - 16:30: "Robots Learn to Predict and Prevent Manipulation Failures" - Sanem Sariel (Istanbul Technical University, TR)
16:30 - 16:45: "Robots that know when they don't know: Uncertainty Quantification for LLM-based planners" - Anushri Dixit (Princeton University, US)
16:45 - 17:00: Q&A and discussion
17:00 - 18:00 SESSION III: Robots that are safe by design
17:00 - 17:15: "Hey, robot, can you give me a hand? Lessons learned in the design of wearable robots for hand and upper limb rehabilitation and assistance." - Monica Malvezzi (University of Siena, IT)
17:15 - 17:30: "Towards a sustainable robotics: Self-healing materials for soft robotics" - Pasquale Ferrentino (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE)
17:30 - 17:45: TBD - Enrica Zereik (Italian National Research Council, IT) [To be confirmed]
17:45 - 18:00: Q&A and discussion
18:00: Announcement of the best poster and closing remarks of the workshop
SPEAKERS (alphabetical order)
Tamim Asfour (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, DE)
Tapo Bhattacharjee (Cornell University, US)
Yiannis Demiris (Imperial College London, UK)
Anushri Dixit (Princeton University, US)
Pasquale Ferrentino (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE)
Monica Malvezzi (University of Siena, IT)
Domenico Prattichizzo (University of Siena, IT)
Sanem Sariel (Istanbul Technical University, TR)
Enrica Zereik (Italian National Research Council, IT) [To be confirmed]
Jihong Zhu (University of York, UK)
POSTER CONTRIBUTIONS
Researchers interested in presenting their work during the workshop can submit an extended abstract in standard IEEE conference template, 2 page max. Please note that it is possible to use material that has already been published. Abstracts will be reviewed by the organizers.
Extended abstracts should be submitted by e-mail to:
Maria Pozzi <maria.pozzi@unisi.it>
Joao Bimbo <jmbimbo@ciencias.ulisboa.pt>
Authors of accepted abstracts will have to prepare a poster and present it in person during the workshop.
Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: June 3rd, 2024 (AoE)
Notification of acceptance: June 10th, 2024 (AoE)*
Workshop: July 19th, 2024
* [In case authors need a faster reply they are encouraged to please indicate this need in the submission phase.]
Presentation instructions
TBD
ORGANIZERS
MARIA POZZI
University of Siena, Italy
HHCM Research Line, IIT, Genova, Italy
JOAO BIMBO
University of Lisbon, Portugal
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the European Union by the Next Generation EU project ECS00000017 “Ecosistema dell’Innovazione” Tuscany Health Ecosystem (THE, PNRR: Spoke 9 - Robotics and Automation for Health), and by the Horizon Europe project “HARIA - Human-Robot Sensorimotor Augmentation - Wearable Sensorimotor Interfaces and Supernumerary Robotic Limbs for Humans with Upper-limb Disabilities” (GA No. 101070292).