Call for Participation:
The human in the loop: perspectives and challenges for robots’ behaviours in RoboCup 2050

Deadline for submission of a proposal: September 30th, 2020

Inspired by the success of the workshop held in conjunction with the Virtual Humanoid RoboCup Open Workshops (V-RoHOW) 2020 we are bringing together leading researchers to contribute to an article on: The human in the loop: perspectives and challenges for robots’ behaviours in RoboCup 2050.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH TOPIC

The long term goal of RoboCup is to develop a robotic soccer team that is capable of challenging the best human soccer team in a regular match by 2050. At the moment the most pressing obstacles to reaching this goal are still mostly technical, such as walking on grass, recognising the ball and field lines, localising teammates and opponents, and identifying which goal is the opponent’s. However, robots will also have to learn how to play with humans, which opens a different set of challenges for roboticists.

Indeed, current literature in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) shows that a robot aware of human social conventions increases people’s acceptance, and positively affects the outcome of the interaction. For example, we know that people do not like to be approached by a robot too fast, or from the back, or they might not prefer a robot to come into their personal or intimate space. However, human soccer players will have close physical contact with robots when they play against them in RoboCup 2050. Will players’ and audience’s perception of robots change? Will human players actually be comfortable in playing against robots even when the initial thrill of the challenge wears off? How will they perceive their own and the robots’ safety?

Moreover, robots will not only need to plan, navigate and play soccer according to the FIFA rules, but they will also need to understand and infer the human players’ intentions and multi-modal communication signals. To what extent will people’s mental models, including the perceived implications of task outcomes and consequences on their persona, affect their interaction with robots? How will roboticists and robots’ producers be able to ensure the safety of human players?

In this context, we want to go beyond a mere state-of-the-art review of approaches to the implementation of robotics acceptable behaviours. Instead, this article aims to discuss the main research objectives and challenges for developing robot behaviours that will allow autonomous robots to effectively play against humans in the RoboCup 2050.

KEYWORDS: RoboCup, Human-robot interaction, Robot acceptance, Social robotics, Human-robot dynamics

TARGET AUDIENCE

We strongly encourage submissions of high-quality research contributions from leading researchers in the fields of Robotics and HRI which address (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Robot cognition and learning in HRI
• Human-Multi-robot systems
• Robot hardware and software for improved human-robot interactions
• Human’s and Robot’s perceptions and actions
• Ethical and legal implications in HRI

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Participation will consist of three different stages: 1) submission of a proposed topic, 2) submission of a longer version of the paper (e.g. two pages including bibliography) on the accepted topic, 3) editing of the manuscript.

In order for the Editors to select relevant contributions, interested researchers must send an Abstract (maximum of 200 words) to the Editors by email. The short Abstract needs to sufficiently describe a challenge for RoboCup 2050 from a human-robot interaction perspective that the authors propose. The submission should include a discussion of the significance of the specific challenge, influence of its outcome and, if possible at this stage, some proposed solutions or a path to further address these.

Researchers whose contribution received approval will be invited to submit a longer (possibly two pages long) document on the proposed topic.

Once contributions are received the editors will structure the manuscript, and participants will be invited for a final revision before submission to a high-impact journal.

PUBLISHING SOLUTIONS

The final manuscript will be sent to a relevant peer reviewed journal with good impact factor, such as the Paladyn Journal of Behavioral Robotics, Science Robotics Journal, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission of a proposal: September 30th, 2020
Notification of acceptance: October 18th, 2020
Submission of contribution: December 6th, 2020
Final manuscript: February 28th, 2021

EDITORS

Alessandra Rossi, University of Hertfordshire – alessandra.rossi@ieee.org – Bold Hearts (lead editor)
Maike Paetzel, University of Uppsala – maike.paetzel@it.uu.se – Hamburg Bit-Bots
Merel Keijsers, University of Canterbury – merel.keijsers@pg.canterbury.ac.nz – Electric Sheep