MTSB2019: Movement That Shapes Behaviour 2019 |
Website | http://aisb2019.machinemovementlab.net |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mtsb2019 |
Submission deadline | January 21, 2019 |
This symposium is a transdisciplinary forum for exploring the potential of movement for shaping the expressive and relational capacities of non-humanlike robots and how we perceive them as social agents. Social robots are expected to affect every aspect of our lives in the near future. Currently, the design of social robots in research labs often mimic humanlike or animal-like features, both in terms of how they look and how they behave. We believe, however, that movement and its expressive, relation-making qualities hold the key to widening the spectrum of how we can interact with robots, without relying on a human- or animal-like veneer.
The importance of movement in the simulation of behaviour can be traced back to early cybernetic experiments and artworks, such as, Grey Walter's tortoises and Gordon Pask's conversational systems. Similarly, Heider and Simmel's classic cognitive psychology experiments using simple animated geometric figures, demonstrated the potential of movement to generate social meaning. This symposium emphasises the importance of methods and practices from the fields of animation, choreography, dance, puppetry and theatre. Grounded in embodied knowledge, they offer valuable insights for embodied AI, e.g., working with movement as a material, embodying 'bodies', relation-making through movement dynamics, embodied perception, and kinesthetic empathy.
This symposium will bring together researchers and practitioners to explore how movement qualities can enable an embodied agent to communicate non-verbally, take on a social presence, make connections or enact an identity without mimicking living creatures. The topic opens up a number of important questions and challenges for embodied AI: how can we access, apply or learn from the embodied, often tacit knowledge of movement experts? How can we effectively study people's subjective experiences and ability to connect or interact with such machine-like agents? How does a robot's movement abilities integrate with its perceptual and cognitive processes, to make sense of other agents and its environment? How could this embodied emphasis lead to an integrated enactive approach to human-robot interaction? We are particularly interested in contributions from researchers and practitioners developing interdisciplinary theories, concepts and/or approaches that can inform or directly tackle embodied, interactive experiences with machine-like agents.
We particularly invite contributions from researchers and practitioners developing interdisciplinary theories, concepts and/or approaches that can inform or directly tackle embodied, interactive experiences with machine-like (non-humanlike) agents.
Submission Guidelines
All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following paper categories are welcome:
- Long papers up to eight pages
- Short papers up to four pages
- Extended abstracts of up to two pages
List of Topics
The symposium welcomes submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Conceptual/methodological innovations focusing on motion design and/or non-verbal behaviour for non-humanlike embodied, analogue or digital agents;
- Studies and practices involving concepts or methods from dance, puppetry, and theatre;
- Social agency, expectations and empathy in relation to embodied agents, e.g., movement versus appearance;
- Embodied insights from practitioners in art, dance, performance, theatre, in particular with regards to embodying other 'bodies', relation-making through movement dynamics, and/or kinesthetic empathy;
- Social role/potential of movement and behaviours in human-robot interaction;
- Movement design and machine learning;
- Interdependence of motion capacity and a robot's perceptual experience;
- Studies involving cognitive psychology or social psychology, relating to the movement or behaviour of abstract robots/objects;
- Participant/audience studies focusing on movement and/or non-verbal behaviour;
- Motion design for collaborative robots in the workplace;
- Robot theatre; physical theatre involving embodied agents; theatrical HRI;
- Human-robot interaction and social implications; and,
- Studies, in the world and in the 'wild', looking at the social potential of machinelike embodied agents.
Organizing Committees
- Petra Gemeinboeck, Falmouth University (UK) and The University of NSW (Australia)
- Rob Saunders, Falmouth University (UK) and The University of Sydney (Australia)
- Elizabeth Jochum, Aalborg University (Denmark)
Venue
The symposium will be held as part of the 2019 AISB Convention, Falmouth, UK, 16-18 April 2019.
For more information, see the convention website.
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to Petra Gemeinboeck