International Journal of Social Robotics - Call for Papers: Special Issue on Robot Companions for Citizens: a Human-Centric Perspective
Guest Editors:
Paolo Dario, Emeritus Professor of BioMedical Robotics, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy
Alberto Pirni, Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy
Toshie Takahashi, Professor in the School of Culture, Media and Society, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Description
The terms “Social robot” and “Assistive robot” are often used as synonyms of “Companion robot” in literature. However, there is yet a limited understanding of the Robot Companionship relation. Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) paradigms are growing interdisciplinary fields of study that seek to design and implement robotic platforms that can accomplish interactive tasks, and combine skills and dynamical collaboration in human environments. Human-Robot Companionship (HRC) arguably implies a richer understanding of robots’ situatedness in social environments, since it requires exploring how robotic platforms are key enabling technologies in grounding human-robot meaningful relationships, and in preserving and promoting an alignment with human social values and Responsible Innovation strategies.
While ongoing studies have shown an increasing interest in the evolution of social robot applications in the last decade, there is still a research gap to be addressed. The specific and innovative aim of this Special Issue is to present from an interdisciplinary perspective the groundbreaking theme of Robot Companions (RCs), robots that can effectively cooperate with humans as real “Companions”, thus as socially and culturally acceptable and amplifiers of human capabilities in a broad variety of scenarios, ranging from the healthcare scenario, industry, to citizens’ private lives.
In particular, in all these complex social environments the scientific challenges of RCs involve the design of a new generation of robotic platforms that are able to support the three core values of Industry 5.0, i.e., human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience. The edited collection will accept papers devoted to presenting novel theoretical research outcomes on this theme, as well as effective engineering solutions for deployment in real-world applications. The Special Issue is linked to the recent Workshop “Robot Companionship: Applications and Challenges” organised at the ICSR 2022 Conference – 14th International Conference on Social Robotics. It is proposed to recognise the relevant scientific contribution to the theme of HRC that has been provided by the Research Area ‘Robot Companions for Citizen’ at the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. The Research Area has organised several events and developed new lines of research and collaborations in recent years, as well as encouraged a transdisciplinary and fully integrated vision on RCs research and innovation. It will accept papers on the theme from various disciplines, and potential topics include but are not limited to:
- Roboethics;
- Human-Centric approaches to AI and Robotics;
- Socially Assistive Robotics Applications and Future Challenges;
- AI and Robotics in Healthcare;
- AI and Robotics for Sustainable Development;
- Robotics for Logistics and Industrial Applications;
- Advanced Physical Capabilities and Performance of Robots (Robustness, Resilience, Energy efficiency) enabling Adaptation to Society;
- Human-Robot Collaboration in Industry 5.0 and the question of Meaningful Work.
How to submit your article
All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication. Interested authors should consult the journal’s “Submission Guidelines” at https://www.springer.com/journal/12369/submission-guidelines (this opens in a new tab)
Articles can be submitted through Editorial Manager: https://www.editorialmanager.com/soro/default.aspx (this opens in a new tab)
The special issue is created as submission questionnaire in the system. When you submit your paper you will be asked if your paper belongs to a special issue. Please answer yes, and then select “S.I. Embodied Agents for Wellbeing” from the pull-down menu.
All submitted papers will be reviewed on a peer review basis as soon as they are received. Accepted papers will become immediately available Online First until the complete Special Issue appears.
Submitted papers should present original, unpublished work, relevant to one of the topics of the Special Issue. All papers will be evaluated on the basis of relevance, significance of contribution, technical quality, scholarship, and quality of presentation by at least two reviewers. It is the policy of the journal that no submission, or substantially overlapping submission, be published or be under review at another journal or conference at any time during the review process. Final decisions on all papers are made by the Editors-in-Chief.
Guest Editor Biographies
Paolo Dario is considered one of the world's leading and pioneering scientists in the field of RCs. He is currently an Emeritus Professor in BioMedical Robotics at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, where he created and directed the Biorobotics Institute for years. He is also the Scientific Director of the Italian Competence Centre on Advanced Robotics and enabling digital Technologies & Systems ARTES 4.0, co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE). Paolo Dario is a permanent member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and has an incredibly vast scientific production with several patents. He received many awards and international recognitions, including the prestigious Joseph Engelberger Award and the IEEE Ras Pioneer Award.
Alberto Pirni is an Associate Professor in Moral Philosophy at the “Institute of Law, Politics and Development” (the Dirpolis Institute) of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy. At the SSSA, he is the Coordinator of the Research Area in Public Ethics and member of the scientific board of the Ph.D. program in “Human Rights and Global Politics” and “Health Science, Technology, and Management”. He is currently the Editor in Chief of the scientific journal Lexicon of Public Ethics. He is the author of five monographs, four collaborative volumes, and around two hundred peer-reviewed articles and chapters (in six languages), in national and international leading journals and edited volumes. His main fields of research include Kant and Classical German philosophy, contemporary social philosophy, public ethics, ethics of technology and robot-ethics, climate ethics, and theories of justice.
Toshie Takahashi is a Professor in the School of Culture, Media and Society as well as the Institute for AI and Robotics, Waseda University, Tokyo. In recent years the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and Waseda University have developed research joint activities thanks to a bilateral cooperation agreement. She has been appointed as a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University as well as an Associate Fellow of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, the University of Cambridge. She has held visiting appointments at the University of Oxford and Columbia University. She conducts cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary research on the social impact of robots as well as the potential of AI for Good. She is currently involved in “Moonshot R&D projects” (PD: Toshio Fukuda, President of IEEE) by leading the Gen ZAI project, engaging youths now for a global AI future. In this project, she will conduct cross-cultural research with 10000 young people in terms of AI in collaboration with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, both CSER (the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk) and CFI (Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence) at the University of Cambridge, and the Stanford Social Media Lab.