Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE international conference on Human robot interaction

Abstract

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2009). HRI is a single-track, highly selective annual conference that showcases the very best research and thinking in human-robot interaction. HRI is inherently interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, reflecting work from researchers in social psychology, cognitive science, HCI, human factors, artificial intelligence, robotics, organizational behavior, anthropology, and many more. The theme of HRI 2009, "Interacting Naturally With Robots" reflects the importance of robots meeting the complex demands of the environments and contexts in which they operate. In particular, natural human-like communications are becoming critical for robots operating in everyday settings such as the home, office, schools, shopping malls, and other public and private spaces. This year's conference places special emphasis on robots interacting naturally with people. The call for papers attracted 120 full paper and 62 late-breaking abstract submissions from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Canada, and the United States. The program committee led by the program co-chairs conducted a very rigorous review process for full papers this year, accepting 23 full papers for oral presentation and publication in the proceedings in the ACM Digital Library. Furthermore, 59 late-breaking abstracts were screened for relevance to the HRI conference, and are presented as posters, exposing a broader perspective of solutions and challenges in HRI. They will be made available in the ACM Digital Library as non-archival abstracts. Finally, a total of 13 videos (out of 19 submissions) were accepted based on importance, novelty and entertainment value and will be shown in a special video session. The accepted presentations cover a variety of topics, including human-robot communication, robot perception and prediction, interface design, and methods for studying human-robot interaction.