RASJ 2014 - Special Issue on "Emerging Spatial Competences: From Machine Perception to Sensorimotor Intelligence"

Robotics and Autonomous Systems Journal
Special Issue on
"Emerging Spatial Competences:
From Machine Perception to Sensorimotor Intelligence"
*IMPORTANT DATES*
- January 31, 2014: Paper submission deadline
- March 31, 2014: Notification of paper acceptance
- April 30, 2014: Camera ready paper submission
- Late Spring 2014: Expected publication date
*AIMS AND OBJECTIVES*
Following the recent evolution of robotics and AI in different fields of application, the increasing complexity of the actions that an artificial agent needs to perform, is directly dependent on the complexity of the sensory information that it can acquire and interpret, i.e. perceive.
From this point of view, an efficient and internal representation of the sensory information is at the base of a robot to develop a human-like capability of interaction with the surrounding environment. Particularly, in the space at a reachable distance, not only visual and auditory, but also tactile and proprioceptive information rise to be relevant to gain a comprehensive spatial cognition. This information, coming from different senses, can be in principle integrated and used to experience an awareness of the environment both to actively interact with it, and to calibrate the interaction itself. Besides, the early sensory and sensorimotor mechanisms, that at a first glance may appear simple processes, are grounded on highly structured and complex algorithms that are far from being understood and modeled. By exploiting an early synergy between sensing modules and motor control,
the loop between action and perception comes to be not just closed at system level, but shortened at an inner one. This would allow not only the emergence of spatial competences but also their continuous adaptation to changes in the environment or in the body, which could modify its interactions with the world.
The aim of this special issue is to survey a state of the art of methodologies, concepts, algorithms and techniques that would serve as bricks on which to build and develop artificial agents with such a spatial competence; perceptual and cognitive understanding of space should emerge from sensorimotor exercise.
The action-perception loop has never been so close!
*PAPER SUBMISSION*
We invite original contributions that provide novel solutions to address the
relevant
topics including but not limited to:
- Theoretical or practical aspects of machine sensing (for computer
vision, robot audition, artificial touch, etc.)
- Multisensory data fusion, processing, learning and integration
- Computational neural modeling
- Embodied robotics: perception, cognition, and behaviors
- Machine learning for sensorimotor control and intelligence
- Neural networks: models, theories, learning algorithms and applications
- Engineering application of sensorimotor intelligence to pattern
recognition, computer vision, speech recognition, human-robot
interactions.
As a follow-up of the IJCNN 2013 special session, we invite in particular the special session participants to submit profoundly extended versions of their conference submission to go through a new peer review process, together with contributions not published in the conference proceedings.
Papers should be typeset according to the format instructions for the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Journal, available on the Elsevier web site
(http://www.elsevier.com/journals/robotics-and-auto...).
*GUEST EDITORS*
Agostino Gibaldi, agostino.gibaldi-AT-unige.it
Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering
University of Genoa, Italy
Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems (ARCES)
University of Bologna, Italy
Silvio P. Sabatini, silvio.sabatini-AT-unige.it
Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering
University of Genoa, Italy
Sylvain Argentieri, sylvain.argentieri-AT-upmc.fr
Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR)
Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
Zhengping Ji, jizhengp-AT-gmail.com
Advanced Image Research Laboratory (AIRL)
Samsung, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A