Human-Robot 2014 - Human?Robot Collaboration for Industrial Manufacturing

This workshop aims to bring together researchers in academia and industry to develop strategies and identify practical limitations for effective human-robot collaboration in manufacturing. Traditionally, robots have been caged off from human activity; however, improvements in advanced robotic technology are opening up the possibility of one-to-one collaboration between human workers and their robotic counterparts. Already, the introduction of automation in manufacturing has resulted in an improvement in quality and productivity. However, developing robotic systems that can serve as effective teammates remains a challenge in both academia and industry.
Robot systems capable of effectively collaborating with humans requires the coordination of a number of subsystems, such as the mechanical manipulation of the robot’s joints, social behavior of the robot, planning and coordinating algorithms, and safety mechanisms. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and industry practitioners to forge interdisciplinary collaborations that translate academic advancements into real systems. We believe that this workshop will provide a forum where practitioners can discuss challenges in implementing human-robot systems and researchers can relate the state of the art in robotic technology.
The workshop schedule will consist of invited talks from both Stefan Bartscher of BMW and Aude Billard of EPFL, submitted paper presentations, a poster session, and an open-topics panel with out invited representatives from industry and academia. We welcome paper submissions (2-8 pages) in the form of white papers or technical reports from industry practitioners and original research papers from academia. Authors of accepted papers will give a presentation followed by an interactive poster session.