Current public fascination with physical and virtual robots heralds the explosive growth of successful consumer robots that are interactive and entertaining. How will this new wave of robots interact with humans in the real world and in virtual worlds? Where will robot personality originate? WIRE 2000 will provide an international forum that draws together robotics researchers and practitioners working on all aspects of human-robot interaction; animate characters; intelligent agents; biomimetic robot behavior and robot personality design. WIRE 2000 will also bring together industry leaders in interactive toy commercialization with industry and university robotics researchers.

The workshop will cover all aspects of the design of social agents, including but not limited to:

• Human-Robot Interaction (Interface design; Evaluation methodologies and results; Unconventional communication schemes)
• Virtual robots with media embodiments (animation, voice, text)
• Robot Identity and Persona (Emotional architectures; Robot emotive manifestation)
• Biomimetics for Entertainment Robots (Biomimetic locomotion; High degree of freedom, low degree of control joint systems)
• Safety Considerations (Failsafe robot control; Robot packaging and powerplant considerations; Principles of Safe Robotics)
• Robot Pets, Playmates and Social Companions (Long-term learning; Evolution architectures; Robot play-time)
• Social Relationships Between Robots and People
• Robot-Human Cyborgs (Sensor and muscle augmentation; Human-robot symbiosis)
• Locomotion (Legged robots; Unconventional translation techniques; Energy storage for small mobile robots)
• Robot Communication (Robot speech and robot languages; Speech understanding for children)
• Technology Demonstrations (to be given during the "Robot Reception")

WIRE 2000 will consist of a single track of technical presentations, poster sessions, case studies of commercial, toy robots, an industry panel on viable product development and a special "RobotNight" reception.

RobotNight

RobotNight is a showcase for robotic and screen-based agents in entertainment and new media arts. The showcase will take place during WIRE2000's evening reception. Exhibits featured during this evening event will include, but are not limited to, robotic toys, electronic artwork, robotic sculpture, artificial pets (both virtual and physical), and virtual characters. Conference attendees and visitors will be able to experience new entertainment and art forms within a lively social setting.

If you are interested in exhibiting during the event, please submit a project description including documentation (video, software, web pointers) to Marc Bohlen (marcbohlen@mailcity.com). More information about RobotNight can be found at http://www.coral.cs.cmu.edu/robotnight. The submission deadline for RoboNight demos is Friday, February 25th by 5:00PM.

Organizing Committee

• Tucker Balch (co-chair and local arrangements)
  Carnegie Mellon University
  trb@cs.cmu.edu
  

• Hans-Dieter Burkhard
  Humboldt University, Berlin
  hdb@informatik.hu-berlin.de
  

• Barbara Hayes-Roth
  Stanford University
  bhr@cs.stanford.edu
  

• Ian Horswill (program chair)
  Northwestern University
  ian@ils.nwu.edu
  

• Hiroaki Kitano
  Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.
  kitano@symbio.jst.go.jp
  

• Bruce Maxwell (publications chair)
  Swarthmore
  maxwell@swarthmore.edu
  

• Illah Nourbakhsh (co-chair)
  Carnegie Mellon University
  illah@ri.cmu.edu
  

• Manuela Veloso
  Carnegie Mellon University
  veloso@ri.cmu.edu
  

Paper Submission

All accepted papers will be published in proceedings to be distributed at the workshop and eligible for poster presentation; authors of exceptional submissions will also be invited to present their work in the technical presentation track. Your paper should be submitted electronically before 23:59 on December 15, 1999 (note: RobotNight submissions are due February 25th). Only papers concerning the topics listed above will be considered for review. If you have any questions regarding the appropriateness of a particular topic, please contact one of the co-chairs (Tucker Balch or Illah Nourbaksh). Please refer to http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~trb/wire/submit for submission details. Authors will be notified of the disposition of their papers by February 7, 2000. Final camera-ready copy will be due by March 10, 2000.

If you have any difficulties or questions, please contact:

illah@ri.cmu.edu
(412) 268-3818

Web Page

Up-to-date information is available on the WWW page: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~trb/wire