Workshop on Human-Friendly Robots

随着人口老龄化和残疾人寻求保持尽可能多的独立性，辅助机器人日益成为社会关注的领域。然而，机器人系统最初是为了在危险情况下取代人类而设计的，而不是与他们互动。按照设计，辅助机器人将与人类互动，这带来了必须解决的与用户界面和安全相关的新挑战。为了确保使用者的安全并鼓励普通公民使用辅助机器人，需要研究如何开发、制造和控制设计为在日常生活和家庭环境中与个人互动的机器人。该会议奖项将为2018年9月在圣安东尼奥德克萨斯大学举行的2018年人类友好型机器人研讨会提供支持。这是自2008年以来每年在欧洲举办的研讨会首次在美国举行。讲习班的重点是确定在将机器人安全和有效地融入我们的日常生活方面存在的科学和技术挑战，特别是在康复和辅助技术领域。这一奖项将为九位受邀的国际知名演讲者提供资金支持，让他们出席研讨会并领导讨论。讨论的重点将是确定当前的技术水平以及需要通过研究解决的关键悬而未决的问题和挑战。发言和后续讨论将被存档，并向公众提供。研讨会的第二个目标是促进美国国内和与国际合作伙伴的研究人员之间的合作，以进一步推动这一工程领域的发展。最后，通过在少数族裔服务机构的校园内举办研讨会，组织者希望将许多代表性不足的学生包括在研讨会中，并利用研讨会的结果来激发K12学生对STEM机会的兴趣。

Assistive robotics are increasingly an area of societal interest as the population ages and individuals with disabilities seek to maintain as much independence as possible. However, robotic systems were initially designed to replace humans in hazardous situations, not interact with them. Assistive robotics, by design, will interact with humans, and this poses new challenges that must be addressed related to the user interface and safety. In order to insure the safety of users and encourage average citizens to use of assistive robots, research is needed into how to develop, manufacture, and control robots that are designed to interact with individuals on a daily basis and in a home environment. This conference award will provide support for the 2018 Workshop on Human-Friendly Robotics at the University of Texas, San Antonio in September 2018. This is the first time that this workshop, held annually in Europe since 2008, will be held in the United States. The focus of the workshop is on identifying the scientific and technological challenges that exist related to safely and effectively integrating robots into our daily lives, particularly in the area of rehabilitation and assistive technology. This award will provide financial support for nine invited speakers, internationally renowned, to attend the workshop and lead the discussions. The discussions will be focused on identifying the current state of the art and the key unresolved problems and challenges that need to be addressed through research. The presentations and follow-on discussions will be archived and made available to the public. A second goal of the workshop is to catalyze collaborations among researchers, both within the US and with international partners, to further advance this area of engineering. Finally, by hosting the workshop on the campus of a minority-serving institution, the organizers hope to include many underrepresented students in the workshop and use the results of the workshop to excite K12 students regarding opportunities in STEM.