Workshop on Human-Friendly Robots

随着人口老龄化和残疾人寻求尽可能多的独立性，辅助机器人越来越成为社会关注的领域。然而，机器人系统最初的设计目的是在危险情况下取代人类，而不是与人类互动。根据设计，辅助机器人将与人类互动，这就提出了新的挑战，必须解决与用户界面和安全相关的问题。为了确保用户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，制造和控制设计用于在日常和家庭环境中与个人互动的机器人。该会议奖将为2018年9月在德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校举行的2018年人类友好机器人研讨会提供支持。该研讨会自2008年以来每年在欧洲举行，这是该研讨会首次在美国举行。讲习班的重点是确定与安全有效地将机器人融入我们的日常生活有关的科学和技术挑战，特别是在康复和辅助技术领域。该奖项将为9位国际知名的受邀演讲者提供资金支持，以参加研讨会并领导讨论。讨论将集中在确定当前的艺术状态和需要通过研究解决的关键未解决的问题和挑战。演讲和后续讨论将被存档并提供给公众。研讨会的第二个目标是促进研究人员之间的合作，无论是在美国国内还是与国际合作伙伴，进一步推进这一工程领域。最后，通过在少数族裔服务机构的校园举办研讨会，组织者希望将许多未被充分代表的学生纳入研讨会，并利用研讨会的结果激发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.