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CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
EpiRob 2009
NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EPIGENETIC ROBOTICS:
Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems
Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli
Venice, Italy, November 12-14, 2009
http://www.epigenetic-robotics.org
** Submission Deadline: June 8, 2009 **
Epigenetic systems, whether natural or artificial, share a prolonged
developmental process through which varied and complex cognitive and
perceptual structures emerge as a result of the interaction of an
embodied system with a physical and social environment.
Epigenetic robotics has the twofold goal of understanding biological
systems by the interdisciplinary integration between social/life and
engineering sciences and, simultaneously, that of enabling robots and
other artificial systems to autonomously develop skills for any
particular environment (instead of programming them to solve particular
goals for a specific environment). Interdisciplinary theory and
empirical evidence are used to inform epigenetic robotic models, and
these models can be used as theoretical tools to make experimental
predictions in developmental psychology and other disciplines studying
cognitive development in living systems.
This year's edition of Epigenetic Robotics will have a special focus on
emotional and social development, particularly addressed by keynote
speakers and special discussion and working groups. However, submissions
are welcome regarding all aspects of the study of cognitive development.
Submissions are welcome regarding all aspects of the study of cognitive
development, including (but not limited to):
- The roles of and interactions among motivation, emotion, and value
systems in development
- The development of emotional competencies and systems
- The development of "social skills", such as imitation, synchrony
processing, intersubjectivity, joint attention, intentionality,
non-verbal and verbal communication, sensorimotor schemata, shared
meaning and symbolic reference, social learning, social relationships,
social cognition ("mind reading", "theory of mind")
- The role of play in emotional, social, and cognitive development
- The development of verbal and non-verbal communication
- Links between (the development of) expression and communication
- Architectures for autonomous development
- Dynamical systems models of emotional, social, and cognitive development
- The scope and limits of maturation, the mechanisms of open-ended
development
- The mechanisms of stage formation and stage transitions
- Interaction between innate structure, ongoing developing structure,
and experience
- The interplay between embodiment, learning biases and environment
- Algorithms for self-supervision, autonomous exploration,
representation making, and methods for evolving new representations
during ontogeny
- Philosophical and social issues of development
- The epistemological foundations of using robots to study development
- The use of robots as theoretical tools (e.g., to make predictions) in
the study of development in biological systems
- The use of robots in applied settings (e.g., autism therapy) to study
development in biological systems
Robots that can undergo morphological changes and how they can be used
to study interplays among social, emotional, cognitive and morphological
development
SUBMISSION INFORMATION:
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EpiRob09 will accept submissions in two categories: long papers
(presenting more mature research ideas and results) or short abstracts
(presenting more preliminary / ongoing work).
Manuscripts submitted as long papers should have a maximum length of 8
pages using the usual EpiRob format (former SAB template modified for A4
paper). Manuscripts submitted as abstracts should have a maximum length
of 2 pages using the usual EpiRob format. The style files for LaTex are
available in zip format and in tar format on the EpiRob'09 website,
where you can also find a Word style file.
All submissions must be in PDF format.
Accepted long papers will have oral presentations at the conference.
Accepted abstracts will be presented as posters. Authors of accepted
abstracts will also have the opportunity to make a brief oral
presentation during a Poster Spotlight session.
All submissions and camera-ready papers and abstracts should be sent as
email attachments in PDF format (only) to:
epiro...@epigenetic-robotics.org <mailto:epiro...@epigenetic-robotics.org>.
IMPORTANT DATES:
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June 8, 2009: Papers and abstracts submission deadline.
July 20, 2009: Acceptance notification. September 8, 2009: Camera-ready
versions of accepted papers and abstracts due in electronic format.
November 12-14, 2009: Conference dates.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
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Lola Cañamero - General and Program Chair;
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer - Program Co-chair;
Hideki Kozima - Publicity Co-chair;
Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze - Publicity Co-chair;
Christian Balkenius - Publications Chair
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