Call for Papers
RSS 2006 Workshop
Manipulation for Human Environments

http://manipulation.csail.mit.edu/rss06/

The organizers invite you to submit a demo, poster, or paper for
review to the RSS 2006 Workshop: Manipulation for Human
Environments. The workshop will take place on Saturday, August 19th at
the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.


Important Dates:

submission deadline - *Extended to June 30th*
notification of acceptance - July 10th
workshop - August 19th


Description:

This full day workshop will explore modern approaches to robot
manipulation in human environments. There is a resurgence of interest
in robot manipulation as researchers seek to push robot manipulation
out of controlled factory settings and into the dynamic and
unstructured world we inhabit. Robots that successfully manipulate in
these environments will require new methods for perception and
control. This workshop will investigate promising approaches that
address the challenges of general manipulation within these domains.

The key issues that must be addressed include: robustness to
uncertainty, generalization over tasks, skill acquisition, safety, and
human-robot interaction.

This workshop will serve as a successor to the Workshop on Humanoid
Manipulation from RSS 2005. Although humanoids are well-matched to
human environments, other form-factors may be advantageous. The
unifying theme of this year's workshop will be robust operation within
human environments.


Appropriate topics for the workshop include:

- Mobile manipulation
- Perception and manipulation of everyday objects
- Robot control for everyday manipulation tasks
- Non-model based approaches to grasping
- Novel solutions in sensing and actuation
- Mechanisms for human-like dexterity
- Development of compliant and force controlled manipulators
- Advances in high density tactile sensing
- Whole body grasping
- Human-robot interaction for cooperative manipulation
- Behavior-based approaches
- Task knowledge acquisition
- Learning and development for robot manipulation
- Computational and neural models of human manipulation
- Intelligent prosthetics and exoskeletons for manipulation (eg. neural control)
- Applications such as elder-care, agriculture, and domestic help
- Humanoid manipulation
- Formal evaluations of performance
- Reviews of the state-of-the-art


Submission:

All accepted work will be published in a citable digital archive of
the proceedings. New results are welcome. We also encourage
researchers with relevant work to retarget previously published
results to the workshop topic. The authors of accepted papers will be
asked to present their work as a talk or poster. 

All submissions should be in PDF format using the RSS template
(http://www.robotics-conference.org/robotics_template.tgz). Papers
should be between 4 and 6 pages in length. Proposals for demos and
posters should be 1 page in length. Demo proposals should describe the
work to be demonstrated and include a relevant image. Poster proposals
should include a description of the material to be presented.

Submissions should be emailed to heman-submissions@csail.mit.edu by
June 30th. Notification of acceptance will be given by July 10th.


Organizers:

Charles C. Kemp (MIT) (lead)
Lijin Aryananda (MIT)
Aaron Edsinger (MIT)
Paul Fitzpatrick (University of Genova)
Lorenzo Natale (University of Genova)
Eduardo Torres-Jara (MIT)


General Contact:

submissions - heman-submissions@csail.mit.edu
organizers - heman@csail.mit.edu
RSS 2006 - http://www.robotics-conference.org/
Workshop - http://manipulation.csail.mit.edu/rss06/


For Other Inquiries:

Charles C. Kemp
cckemp@csail.mit.edu
http://people.csail.mit.edu/cckemp/
MIT CSAIL
Bldg. 32, Rm. 380
32 Vassar St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA