Session 16: Future Robots

Friday August 23, 10:55-11:25 CEST, Auditorium 1 (1441-011)

Oliver Bendel, FHNW School of Business, Switzerland

Oliver Bendel is Professor at the FHNW School of Business, Switzerland. He was born in 1968 in Ulm, Germany. After studying philosophy and German philology (M.A.) and information science (Dipl.-Inf.-Wiss.) at the University of Konstanz and gaining initial professional experience, he completed his doctorate in information systems at the University of St. Gallen (Dr. oec.). Bendel has worked in Germany and Switzerland as a project manager for new media and as a supervisor for engineering and science departments at several universities. He now works in Switzerland as a professor of information systems, information ethics, and machine ethics. It is from these perspectives that he primarily looks at AI systems and robots.

The Universal Robot of the 21st Century

Developments in several areas of computer science, robotics, and social robotics make it seem likely that a universal robot will be available for the mass market in the foreseeable future. Large language models for communication, perception, and control play a central role in this. This article briefly outlines the developments in the various areas and uses them to create the overall image of the universal robot. It then discusses the associated challenges from an ethical and social science perspective. It can be said that the universal robot will bring with it new possibilities and will perhaps be one of the most powerful human tools in physical space. At the same time, numerous problems are foreseeable, individual, social, and ecological. 


Friday August 23, 11:30-12:00 CEST, Auditorium 1 (1441-011)

Aurélie Clodic, LAAS-CNRS, Universite de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France

Dr Aurélie Clodic is Research Engineer at LAAS (HDR 2022, PhD in robotics 2007, Bachelor in Psychology 2018). Her research aims to study human-robot collaborative task achievement and the design of robotic architectures (focused on decision-making and supervision). Her recent contributions in robotics concern communication management during interaction, navigation, measurement of the quality of interaction, ontology-based knowledge management, situation assessment, robot deployment. She is also interested in the ethical consequences of the arrival of robots as well as the consideration of social aspects in the interaction. She is associate editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letter and in the organizing committee of HRI'25. 

Anke Brock, Fédération ENAC ISAE-SUPAERO ONERA, Université de Toulouse, France

Dr. Anle Brock is Inria Researcher (CR1), on leave as Assistant Professor at ENAC, Univ. Toulouse, since 2017 (PhD in HCI 2013, Master in HCI 2010; HDR in progress). Her work focuses on Inclusive Design. She designs, develops and evaluates interactive technologies for people with diverse impairments (sensory, cognitive and motor impairments), and technologies for users without disabilities experiencing impairments in specific situations (e.g., stress, high mental load, fatigue). In her research, she applies quantitative and qualitative methods for designing and evaluating interactive systems . She is program chair for IHM24 (international francophone conference on human-computer interaction) and was general chair for ETIS22 (European Tangible Interaction Studio).

Hélène Cochet, Toulouse University, France

H. Cochet has been associate professor at the Department of Psychology at Toulouse University since 2013. Her main research focus is the development of nonverbal communication in human children, mainly through the analysis of gestures and gaze behavior during dyadic interactions, in relation to language acquisition. She has also worked on joint action for HRI in collaboration with LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France.  

Ophélie Carreras, Toulouse University, France

Dr. Ophélie Carreras is an assistant professor in Cognitive Psychology at University Toulouse Jean Jaurès (PhD in Cognitive Psychology 1999). She carries out her research in the CLLE (Cognition, Languages, Language, Ergonomics) laboratory, UMR 5263 CNRS, within the CSC (Cognition in Complex Situations) team. She is involved in two research themes: “Cognition, Interaction, Innovative Technologies” and “Memory, Evaluation and Decision”. Her research work focuses on the interaction between humans and systems, and specifically human-robot interaction (determinants of acceptability and user experience during an interaction).

Raphaëlle N. Roy, Toulouse University, France

Pr Raphaëlle N. Roy (PhD, Habil.) is Professor of neuroergonomics and physiological computing at ISAE-SUPAERO, University of Toulouse, France. She leads an interdisciplinary research at the cross-roads of cognitive science, neuroscience, machine learning and human-machine interaction (HMI). Her main research focus is to investigate how to better characterize operators’ mental state to enhance HMI and improve safety and performance. To this end, she develops methods to extract and classify relevant features from physiological data. Associate editor of the journal Frontiers in Neuroergonomics, co-founder and vice-president of the French BCI association CORTICO, she has authored more than 50 publications and has also recently published a public database for the passive BCI community and organized the first passive BCI competition. 

Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Humans: A Roadmap, or A Cheat Sheet (or Both?)

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are trending domains these days. Week after week, there are new impressive Boston Dynamics videos of walking, running and even flipping robots, while Agility Robotics prepares the next generation of robotics automation, and Google presents PALM-E which takes advantage of Large Language Model to perform complex tasks in the real world. Such achievements, in addition to all that is happening in related areas, could make us think that the introduction of robots into our daily lives may happen, if not tomorrow, in the near future. But from our robotics research laboratory experience, this future is not for tomorrow. But who actually knows?  In any case, regardless of what will happen, it is important to prepare and be prepared for it, it is important to pursue inter-disciplinary fundamental research, it is important to place the Human at the heart of our research concerns. In this paper, we propose a Fundamental and Holistic approach of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics FOR, AMONG, WITH and BY Humans.