ALT.HRI

Important Dates

10 November 2019: Deadline to notify chairs of intent for non-English submission
10 December 2019: Submission Deadline
3 January 2020: Notification of Acceptance
8 January 2020: Final Camera Ready Deadline

alt.HRI invites high-quality submissions that push the boundaries of human-robot interaction research and that have high potential for impact. The goal for alt.HRI is to broaden the scope of research presented at HRI 2020. With this in mind, alt.HRI aims to be inclusive of perspectives and methodologies relevant to HRI but perhaps less commonly seen at the annual HRI conference, including strong HRI-related work from other fields. We also invite creative and thought-provoking work that might not otherwise be featured at the conference because it transcends established contribution criteria. Submissions will be rigorously peer-reviewed, in a double-blind fashion.

alt.HRI contributions are

• Radical: they push the envelope, take risks, and complement the work seen in the main tracks of the conference by providing new, innovative perspectives and approaches to HRI
• Relevant: they inspire broad interest in the HRI community and are timely
• Rigorous: they are high-quality, well-argued and supported contributions

To invite wider multi-cultural diversity of contributions, alt.HRI will accept paper submissions in authors’ native languages in the initial review phase. Authors must e-mail the alt.HRI chairs with their intention to submit non-English work no later than November 10, along with optional suggestions for potential reviewers with the desired language ability. The chairs cannot guarantee full reviews in any native language, so Non-English submissions must include an English-translated version attached for English-speaking reviewers, and the two versions must be sufficiently identical in content. The final camera-ready version must be in English, and the language of submission does not affect alt.HRI’s high emphasis on work that is compelling and sound according to the below criteria.

alt.HRI Review criteria include:

• Is the work compelling and relevant to an open-minded HRI audience?
• Is there potential for impact, controversy, or thought-provoking discussion, even if the work seems unusual or unorthodox?
• Is the work rigorous, accepting that ‘rigor’ may fall outside of  what is typically published in HRI? Is the work well researched? Well argued? Well implemented? Fully detailed?
• Does the work belong in alt.HRI and not an existing HRI track?

Papers must be submitted via PCS. Accepted papers will be orally presented at the conference and will be archived in the ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore Digital Library. For authors that may be uncomfortable presenting orally, alternative presentation formats may be considered. Authors of accepted papers are required to attend the conference to present their paper in order for it to be included in the proceedings.

Paper need to be anonymized pages, can be 8 pages maximum and need to follow the ACM SIG format. Authors should use the sample-sigconf.tex or interim_layout.docx template files. In addition, the ACM has partnered with Overleaf, where authors can start writing using this link directly.

alt.HRI 2020 will follow a double-blind review process, and authors must follow the HRI guidelines for anonymizing submissions.

Submission Topics

alt.HRI encourages the following types of submissions. This is not an exhaustive list.

• Core work from complementary disciplines. We invite submissions relevant to HRI from researchers in neighboring disciplines and areas, including (but not limited to), sociology, philosophy, robotics and algorithms, gender studies, ethics, law, ….
• HRI in Art. More specifically, this year we encourage contributions highlighting the potential for HRI research that emerges from collaboration with the artistic community: user study from art installation/performance, provocative reflections from artwork on robotics, methodology for artists and roboticists collaboration, human & robot performances, aestheticism in robotics…
• Critical HRI. This includes speculative design proposals to challenge current assumptions, as well as conceptions about the role that robots play in society and everyday life. We invite thought provoking work and work that questions current approaches and thinking.
• Learning from Small Samples. Rare and unusual experiences and instances can sometimes prove to demonstrate interesting and relevant phenomena. For example, more is often learned from a single near accident (air, car, nuclear) than years of smooth operation. We invite papers that richly describe and theorize from such rich cases in HRI: single instances, outliers, exceptional cases, or small samples that nevertheless provide important insights and valuable lessons.
• Reflections on HRI. We invite constructive reflections on the field of HRI, its history and trajectory, or best practices and standards in research and design. Papers may describe specific techniques for prototyping and developing HRI systems, or designing and conducting laboratory studies. Reflections papers may also put a spotlight on the unique challenges faced by HRI researchers.
• Novel Robotic Designs and Implementations. Quality implementations of highly innovative designs and implementations that are provocative and inspiring. This includes reports on robots that have inspiring, nonobvious, and novel technical capabilities, communication approaches, morphologies, or designs.

alt.HRI Chairs

David St-Onge (École de Technologie Supérieure, Canada)
Hirotaka Osawa (University of Tsukuba, Japan)
Sean Andrist (Microsoft Research, USA)
althri2020@humanrobotinteraction.org