Full Papers


Submissions of full papers have closed on Oct 3, 2016!


The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction is a premiere, highly-selective venue presenting the latest advances in Human-Robot Interaction. The 12th Annual HRI Conference theme is “Smart Interaction,” following Vienna’s “Smart City” initiative. The conference seeks contributions from a broad set of perspectives, including technical, design, methodological, behavioral, and theoretical, that advance fundamental and applied knowledge and methods in human-robot interaction. Full papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

Important Dates:

  • 3 October 2016 (23:59 PDT): Submission of Full Papers
  • 8-13 November 2016 (11:59am PST): Author Rebuttal Period
  • 21 November 2016: Notification of Full Paper Acceptance
  • 4 January, 2017: Final Camera-Ready Full Papers Due

Format and Submission

Full papers are up to eight camera-ready pages, including figures, but excluding references (this is new for this year): references do not count toward the page limit. Submissions longer than 8 pages of content excluding references will be desk rejected and not reviewed. Accepted full papers will be published in the conference proceedings and be presented in an oral session. The HRI Conference is highly selective with a rigorous, two-stage review model that includes an in-person expert program committee meeting where papers are extensively discussed. As such, all submissions should be mature, polished, and detailed accounts of cutting-edge research.

All papers for the conference must be submitted in PDF format and conform to ACM SIG Proceedings specifications (templates). The HRI 2017 review process is double blind; submissions must be properly anonymized (see the anonymization guidelines). Supplementary materials (such as videos) can be uploaded, or external links to videos and supplementary material are also allowed in your paper. All submissions must use only “Type 1” (scalable) fonts (not bitmapped fonts), an ACM digital library requirement.  Submit your paper through the “paper submission and review” website. All authors are strongly encouraged to participate in the review process.

HRI 2017 will follow the system used in previous years of requiring authors of full papers to specify a theme (and optionally a sub-theme) for their submission. It is important for authors to carefully select the theme as it will have an impact on how the submission is judged, and which reviewers are recruited. It is recognized that papers may not clearly fit within one theme. Consider the primary contribution to make the selection, and be sure to select the appropriate sub-theme. The Program Chairs, on rare occasions, may move papers between themes to improve fit.

Authors are encouraged to consult the guide regarding submissions to HRI provided at
http://humanrobotinteraction.org/2017/authors/successful-submission-guide/.

1. Human-Robot Interaction User Studies

This theme targets research that provides data on and analysis of human-robot interaction, in a laboratory or in-the-wild setting. Quantitative and/or qualitative methods and results are welcome, as
well as hypotheses-driven or more open-ended exploratory work. Submissions must clearly outline the methodology (manipulations, measurements, environment and context, etc.) and technologies used, for both replicability and enabling in-depth review. Successful submissions will provide substantial results and mature analysis that provide novel insights into human-robot interaction, and will discuss the limitations and generalizability of the methods used. Studies using autonomous robots, or other methods such as remotely controlled (Wizard-of-Oz) robots, or videos are acceptable. Papers that provide novel interaction techniques or designs as a primary contribution, but include a detailed user study, may belong in the Design theme. Work that is primarily on methodological advancements or analysis may belong in the Theory and Methods in Human-Robot Interaction theme.

Theme Chairs: Tony Belpaeme and Takayuki Kanda

Past contributions on Studies of Human-Robot Interaction:

  • Brscić, et al. (2015).
    Escaping from Children’s Abuse of Social Robots.
    HRI 2015.
  • Moshkina, et al. (2014).
    Social engagement in public places: a tale of one robot.
    HRI 2014.
  • Weiss, et al. (2010).
    Robots asking for directions: the willingness of passers-by to support robots.
    HRI 2010.
  • Mutlu, et al. (2009).
    Footing in human-robot conversations: how robots might shape participant roles using gaze cues.
    HRI 2009.
  • Sung, et al. (2008).
    Housewives or Technophiles?: Understanding Domestic Robot Owners.
    HRI 2008.
  • Hayashi, et al. (2007).
    Humanoid robots as a passive-social medium: a field experiment at a train station.
    HRI 2007.

2. Technical Advances in Human-Robot Interaction

This theme targets research providing novel robot system designs,algorithms, interface technologies, and computational methods supporting human-robot interaction. This includes contributions that enable robots to better understand, interact with, and collaborate with people, including collocated interaction or tele-operation. Submissions must present full details of the proposed technological advance to facilitate in-depth review and enable replication, e.g., formal descriptions, pseudocode, or open-sourced code. Successful papers will clearly demonstrate how the technology improves or enables human-robot interaction, and will include evaluation appropriate to the work (e.g., benchmarks, usability studies, expert review, etc.). If the primary focus of the paper is on the evaluation of interaction, and not the specific technology, then it may belong in the HRI User Studies theme. If the primary focus is on a novel interaction design – and not new technologies behind it – it may belong in the Design theme.

Theme Chair: Candace Sidner

Past contributions on Technical Advances in Human-Robot Interaction:

  • Yi, et al. (2016)
    Homotopy-Aware RRT*: Toward Human-Robot Topological Path-Planning.
    HRI 2016.
  • Nikolaidis,et al. (2015)
    Efficient Model Learning from Joint-Action Demonstrations for Human-Robot Collaborative Tasks.
    HRI 2015.
  • Dragan, et al. (2013)
    Legibility and Predictability in Robot Motion.
    HRI 2013.
  • Gielniak & Thomaz. (2012)
    Enhancing interaction through exaggerated motion synthesis.
    HRI 2012.
  • Kollar, et al. (2010)
    Toward Understanding Natural Language Directions.
    HRI 2010.

3. Human-Robot Interaction Design

This theme targets research that makes a design-centric contribution to human-robot interaction. This includes the design of new robot morphologies and appearances, behavior paradigms, interaction techniques and scenarios, and telepresence interfaces. The design research should support unique or improved interaction experiences or abilities for robots. Research on the design process itself is welcome. Submissions must fully describe their design outcomes or process to enable detailed review and replication of the work. Further, successful papers will have evaluation appropriate to the work, for example end-user evaluation or a critical reflection on the design process or methodology. If the paper’s primary focus is on a technical system description or novel algorithms it may be a Technical Advances paper. If the main contribution is an in-depth study that reflects on a broader interaction question it may be a User Studies paper.

Theme Chair: Guy Hoffman

Past Contributions on Human-Robot Interaction Design:

  • Azenkot, et al. (2016)
    Enabling Building Service Robots to Guide Blind People: A participatory Design Approach.
    HRI 2016.
  • Johns, et al. (2016)
    Exploring Shared Control in Automated Driving.
    HRI 2016.
  • Hoffman, et al. (2015)
    Design and Evaluation of a Peripheral Robotic Conversation Companion.
    HRI 2015.
  • Sirkin, et al. (2015)
    Mechanical Ottoman: How Robotic Furniture Offers and Withdraws Support.
    HRI 2015.
  • Lee, et al. (2009)
    The Snackbot: Documenting the Design of a Robot for Long-term Human-Robot Interaction.
    HRI 2009.

4. Theory and Methods in Human-Robot Interaction

This theme targets research contributing to the understanding and study of fundamental HRI principles that span beyond individual interfaces or projects. This includes detailing underlying interaction paradigms, theoretical concepts, new interpretations of known results, or new evaluation methodologies. Submissions may be derived from original or surveyed empirical research, analysis of existing research and methods, or may also be purely theoretical or philosophical. Successful papers will clearly detail how they extend our current fundamental understanding of human-robot interaction and why the work is significant and has potential for impact. As appropriate, work must be defended by clear and sound arguments, a systematic data collection strategy, supporting data, and/or a thorough reflective analysis of the research with respect to the existing state of the art.

Theme Chair: Kerstin Fischer

Past Contributions on Theory and Methods in Human-Robot Interaction:

  • Sequeira, et al. (2016)
    Discovering Social Interaction Strategies for Robots from Restricted-Perception Wizard-of-Oz Studies.
    HRI 2016.
  • Malle, et al. (2015)
    Sacrifice One for the Good of Many?: People Apply Different Moral Norms to Human and Robot Agents.
    HRI 2015.
  • Fischer, et al. (2012)
    Levels of Embodiment: Linguistic Analyses of Factors Influencing HRI.
    HRI 2012.
  • Pantofaru, et al. (2012)
    Exploring the role of robots in home organization.
    HRI 2012.
  • Steinfeld, et al. (2009)
    The Oz of Wizard: Simulating the Human for Interaction Research.
    HRI 2009.
  • Kahn, et al. (2008)
    Design Patterns for Sociality in Human-Robot Interaction.
    HRI 2008.