Wheelchairs are among the most important equipment in terms of facilitating the lives of people with walking disabilities. In particular, the use of electric wheelchairs allows people with walking disabilities to move comfortably without excessively straining their bodies. However, in some cases, a person with a walking disability who uses an electric wheelchair may have difficulties in driving the wheelchair or may experience unintended collisions due to obstacles that are not within the line of sight. In order to prevent such negative events, it is necessary to develop a wheelchair with electric wheels that is produced at a minimum cost, can be easily sold to all kinds of people with disabilities, and will not be difficult to use. In addition, this equipment must include a system designed to provide wheelchair control and driving comfort with maximum efficiency for areas outside of the line of sight, which is one of the features required by all people with walking disabilities. This article explains the design of a prototype that can detect blind spots thanks to sensors and provide driving comfort while a wheelchair driver with walking disabilities uses it. In this paper, it is aimed to create a smart electric wheelchair that can be used by anyone with a walking disability while keeping the costs to a minimum.

On-The-Go Robot-to-Human Handovers with a Mobile Manipulator

This paper proposes a human-aware motion planner building on RRT-Connect, dubbed Human-Aware RRT-Connect. The planner considers a composite cost function that includes four criteria: human separation distance, human-robot center of mass distance, robot inertia, and visibility. A simulation study is conducted where Human-Aware RRT-Connect is compared to other offline planners through a set of problem scenarios. The paths generated by the Human-Aware RRT-Connect planner maintain larger separation distances from the human, are of lower inertia, and are more visible.

Human-Aware RRT-Connect: Motion Planning for Safe Human-Robot Collaboration

This study proposes a novel measurement of the perceived assertiveness of a robot using both objective assessment of a person’s compliance to a robot’s suggestions in a math quiz task and subjective assessments of a person’s perception and expectation of a robot in different hypothetical scenarios. The proposed measurement evaluates perceived assertiveness of a robot in three dimensions
inspired by social behavioral studies on human-human interaction, namely social assertiveness, directiveness, and independence.


Benchmarks for evaluating human-robot interaction: Lessons learned from human-animal interactions

**Session Chairs: Frank Broz, Yael Edan**

Long Session I: Assistive Robotics

technical paper

**31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication**
 This conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed.
 
 The conference covers a wide range of topics related to Robot and Human Interactive Communication, involving theories, methodologies, technologies, empirical and experimental studies. Papers related to the study of robotic technology, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, human factors, ethics and policies, interaction-based robot design and other topics related to human-robot interaction are welcome.
 
 **CONFERENCE THEME:**
 Social, asocial, and antisocial robots
 
 Robots are starting to populate our lives: at work, in our homes, hotels, shops. However, not everybody is comfortable with robots finding a place in society. For example, people may be afraid that robots will replace humans in their jobs. This belief is exacerbated by the media that, on one side, raise expectations of robots’ capabilities, while amplifying fears and worries on the other side.
 
 In the next years, due to the increasing request for interaction with people in social environments, academic research and market analyses predict that robots will become more and more “social”. But, at the same time, robots may incur the risk of being perceived as “asocial” as their pervasiveness in everyday environments may become an obstacle to social interaction between humans. Or they may even be rejected as “antisocial” if researchers do not take care to develop robots that behave according to the customs and habits of the communities where they are expected to operate.
 
 To prevent this from happening, robotic researchers can no longer take the luxury of being mere technicians. They must be capable of addressing all the challenges raised by future robot-populated communities in a multidisciplinary way. They need to share their knowledge with the public to make people aware of what robots really are, what expectations we can have from them, the risks we may incur, and the possible mitigation plans.
 
 While being open to any kind of contribution related to Human-Robot Interactive Communication, the RO-MAN 2022 conference will emphasize these aspects of robotic research. How can we create robots capable of being welcomed as our assistants and companions in society while, at the same time, not being perceived as “asocial” or “antisocial?” How can we create robots perceived as facilitators of the natural development of human beings and communities, rather than obstacles?
 
 Contributions from different disciplines, not exclusively related to technological development, will be welcomed as crucial to pave the way to global acceptance of future robots with an informed attitude.
 
 [![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/af259abe105b3791c498ae1552d75710.png)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/18w73BZPB_JVOgcrcdZDqYpEupwVt4CnU/view?usp=sharing)

A registration is required to access this event page. If you have not already done so, please use the below link to register for the event. 

[Register Here](http://www.smile.unina.it/ro-man2022/welcome-to-ieee-ro-man-2022/)

Registration Is Required

IEEE RO-MAN 2022

31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication
This conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed.

Interactive 1A - Motion Planning and Navigation in Human-Centered Environments 1

RO-MAN 2021's theme is trustworthiness and cooperation. We chose this term well before the pandemic put the world on edge and added a new reason for us to question our own personal safety when in the company of others. But what about in the company of social robots? What would cause us to trust, or not trust, them? How do we as researchers create that feeling, that critical component of any relationship? With social robots, it is of course largely in our power to design the physical form, the control code and the interface software to maximize trustworthiness, facilitate cooperation and enhance the quality of human-robot interaction. This theme also touches upon people's expectations and perceptions of robots, as well as other social, cognitive and cultural factors that will influence human-robot interactions. We will have a special session/track on this topic, invite targeted submissions and include plenary speakers who are specialist in this area. We sincerely hope that this focus will help enlighten the design-thinking of all of us as we fabricate and program our own various systems.

To access RO-MAN Virtual 2021, [please register here.](https://ro-man2021.org/registration/)

IEEE RO-MAN 2021

RO-MAN 2021's theme is trustworthiness and cooperation. We chose this term well before the pandemic put the world on edge and added a new reason for us to question our own personal safety when in the company of others. But what about in the company of social robots? What would cause us to trust, or not trust, them? How do we as researchers create that feeling, that critical component of any relationship? With social robots, it is of course largely in our power to design the physical form, the control code and the interface software to maximize trustworthiness, facilitate cooperation and enhance the quality of human-robot interaction. 


**Session Chairs:** Sanchez Restrepo, Susana (University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Interactive Robotics Laboratory (LRI), CEA-List) and Caleb-Solly, Praminda (University of the West of England)

Dana Kulić

3

Presentations

On-The-Go Robot-to-Human Handovers with a Mobile Manipulator

Human-Aware RRT-Connect: Motion Planning for Safe Human-Robot Collaboration

Benchmarks for evaluating human-robot interaction: Lessons learned from human-animal interactions

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