Blog – Human Robot Interaction

Peer Review Review

The limits of the peer review process

The peer review process is essential to modern science. Researchers conduct studies and submit their results to a journal. An editor manages a review process involving external experts. But what happens when you study the peer review process itself? How do scientific organisations react when they become the subject of an experiment? Not well, to say the least.

This live recording is from the Nerd Night at the Little Andromeda Theatre in Christchuch, New Zealand.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

ISSN 2703-4054

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Should you use chatGPT?

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Should you use chatGPT for podcasting? I asked chatGPT this question and used Descript’s Overdub feature to voice the response. Generating this episode was quicker than any other I ever created. Is it any good? Probably not. Still, it shows how quickly it is possible to generate superficial content. This might be useful for enabling robots to have superficial conversations with people. Just don’t expect any originality or accuracy.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-026-Should-I-Use-ChatGPT

ISSN 2703-4054

The HRI Journal Publishing Guide

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Publishing your human-robot interaction study in a journal is an excellent way to share your insights. But in which journal should you publish and what do the journals expect? In this episode, we talk to editors from the three dedicated HRI journals, Agnieszka Wykowska (International Journal of Social Robotics), Selma Sabanovic (ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction) and Bilge Mutlu (Frontiers in Robotics and AI | Human-Robot Interaction). We talk about Open Access publishing and what the future of scientific publishing might look like. Besides the three dedicated journals, there are also some journals that encourage HRI topics without focusing completely on them. I talked with Kerstin Dautenhahn from the Interaction Studies journal and Ramanarayan Vasudevan from the IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-025-The-HRI-Journal-Publishing-Guide

Here is a table with all the key indicators for the journals. The full table is available online.

Name	IEEE TRO	IJO Social Robotics	Interaction Studies	Frontiers in Robotics and AI HRI	ACM THRI
Publisher	IEEE	Springer	John Benjamins	Frontiers	ACM
Founded in	1985	2009	2004	2018	2012
Acceptance rate	20	36	48		67
Average papers are published per year	183	113	22	22	52
Average number of revisions for accepted papers	2.5	2	2		2
Average number of reviewers per submitted paper	3	2	2.5	3	3
Number of associate editors	72	53	27	11	44
Average duration of peer review	90	23	125	123	107
Peer review type	Single blind	Single blind	Single blind	Single blind	Single blind
Average duration publishing process	60	310		147	270
Listed in Scopus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Publications quartile in Scopus	not available	Q1	Q1	Q2	not available
CiteScore	12.7	6.9	3.7	4.9	5.3
Listed on Web of Science	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Impact Factor	7.8	4.7	1.5	3.4	5.1
Ppen access option	Yes (optional)	Yes (optional)	Yes (optional)	Yes (required)	Yes (required)
Article Publication Fee	2345	3690	1927	2125	$0 required, $1300 optional
Pre-publication allowed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

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Flaky Conferences and Journals in Human-Robot Interaction

Writing for the second edition completed

We finished writing the second edition of our book and I hope that it will be published this year. We added one new chapter on “How people perceive robots” and we dramatically extended the chapter on how a robot works with the latest developments in artificial intelligence. We also added and updated references, photos of robots and the index. Another important update was the inclusion of teaching material. The book now provides questions and answers that can be used in class.

Second Edition Writing Workshop

We started to write on our second edition of “Human-Robot Interaction” to be published with Cambridge University Press and Hanser in 2023. The writing workshop took place in Christchurch and we made great progress. We have a brand new chapter, extension to existing sections and exercise questions for students. Can’t wait for this book to come out.

Aldebaran Again

Is this the end of Pepper?

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Softbank Robotics sold their Nao and Pepper robots to the United Robotics Group (URG) which reversed the name of this business back to its orginal “Aldebaran”. In this episode Dwain Allan and I discuss the uncertain future of Nao and Pepper based on direct correspondence with URG. We try to answer the question whether you should still invest in this robotic platform. Is Aldebaran another zombie robotic company?

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-024-Aldebaran-Again-Transcript

ISSN 2703-4054

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Zombies

Can robots be conscious?

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Are robots zombies? This might seem like a strange question at first, but it leads to one of the most important questions in science today: what is consciousness and can robot’s become conscious? These questions fascinate many people. And when Blake Lemoine suggested that Google’s latest AI Lambda had become sentient, it triggered a worldwide media frenzy. In this HRI podcast episode, I talk with Professor Jack Copeland about machine consciousness.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-023-Zombies-Transcript

ISSN 2703-4054

Important Links

Is LaMDA Sentient? — an Interview
Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction by Jack Copeland

Autonomous Vehicles – Do We Really Know The Risks?

We need objective safety data

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Autonomous Vehicles (AV) are the riskiest form of human-robot interaction. One the one hand they offer unparalleled improvements to the safety and comfort of drivers, passengers and other traffic participants. They also promise to reduce emission. On the other hand, they demand new considerations for trust and responsibilities in human-robot interaction. The field of tension between autonomy, trust and liability can only be manoeuvred on the basis of objective data. Government agencies will have to implement clear obligations and standards for reporting the performances of AVs. This is the only way for consumers to make informed decisions about their purchases and the associated risks. In this podcast episode we will critically review the available data, the market situation and the recent developments.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript. A full paper with references is available.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-022-Autonomous-Vehicles-Do-We-Really-Know-The-Risks

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Emotions And Consciousness In Robots

The full interview with Douglas Campbell

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In the last HRI podcast episode we talked about the role of emotions for humans and robots. The interview with Douglas Campbell truly inspired me and there was not enough time in the last episode to go into the full depth of our conversation. So here it is, our full discussion about emotions and consciousness in robots.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-021-Emotions-And-Consciousness-In-Robots-Transcript

ISSN 2703-4054

Important Links

Problems of Philosophy – The Limits of Inquiry by C.McGinn
Other Minds by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Artificial consciousness by Wikipedia

The Sad Robot

Do robots need emotions?

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What roles do emotions, affect and moods play for humans and robots? We will discuss how robots can sense, reason and express emotions. Furthermore, we talk about if emotions make robots more human. I had the pleasure to talk with Rosalind Picard (MIT), Lola Canamero (CY Cergy Paris University), Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka University) and Douglas Campbell (University of Canterbury) about these exciting questions.

Transcript

The transcript of the episode is available as a PDF. You can also follow the episode with subtitles through Descript.

HRI-Podcast-Episode-020-The-Sad-Robot-Transcript

ISSN 2703-4054

Important Links

Facial Action Coding System – Paul Ekman Group
Affective Computing by Rosalind Picard
Geminoid Robots