Workshop on Soft Robotics for HCI

Soft Robotics and Programmable Materials
for Human-Computer Interaction

ACM DIS'23 Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
July 10, 2023, Full day event, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

This workshop explores lowering the barriers to research, prototyping, and innovation with soft robotics and democratizing access opportunities.

We invite submissions of papers, videos, or tutorials

Overview

Recently, subdomains of Human-Computer interaction (HCI), such as Tangible Interfaces and Haptics, have experienced disruptive hardware transformations owing to advances in Soft Robotics and Programmable Materials. How will these fields shape the future of HCI over the next decade and beyond? Unfortunately, the transfer of fundamental advances from basic science to end-user experiences can take years due to many interdisciplinary challenges. These include challenges related to fabrication methods, durability, tools, access to resources, and transfer of knowledge. How can we most effectively overcome such challenges, what opportunities exist to accelerate progress, and what application possibilities can we envision and contribute to the future? We aim for a comprehensive approach to soft robotics design and fabrication and concepts of future applications for their integration into daily life.

This workshop will explore how to lower the barriers to prototyping, innovation, and design with dynamic materials and soft robotics; explore what new opportunities we can envision with those emerging hardware technologies for HCI and other human-centered applications; and identify ways of democratizing those possibilities.

Topics of Interest

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Topics

During this participatory workshop, we will be exploring a variety of research topics and questions across multiple categories related to the workshop goals. We will explore current challenges and opportunities for advancing the field, making is more accessible, lowering barriers, accelerating innovation, and enabling new opportunities for creativity and expression. The following are some of the themes and questions of interest to this workshop.

Democratizing Prototyping & Fabrication:

Which new design and fabrication methods can be made available to HCI researchers & hobbyists, which currently are not?
How can we simplify the fabrication pipelines, requirements for work environments, materials, and equipment?
How can we make fabrication methods more accessible, affordable, faster, and simpler for everyone?
What new tools and resources are needed to make design and prototyping faster, easier, and simpler?

Democratizing Education Opportunities:

How can we engage designers, artists, and educators who want to implement innovative projects?
How can required tools and resources be made available to all interested users?
What mechanisms and resources do we need to allow accessible learning practices of soft robotics for makers, STEAM and professionals?
Can we enable the engagement of different audiences and learners?
How can we lower the entry barrier for people from various technical and non-technical backgrounds to start incorporating programmable materials and soft robotics strategies into their projects?
What educational resources and tutorials are lacking or inaccessible?

Enabling New Applications

What types of interactions can we envision using soft robots and actuated materials?
What types of visual, haptic, audio, and multimodal interfaces are possible using soft robotics?
What real-world metaphors in nature can we rely on to enable our interactions with such shape-changing interfaces?
What are the limits to this flexibility and how does it affect the robustness of a soft robot/interface?
What new forms of art and creative expression can be made possible?
How can we relate art, new aesthetics, and the linking of creative areas from fashion to performance?

The graphic below shows an even broader range of topics of interest to this workshop.

Submissions

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We invite submissions that demonstrate challenges and opportunities for design, fabrication, learning, or deployment of soft robotics, programmable materials, and related emerging technologies for human-centered applications. We also welcome any submission related to lowering the barriers to research, prototyping, innovation, and enabling new opportunities.

Submissions can be the form of papers, videos, or tutorials.

Papers: 2-5 page long PDF in the 2-column ACM format

Videos: 1-3 minute-long project introduction plus demo

Tutorials: An instructional tutorial with detailed steps. No length limits.

Important Dates and Deadlines:

Express participation intent and indicate your preferred type of submission content.

Express my Intent

Submit a Paper

or

Preferred format for presenting an idea, making a position statement, proposing a solution to any of the topics and questions above, or providing details about a system.

Submit a Video

or

Preferred format for demonstrating systems, interactive applications, prototypes, and animations. Video are also great choice for conveying what-if and speculative ideas.

Post a Tutorial *

Preferred format for showcasing how something was done, and how to replicate it. Tutorials can include text, graphics, and videos, and they can be of any length.

Acceptance decisions & revision requests will be emailed on a rolling basis within a week of your submission date.
- The earlier you submit, the sooner you will receive your acceptance decision.
Accepted participants must register for both the workshop and for at least one day of the DIS Conference.
The accepted papers / videos / tutorials will be made publicly available on this website prior to July 10
Submitting a paper to this workshop does not disqualify that paper from also being submitted to a conference or journal.

* Posting a tutorial requires a softrobotics.io account. In the sign-up form, please indicate that you would like to post a tutorial, in order to be granted the appropriate permissions. Tutorials should follow this structure, as demonstrated in this example.

CLARIFICATION: The DIS conference charges registration fees for workshops. Those fees are not charged by workshop organizers, and no portion of the fees can be used by organizers to purchase materials for the workshop. 100% of the registration fees go to ACM / DIS / venue for conference management and catering expenses. Moreover, even we as organizers are required to pay the same fees. Not only are we not profiting from this workshop, but also we are paying just to be able to host it there. Unfortunately, we have no control over the fees and no ability to anything about them.

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Workshop Schedule

Schedule

09:00 - Introduction

09:30 - Inspiration Keynote with Q&A

10:15 - ----- Short break -----

10:30 - Presentations and Demos (selected Papers and Videos)

11:15 - Brainstorming 1 - Prototyping & Education

12:30 - ----- Lunch Break -----

13:15 - Hands-on activities (selected Tutorials)

15:30 - Demos of hands-on activities

16:00 - ----- Short Break -----

16:15 - Brainstorming 2 - Future Applications

17:30 - Closing

Speakers

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Scott Hudson is a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon and previously held positions at the University of Arizona and Georgia Tech. He has published extensively in technical HCI. He recently received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award. Previously he received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award, was elected to the CHI Academy, and received the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence at CMU. His research interests within HCI are wide ranging, but tend to focus on technical aspects of HCI. Much of his recent work has been considering advanced fabrication technologies such as new machines, processes, and materials for 3D printing, as well as computational knitting and weaving, and applications of mechanical meta-materials. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~hudson/

Organizers

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