Extended submission deadline: April 11, 2016 to
Workshop date: May 23, 2016
Theme
Due to trends towards autonomous driving and smart industrial automation (e.g., Internet-of-Things and cyber-physical systems), people are more and more surrounded by (semi-) autonomous systems. The way people collaborate with each other in these automated environments or with autonomous systems and how they experience the interactions is of great interest for researchers and practitioners. For instance, in the industrial sector, on the one hand workers fear to be replaced by robotics. On the other hand, robots may be perceived as co-worker resulting in cooperation.
Moreover, research on how users experience (semi-) autonomous systems has gained increased attention, especially in the car context. However, the researchers’ focus is often primarily on the immediate effects of autonomous technology, on particular acceptance and control issues related to autonomous technology, or mainly concerns system-human interaction. Human-human collaboration related to autonomous systems or environments have not been directly addressed in research yet. Research within the automotive and the fabrication context and beyond has demonstrated that context-sensitive designs are central for a unique situation-specific user experience (UX). It requires an exploration of novel interface techniques as well as an understanding of contextual collaboration in order to develop future context-sensitive designs.
We see an increasing need in the research community for an ongoing discussion about collaboration and (semi-) automation in various contexts regarding human-human as well as human-system collaboration. On that account, we propose a day-long workshop at COOP 2016 with the goal of providing an opportunity for discussion and community building around these topics.
The day will be organized to ensure interaction and development of a list of challenges (and, if already available, potential ways to address them) provided as a white paper rather than by a forum for presentations.
Goal
The goal of the workshop is to provide a venue for researchers and practitioners within the field of CSCW and HCI to discuss automated environments and (semi-) autonomous systems with regards to collaboration. Possible questions to address include:
- Impact of Modern Automation Technology on Collaboration
- What privacy, safety, or security issues relate to collaboration in automated environments or with (semi-) autonomous systems?
- Which roles and tasks may users have in automated environments and with (semi-) autonomous systems? What do these roles and tasks imply for collaboration? (e.g., human in the loop or joint interaction; human-human interaction or human-machine collaboration)
- What aspects of the users’ experience are affecting collaboration? (e.g., trust, joy of use, etc.)
- How do users experience collaboration via and with (semi-) autonomous systems?
- Methodology, Measurements and Design Techniques
- Which challenges impede investigating collaboration in (semi-) autonomous contexts (e.g., regarding methods and measures)?
- Which methods and measures are appropriate?
- System Design that Fosters Collaboration
- Which challenges and constraints does interaction design face when designing for collaboration in (semi-) autonomous environments?
- What interaction paradigms are appropriate or needed to support collaboration in automated environments and with (semi-) autonomous systems? (e.g., speech and gaze interfaces, multi-touch, haptic, gestures, situated displays)?
The workshop should offer a platform to share and learn from each other’s experience, discuss challenges, opportunities, constraints, and further advance the dissemination of CSCW knowledge within these domains (e.g., factory, car, etc.).
We encouraged that address one or more of the above-mentioned topics.
Organization
This full-day workshop will begin with presentations of position papers followed by brainstorming sessions and sub-group sessions. Prior to the workshop, each participant will be required to read the other participants’ position statements to ensure that s/he is familiar with the others’ positions. The day will be divided into three sections (separated by the morning break, lunch, and the afternoon break).
The first session will start with a brief statement from the organizers regarding the expectations for the day by presenting the main goal and motivation for the workshop. Then, we move into a series of short position statements from a session of workshop participants giving very brief introductions of themselves and their research interests and experiences. Our intention here is to build a common understanding for all participants.
We will spend two hours on the position statement presentations and subsequent short discussions. In the second session, we will break out groups and facilitate a discussion converging the research and design challenges. This session will be triggered by (critical) questions that the organizers prepare in advance (e.g. based on the submissions). During the third session, we will discuss the main findings with all participants and transfer them into a list of research and design challenges, and, if applicable, with best practices and proposed solutions.
The workshop will end with a short discussion to define the next steps for the workshop group. After the workshop, the created list will be published in a white paper on our website for fellow researchers as well as industry.
Participation
We invite researchers and practitioners (e.g., designers) across disciplines to participate and share ideas related to the workshop theme. Interested attendees are requested to submit a short position paper (2 – 4 pages, max. 2000 words according to the Springer template) that includes the following details:
- Titles, names, affiliations, and emails of each author
- An introduction and background to the topic discussed in the position paper
- A short biography of each author’s background, their interest in this field and their motivations for participating in the workshop.
Please submit your contribution, in PDF format by email to no later than April 11 (extended), 2016. In this case, notifications will be sent out by April 15th, 2016.
The workshop organizers will review the position papers. The submissions will be selected according to their relevance, insights, as well as their potential to stimulate discussion.
Accepted contributions will be published on the workshop website.
Workshop date: May 23, 2016
Organizers