TEHRAN – Iranian researchers won prizes at the 10th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2018), which was held from November 28 to 30 in Qingdao, China.

Robotics teams from 15 countries including Spain, Qatar, Italy, Japan, Australia, France and South Korea competed in two categories; Innovation in software, applications and interaction modalities and innovation in hardware, design and interfaces at the conference.

In the section dedicated to the innovation in software, applications and interaction modalities, the Iranian scholars won the first and second prize.

The first prize went to Iranian academics Alireza Taheri, Mojtaba Shahab, Ali Meghdari, Minoo Alemi, Ali Amouzandeh Nobaveh, Zeynab Rokhi and Ali Ghorbandaei Pour for “Virtual Social Toys: A Novel Concept to Bring Inanimate Dolls to Life”.

In their research, they present a new perspective on using interactive animated toys in a virtual environment.

Mohammad Zakipour, Minoo Alemi, Alireza Taheri and Ali Meqdari won the second prize for “RASA: A Social Robot acting as a Sign Language Teaching Assistant”.

RASA (Robot Assistant for Social Aims) has been designed as an upper-torso humanoid robot platform primarily for teaching Persian Sign Language (PSL) to children with hearing disabilities.

The ICSR 2018 brings together researchers and practitioners working on the interaction between humans and intelligent robots and on the integration of robots into the fabric of the society.

The intersection of Social Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are bound to disrupt the status quo in our homes, factories, healthcare services, and transportation, among others. In the foreseeable future, Social Robotics and AI will help drive economic growth and will be the new normal. 

ICSR 2018 aims to foster discussions in the development of AI models and frameworks, robotic embodiments, and behaviors that further encourages invention and innovation. The forum will look into the potential of these technologies and give insights to address the challenges and risks.

SB/MQ/MG