Bei der letzten Session der ICSR am 12. September 2025 präsentierte Oliver Bendel sein Paper mit dem Titel „Wearable Social Robots for the Disabled and Impaired“. Er begann mit der Definition des Begriffs der Wearable Social Robots, die er als eine spezielle Form und Kombination von Wearable Robots und sozialen Robotern versteht. Ein Beispiel dafür ist AIBI, ein kleiner Roboter, den er während des Vortrags kurz um den Hals trug. Wearable Social Robots können Funktionen für Spiele und Unterhaltung, Information und Lernen, Navigation und Beschreibung sowie zur Bekämpfung von Einsamkeit und Angst umfassen. Potenzielle Nutzergruppen sind unter anderem Schüler und Studenten, Gefängnisinsassen, Astronauten sowie behinderte und beeinträchtigte Personen. Franziska und Julia demonstrierten in Videos, wie sie AIBI als Begleiter und für soziale Unterstützung nutzen. Mit diesem Paper setzte Oliver Bendel seine Arbeit im Bereich der Inclusive AI und Inclusive Robotics fort. Die ICSR ist eine der führenden Konferenzen für Soziale Robotik weltweit, und ihre 17. Ausgabe fand vom 10. bis 12. September 2025 in Neapel, Italien, statt. Mariacarla Staffa (Università degli Studi di Napoli „Parthenope“), John-John Cabibihan (Qatar University, Qatar) und Bruno Siciliano (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) waren die Hauptorganisatoren. An den drei Tagen nahmen ca. 300 Forscher teil und trugen so erneut zur Weiterentwicklung der Sozialen Robotik bei.
Abb.: AIBI mit ChatGPT-Erweiterung (Foto: LivingAI)
Am 10. September 2025 präsentierten Tamara Siegmann und Oliver Bendel ihr Paper „Wearable Social Robots in Space“ während der Postersession der ICSR, einer der führenden Konferenzen für Soziale Robotik weltweit. Die 17. Ausgabe fand vom 10. bis 12. September 2025 in Neapel statt. Der Begriff der Wearable Social Robots wurde von Oliver Bendel in seinem Artikel „Wearable Robots“ und in seinem Paper „Wearable Social Robots for the Disabled and Impaired“ (beide aus dem Jahre 2025) eingeführt. Dabei handelt es sich um soziale Roboter mit Merkmalen von Wearables und Wearable Robots. Ein Beispiel ist AIBI von LivingAI. Tamara Siegmann und Oliver Bendel, beide von der Hochschule für Wirtschaft FHNW, untersuchten die Möglichkeiten des Einsatzes tragbarer sozialer Roboter bei einer Marsmission. Sie zeigten, dass diese Roboter nützlich für die Unterstützung im Alltag, betriebliche Assistenz, Unterstützung im Bereich der Intimität, Verbesserung der Kommunikation und soziale Förderung sind. Dies ist vermutlich die erste Studie dieser Art. Es kann jedoch auf mehrere Projekte verwiesen werden, die humanoide und soziale Roboter für Raumfahrtmissionen beinhalten. Das Poster kann hier heruntergeladen werden.
Abb.: Wearable Social Robots können Astronauten helfen
The market for wearable social robots remains relatively small. As illustrated by the case of AIBI, early models often face typical teething problems, with user forums filled with questions and complaints. Nevertheless, these technologies hold potential for a wide range of future applications, offering support and benefits not only to healthy individuals but also to people with disabilities or impairments. The paper „Wearable Social Robots for the Disabled and Impaired“ by Oliver Bendel explores this topic in depth. It defines wearable social robots and situates them within the broader category of wearable robotics. The paper presents several examples and outlines potential application areas specifically for individuals with disabilities. It also addresses key social, ethical, economic, and technical challenges, building on the preceding analysis. The paper has been accepted for presentation at ICSR 2025, which will take place in Naples from September 10 to 12.
The ICSR is one of the leading conferences for social robotics worldwide. The 17th edition will take place from 10 to 12 September 2025 in Naples, Italy. The conference website is now online: icsr2025.eu. „The conference theme, ‘Emotivation at the Core: Empowering Social Robots to Inspire and Connect,’ highlights the essential role of ‘Emotivation’ in social robotics. Emotivation captures the synergy between emotion and motivation, where emotions trigger and sustain motivation during interactions. In social robotics, this concept is key to building trust, fostering empathy, and supporting decision-making by enabling robots to respond sensitively to human emotions, inspiring engagement and action.“ (Website ICSR) The most important conferences dates are: Full Paper Submission: March 28th, 2025; Full Paper Notification: May 9th, 2025; Camera-ready: June 30th, 2025; Paper Presentation Days at ICSR’25: September 11th and 12th, 2025. All dates are also listed on the website. Participants will meet for two days at the Parthenope University of Naples and for the third day at the Città della Scienza conference center. All buildings and rooms are also listed on the website. Be part of this excellent conference (Photo: ICSR)!
The uncanny valley effect is a famous hypothesis. Whether it can be influenced by context is still unclear. In an online experiment, Katharina Kühne and her co-authors Oliver Bendel, Yuefang Zue and Martin Fischer found a negative linear relationship between a robot’s human likeness and its likeability and trustworthiness, and a positive linear relationship between a robot’s human likeness and its uncaniness. „Social context priming improved overall likability and trust of robots but did not modulate the Uncanny Valley effect.“ (Abstract) Katharina Kühne outlined these conclusions in her presentation „Social, but Still Uncanny“ – the title of the paper – at the International Conference on Social Robotics 2024 in Odense, Denmark. Like Yuefang Zue and Martin Fischer, she is a researcher at the University of Potsdam. Oliver Bendel teaches and researches at the FHNW School of Business. Together with Tamara Siegmann, he presented a second paper at the ICSR.
On October 22, 2024, Tamara Siegmann and Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel (School of Business FHNW) presented their project „Robots in Prison“ at the ICSR in Odense (Denmark). They investigated whether collaborative and social robots can and should be used in prisons. One result was that modern industrial robots such as cobots and classic service robots such as transportation and cleaning robots hardly create any added value. Instead, they take work away from inmates. In contrast, social robots are conceivable and useful. They bring something to imprisonment that is common in freedom. And – an important point for resocialization – they can combat the loneliness of inmates. The International Conference on Social Robotics is the most important conference for social robotics alongside Robophilosophy. The paper „Social and Collaborative Robots in Prison“ will be published in a proceedings volume by Springer at the end of the year.
Der Uncanny-Valley-Effekt ist eine berühmte Hypothese. Es ist bis heute unklar, ob er vom Kontext beeinflusst werden kann. Katharina Kühne hat mit ihren Mitautoren Oliver Bendel, Yuefang Zue und Martin Fischer in einem Onlineexperiment eine negative lineare Beziehung zwischen der Menschenähnlichkeit eines Roboters und seiner Sympathie und Vertrauenswürdigkeit gefunden, zugleich eine positive lineare Beziehung zwischen der Menschenähnlichkeit eines Roboters und seiner Unheimlichkeit. „Social context priming improved overall likability and trust of robots but did not modulate the Uncanny Valley effect.“ (Abstract) Die Schlussfolgerungen wird Katharina Kühne in ihrer Präsentation „Social, but Still Uncanny“ – so auch der Titel des Papers – bei der International Conference on Social Robotics 2024 in Odense (Dänemark) ziehen. Die Doktorandin forscht wie Yuefang Zue und Martin Fischer (Erstbetreuer) an der Universität Potsdam. Oliver Bendel (Zweitbetreuer) lehrt und forscht an der Hochschule für Wirtschaft FHNW. Er ist zusammen mit Tamara Siegmann mit einem zweiten Paper bei der ICSR vertreten.
Tamara Siegmann and Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel carried out the „Robots in Prison“ project in June and July 2024. The student, who is studying business administration at the FHNW School of Business, came up with the idea after taking an elective module on social robots with Oliver Bendel. In his paper „Love Dolls and Sex Robots in Unproven and Unexplored Fields of Application“, the philosopher of technology had already made a connection between robots and prisons, but had not systematically investigated this. They did this together with the help of expert interviews with the intercantonal commissioner for digitalization, several prison directors and employees as well as inmates. The result was the paper „Social and Collaborative Robots in Prison“, which was submitted to the ICSR 2024. The International Conference on Social Robotics is the most important conference for social robotics alongside Robophilosophy. The paper was accepted in September 2024 after a revision of the methods section, which was made more transparent and extensive and linked to a directory on GitHub. This year’s conference will take place in Odense (Denmark) from October 23 to 26. Last year it was held in Doha (Qatar) and the year before last in Florence (Italy).
Experts in social robotics and related fields have until August 9, 2024 to submit their short papers. The prestigious event was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition „AI“. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is „Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future“. The topics of the Call for Papers include „collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)“, „Human-robot interaction and collaboration“, „Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots“, and „Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding“. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. The deadline for full papers has already passed. More information is available at icsr2024.dk.Fig.: The social robot ARI
The deadline for the International Conference on Social Robotics 2024 (ICSR 2024) has been extended again. Experts in social robotics and related fields have until July 19 to submit their full papers. The prestigious event was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition „AI“. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is „Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future“. The topics of the Call for Papers include „collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)“, „Human-robot interaction and collaboration“, „Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots“, and „Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding“. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. More information is available at icsr2024.dk.
The deadline for the International Conference on Social Robotics is approaching. Experts in social robotics and related fields have until July 5 to submit their papers. The prestigious event was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition „AI“. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is „Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future“. The topics of the Call for Papers include „collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)“, „Human-robot interaction and collaboration“, „Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots“, and „Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding“. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. More information is available at icsr2024.dk.
In addition to the ICSR in Odense, which focuses on social robotics and artificial intelligence, there is also the ICSR in Naples this year, which organizes a robot competition. In addition, an ICSR conference focusing on biomedicine and the healthcare sector will take place in Singapore from August 16-18, 2024. The website states: „The 16th International Conference on Social Robotics + BioMed (ICSR + BioMed 2024) focuses on interdisciplinary innovation on Bio-inspired, Biomedical, and Surgical Robotics. By fostering the much-needed merging of these disciplines, together with fast emerging Biotech, the conference aims to ensure the lesson learned from these communities blend to unleash the real potential of robots. … The conference will serve as the scientific, technical, and business platform for fostering collaboration, exploration, and advancement in these cutting-edge fields. It will showcase the latest breakthroughs and methodologies, shaping the future of robotics design and applications across several sectors including Biomedical and healthcare.“ (Website ICSR) Papers must be submitted by June 5, 2024. Further information on the conference is available at robicon2024.org.
The prestigious International Conference on Social Robotics was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition „AI“. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. ICSR’24 will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is „Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future“. The topics of the Call for Papers include „collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)“, „Human-robot interaction and collaboration“, „Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots“, and „Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding“. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. More information is available at icsr2024.dk.
Anfang Dezember 2023 sind die Proceedings der ICSR 2023 erschienen. Der erste Band enthält den Beitrag „Alpha Mini as a Learning Partner in the Classroom“ von Oliver Bendel und Andrin Allemann. Aus dem Abstract: „Social robots such as NAO and Pepper are being used in some schools and universities. NAO is very agile and therefore entertaining. Pepper has the advantage that it has an integrated display where learning software of all kinds can be executed. One disadvantage of both is their high price. Schools can hardly afford such robots. This problem was the starting point for the project described here, which took place in 2023 at the School of Business FHNW. The aim was to create a learning application with an inexpensive social robot that has the same motor capabilities as NAO and the same knowledge transfer capabilities as Pepper. The small Alpha Mini from Ubtech was chosen. It was possible to connect it to an external device. This runs a learning game suitable for teaching at primary level. Alpha Mini provides explanations and feedback in each case. Three teachers tested the learning application, raised objections, and made suggestions for improvement. Social robots like Alpha Mini are an interesting solution for knowledge transfer in schools when they can communicate with other devices.“ Der Band kann über link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-8715-3 heruntergeladen bzw. bestellt werden.
Anfang Dezember 2023 sind die Proceedings der ICSR 2023 erschienen. Der zweite Band enthält den Beitrag „Pepper as a Learning Partner in a Children’s Hospital“ von Sara Zarubica und Oliver Bendel. Aus dem Abstract: „Social robots are increasingly used in learning settings. So far, the main focus of this has been in school lessons and teaching at universities. Another possible setting is the children’s hospital. There, for example, young patients need to acquire basic knowledge about their disease so that they can deal with it appropriately. This should be done in a joyful, fun way, as the situation is stressful enough in itself, and so learning is also facilitated. The paper presents a learning application for diabetic children that runs on Pepper. This social robot was particularly well suited for this task because it has a large integrated touchscreen, similar to a tablet. A learning game is displayed on it that was developed especially for this setting. The children have to estimate the carbohydrate values of foods and meals or answer knowledge questions. The social robot gives verbal and gestural feedback in each case. The subjects responded overwhelmingly positively to the learning application. Pepper’s visible and audible feedback plays a special role in this. Social robots like Pepper are an interesting solution for knowledge transfer in a children’s hospital.“ Der Band kann über link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-8718-4 heruntergeladen bzw. bestellt werden.
Next to Robophilosophy, ICSR may be the most important conference on social robotics. The fourteenth edition took place in Florence at the end of 2022 and was dedicated to the health sector. „The 15th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2023) will bring together researchers and practitioners working on the interaction between humans and intelligent robots and on the integration of social robots into our society. ICSR 2023 will take place in Doha as a face-to-face conference on December 4-7, 2023. This will be the first time that the conference will be hosted in Qatar and in the Middle East and North Africa region.“ (Website ICSR) The theme of this year’s ICSR is „Human-Robot Collaboration: Sea, Air, Land, Space and Cyberspace“. According to the organizers, the theme emphasizes on all physical and cyber-physical domains where humans and robots collaborate. Whether Doha is suitable as a venue for the conference needs to be discussed. Qatar is ruled as an absolute monarchy. Sharia law is considered a main source of legislation. The human rights situation in the country has been critical for decades. More information and CfP via icrs.iovision.tn.
Fig.: A humanoid robot generated by DALL-E (with user corrections)
