[Comp-neuro] CfP: Special Issue on "Emerging Spatial Competences: From Machine Perception to Sensorimotor Intelligence"

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*CALL FOR PAPERS*
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Robotics and Autonomous Systems Journal

Special Issue on
Emerging Spatial Competences:
From Machine Perception to Sensorimotor Intelligence

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*IMPORTANT DATES*
- January 31, 2014: Paper submission deadline
- March 31, 2014: Notification of paper acceptance
- April 30, 2014: Camera ready paper submission
- Late Spring 2014: Expected publication date


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*AIMS AND OBJECTIVES*

Following the recent evolution of robotics and AI in different fields of
application, the increasing complexity of the *actions *that an artificial
agent needs to perform, is directly dependent on the complexity of the
*sensory information * that it can acquire and *interpret*, i.e. *perceive*.

>From this point of view, an efficient and internal representation of the
sensory information is at the base of a robot to develop a *human-like
capability *of interaction with the surrounding environment. Particularly,
in the space at a *reachable distance*, not only visual and auditory, but
also tactile and proprioceptive information rise to be relevant to gain a
comprehensive spatial cognition. This information, coming from different senses,
can be in principle integrated and used to experience an awareness of the
environment both to actively interact with it, and to calibrate the
interaction itself. Besides, the early sensory and sensorimotor
mechanisms, that at a first glance may appear simple processes, are
grounded on highly structured and complex algorithms that are far from
being understood and modeled. By exploiting an early synergy between *sensing
modules* and *motor control*,
the loop between action and perception comes to be not just closed at system
level, but shortened at an inner one. This would allow not only the
emergence of *spatial competences* but also their *continuous adaptation* to
changes in the environment or in the body, which could modify its interactions
with the world.

The aim of this special issue is to survey a state of the art of
methodologies, concepts, algorithms and techniques that would serve as bricks
on which to build and develop artificial agents with such a spatial
competence; perceptual and cognitive understanding of space should emerge from
sensorimotor exercise.

The *action-perception loop* has never been so close!


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*PAPER SUBMISSION*
We invite original contributions that provide novel solutions to address the
relevant topics including but not limited to:
- Theoretical or practical aspects of machine sensing (for computer
vision, robot audition, artificial touch, etc.)
- Multisensory data fusion, processing, learning and integration
- Computational neural modeling
- Embodied robotics: perception, cognition, and behaviors
- Machine learning for sensorimotor control and intelligence
- Neural networks: models, theories, learning algorithms and applications
- Engineering application of sensorimotor intelligence to pattern
recognition, computer vision, speech recognition, human-robot
interactions.

As a follow-up of the IJCNN 2013 special session, we invite in particular the
special session participants to submit profoundly extended versions of
their conference submission to go through a new peer review process,
together with contributions not published in the conference proceedings.

Papers should be typeset according to the format instructions for the
Robotics and Autonomous Systems Journal, available on the Elsevier web site
(http://www.elsevier.com/journals/robotics-and-autonomous-systems/0921-8890/guide-for-authors).


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*GUEST EDITORS*

_Agostino Gibaldi_, agostino.gibaldi@unige.it
Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering
University of Genoa, Italy
Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems (ARCES)
University of Bologna, Italy

_Silvio P. Sabatini_, silvio.sabatini@unige.it
Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering
University of Genoa, Italy

_Sylvain Argentieri_, sylvain.argentieri@upmc.fr
Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR)
Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France

_Zhengping Ji_, jizhengp@gmail.com
Advanced Image Research Laboratory (AIRL)
Samsung, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A
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