<div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Courier New",monospace;font-size:10pt">[Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement]</span></div><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-665a54bd-7fff-c19e-773a-25771efe6dc1"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Call for Papers! </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Special Session on: “Extended Reality Applied to Human-Robot Interaction”</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Organized by: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Portugal Chapter</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">ICARSC 2025 - International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="https://www.icarsc.pt/2025" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">https://www.icarsc.pt/2025</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">April 2-3, 2025 </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Funchal – Madeira Island</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Extended reality blends real and virtual worlds, transforming how humans and robots collaborate. By sharing spatial understanding, extended reality enables seamless cooperation on tasks through intuitive interaction. Extended reality devices, like robots, perform spatial perception tasks (e.g., visual SLAM), facilitating colocalization and enhancing human-robot interaction.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Extended Reality interfaces include Augmented Reality (AR), overlaying virtual elements on the real world; Virtual Reality (VR), immersing users in digital environments; and Mixed Reality (MR), merging real and virtual content interactively. AR and MR are particularly vital for enabling shared spatial awareness and collaboration.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">This special session highlights advances in Extended Reality for human-robot collaboration across industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and education, showcasing new developments and applications.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Special Session Chairs: Paulo Menezes (<a href="mailto:pm@deec.uc.pt">pm@deec.uc.pt</a>), Ana Lopes (<a href="mailto:anacris@isr.uc.pt">anacris@isr.uc.pt</a>), Paulo Gonçalves (<a href="mailto:paulo.goncalves@ipcb.pt">paulo.goncalves@ipcb.pt</a>) and João Bimbo (<a href="mailto:jmbimbo@fc.ul.pt">jmbimbo@fc.ul.pt</a>)</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">----------------</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Paper Submission</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">----------------</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Authors are invited to submit original research contributions in English. Six pages in the standard IEEE format (</span><a href="http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">) are allowed for each paper, including tables and figures. Full draft papers should be submitted electronically, in PDF format, using the URL: </span><a href="https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icarsc2025" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icarsc2025</span></a></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">For evaluation, authors must remove their names from the submitted papers, and should take reasonable care not to indirectly disclose their identity. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Papers submitted for review that fall into the category of review papers will not be considered during the evaluation process, ensuring that the assessment is focused on original research contributions.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Accepted papers will be scheduled for presentation, which requires that at least one of the authors should register at the Conference and present the paper. If the authors of an accepted paper, either for oral presentation or poster, do not show up at the conference, the corresponding paper will not be submitted to IEEExplore.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">---------------</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Important Dates</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">---------------</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Preliminary version submission deadline: 17 January 2025</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Notification of acceptance: 26 February 2025</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Camera Ready: 9 March 2025</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Registration: 16 March 2025 (reduced price)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New",monospace;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Conference: 2-3 April 2025</span></p><div><br clear="all"></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:9pt;color:darkslategray"><table width="620pt" border="0" style="font-family:sans-serif"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td><b>Pedro Fonseca</b><br><div style="font-size:9pt">Vice-Chair, IEEE Portugal Section</div><div style="font-size:9pt">Past-Chair, IEEE Portugal Section Education Chapter</div><div style="font-size:9pt">ICARSC 2025 IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions (<a href="http://icarsc.pt/2025" target="_blank">icarsc.pt/2025</a>)</div></td><td align="right"></td></tr></tbody></table></div>
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