Self-Organised Construction

4th International Workshop on Self-Organised Construction (SOCO)

As part of 2nd IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems - ACSOS 2021.
The SOCO workshop will be co-located with the main conference, scheduled to take place Mon 27 September - Fri 1 October 2021 Washington, DC. Virtual participation is possible.

SOCO 2021 Schedule and location

Friday, October 1st
9:00 am EST (15:00 CEST) to 12:00 noon EST (18:00 CEST)
On Zoom (link is forthcoming).

9:00 EST (15:00 CEST)
Welcome & Introduction

9:15 EST (15:15 CEST)
Keynote speaker, Ingo Scholtes
Followed by a moderated panel discussion with invited speakers, and an open-floor discussion

10:25 EST (16:25 CEST)
15 minute break

10:40 EST (16:40 CEST)
“The Computational Complexity of Designing Scalar-field Sensing Robot Teams and Environments for Distributed Construction (Extended Abstract)”
T. Wareham and A. Vardy

11:00 EST (17:00 CEST)
“Towards a Holistic, Self-organised Safety Framework for Construction”
C. Chronopoulos, K. W. Johansen, J. Teizer, C. Schultz and L. Esterle

11:20 EST (17:20 CEST)
“What Can Collective Construction Learn from Neural Cellular Automata?”
A. Vardy

11:40 EST (17:40 CEST)
“Stigmergic, Diegetic Guidance of Swarm Construction”
S. Truman, J. Seitz and S. von Mammen

12:00 EST (18:00 CEST)
Closing

Summary

The SOCO workshop is on self-organised construction. We want to cumulate, present, discuss, and advance new research results from theory and practice, as well as novel scientific concepts and methodologies. Originally inspired by nest construction in social insects, the general concept relies on a large number of agents that coordinate their construction efforts by prompting and reacting to local stimuli. Recently, with the wake of robotic swarms and novel material processing approaches—for instance 3D printing techniques and innovative deployment of carbon fibres—self-organising construction is quickly gaining tremendous transformative significance in the context of various design and construction processes. The relevant research areas include: autonomous construction, maintenance, supervision, and renovation of buildings and infrastructure, as well as biological nest construction, fundamental models and robotic control methods, structural engineering, architectural design, industrial assembly, landscape architecture, and city infrastructure. Our focus is on the design and management of self-organising construction from a computational perspective. We especially would like to encourage vision papers, presenting challenges for the future of self-organised construction. To expand the scope, compared to the previous editions of the workshop, we encourage participation from industry and will include two invited industry talks.

Deadlines

Submission deadline: June 20, 2021; Extended to July 9, 2021Extended to July 16, 2021
Acceptance notification: August 1 August 6, 2021
Camera-ready papers due: August 13, 2021
Main Conference Website
SOCO 2021's Submission site at EasyChair

Submissions

We welcome submissions of:
  • Research papers, which should present novel ideas in the cross-disciplinary research context described in this call, motivated by problems from current practice or applied research.
  • Experience Reports, which cover innovative implementations, novel applications, interesting performance results and experience in applying recent research advance to practical situations on any topics of interest.
  • Vision Papers, which introduce ground-shaking, provocative, and even controversial ideas; discuss long term perspectives and challenges; focus on overlooked or underrepresented areas, and foster debate.

Papers in all three directions are limited to 6 pages, including images, tables, and references.

We ask authors to ensure that their submissions comply with the high standards in ingenuity and quality as expected by the ACSOS conference in general. Submission to SOCO will be evaluated in a single-blind reviewing process by the workshop committee members. Accepted papers will be submitted for publication to ACSOS' workshop proceedings through IEEE. All papers need to follow the IEEE DL format of the ACSOS conference and follow the IEEE Computer Society Press proceedings style guide.

We will do a high-quality international peer review in a rapid 2 week form. Each paper will have at least 3 reviews.

Submit your contribution at SOCO 2021's EasyChair site.

Programme Committee Members

  • Andrew Vardy, Memorial University of Newfoundland
  • Ales Zamuda, University of Maribor
  • Phil Ayres, CITA
  • Marco Dorigo, Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • David Andreen, Lund University
  • Ilaria Mazzoleni, SCI-ARC
  • Peter Bentley, University College London
  • Nils Napp, Cornell University

Recent Activities

Organisers and Workshop Chairs