Current robotic implementations showed impressive mechanical achievement (i.e. ASIMO by Honda or QRIO by SONY) and yet these robotic devices are incapable of equally outstanding perceptual and cognitive performances.

A new generation of robots aimed at interacting with humans in an unconstrained environment shall need a better awareness of their surroundings and of the relevant events, objects, and agents. In short, the new generation of robots shall need some form of “artificial consciousness”.

The problem of consciousness is twofold: the nature of phenomenal consciousness (the hard problem) and the active role of consciousness in controlling and planning the behaviour of an agent. We do not know yet if it is possible to solve the two aspects separately; however the field of artificial consciousness is focusing mainly on the second one.

The workshop provides an overview on the current state of the art of research in the field of artificial consciousness.