Epigenetic systems, whether natural or artificial, share a prolonged developmental process through which varied and complex cognitive and perceptual structures emerge as a result of the interaction of an embodied system with a physical and social environment.

Epigenetic robotics includes the two-fold goal of understanding biological systems by the interdisciplinary integration between social/life and engineering sciences and, simultaneously, that of enabling robots and other artificial systems to autonomously develop skills for any particular environment (instead of programming them to solve particular goals for a specific environment). Interdisciplinary theory and empirical evidence are used to inform epigenetic robotic models, and these models can be used as theoretical tools to make experimental predictions in developmental psychology and other disciplines studying cognitive development in living systems.

This year's edition of Epigenetic Robotics will have a special focus on emotional and social development, particularly addressed by keynote speakers and special discussion and working groups. However, submissions are welcome regarding all aspects of the study of cognitive development.

Submissions are welcome regarding all aspects of the study of cognitive development, including (but not limited to):

The roles of and interactions among motivation, emotion, and value systems in development
The development of emotional competencies and systems
The development of "social skills", such as imitation, synchrony processing, intersubjectivity, joint attention, intentionality, non-verbal and verbal communication, sensorimotor schemata, shared meaning and symbolic reference, social learning, social relationships, social cognition ("mind reading", "theory of mind")
The role of play in emotional, social, and cognitive development
The development of verbal and non-verbal communication
Links between (the development of) expression and communication
Architectures for autonomous development
Dynamical systems models of emotional, social, and cognitive development
The scope and limits of maturation, the mechanisms of open-ended development
The mechanisms of stage formation and stage transitions
Interaction between innate structure, ongoing developing structure, and experience
The interplay between embodiment, learning biases and environment
Algorithms for self-supervision, autonomous exploration, representation making, and methods for evolving new representations during ontogeny
Philosophical and social issues of development
The epistemological foundations of using robots to study development
The use of robots as theoretical tools (e.g., to make predictions) in the study of development in biological systems
The use of robots in applied settings (e.g., autism therapy) to study development in biological systems
Robots that can undergo morphological changes and how they can be used to study interplays among social, emotional, cognitive and morphological development;