We are very pleased to invite you to submit your latest research results, developments, and ideas to the 35th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN 2026), which will be held at the Kitakyushu International Conference Center, Kitakyushu, Japan, from August 24th to 28th, 2026.
The theme of IEEE RO-MAN 2026 is
“Realizing Human-Robot Symbiosis with AI.”
As robots become increasingly capable of socially interacting with people, it is important to think about how we can shape a future in which humans and robots collaborate and work together as teammates. Rather than replacing us, our vision is that robots will complement us. We envision a hybrid intelligence where robots and humans together can be more capable, effective, productive, efficient, and enjoyable to work with. To realize a successful integration of socially interactive robots into our society, we need to invest in a future where human–robot teams become prevalent. To this end, we aim to create a clear vision of this future and foster innovations in interaction models, social capabilities, and robot skills that help robots understand how they can work together with us.
The conference provides a forum for researchers and practitioners to discuss a wide range of topics related to Robot and Human Interactive Communication, including theories, methodologies, technologies, and empirical and experimental studies, and to generate new insights for the future of the field.
Please visit the official website, https://www.ro-man2026.org/, for more information.
The conference is hybrid, and it is expected that at least one author of each accepted paper will attend in person.
Four types of sessions will be provided at IEEE RO-MAN 2026 (All deadlines are 23:59:59 PST):
- Regular Sessions
Prospective authors are invited to submit high-quality papers under the broad theme of human-robot interaction.
Prospective special session organizers are invited to submit proposals for focused discussions. Papers presented will be included in the conference proceedings.
- Workshop/Tutorial Sessions
Applied research and applications, on-going work, and tutorials on research tools are encouraged to be presented to RO-MAN attendees.
- Late Breaking Report Sessions
Prospective authors are invited to submit their recent innovative applications and work-in-progress reports to designated interactive sessions.
Important note: If you submit a paper to IEEE RO-MAN 2026, the expectation is that you, or your qualified co-authors (e.g., senior PhD students), will provide at least two high-quality reviews during the review process. We need the full participation of the RO-MAN community to ensure the quality of the RO-MAN review process.
Topics of Interest
IEEE RO-MAN 2026 invites regular papers, special session proposals and papers, tutorial/workshop proposals, and late breaking reports related to the conference theme, which include but are not limited to:
- Affective Computing
- Androids
- Anthropomorphic Robots and Virtual Humans
- Applications of Social Robots
- Assistive Robotics
- Child-Robot Interaction
- Cognitive Skills and Mental Models
- Cognitive and Sensorimotor Development
- Computational Architectures
- Cooperation and Collaboration in Human-Robot Teams
- Cooperative Intelligence in HRI
- Creating Human-Robot Relationships
- Curiosity, Intentionality and Initiative in Interaction
- Degrees of Autonomy and Teleoperation
- Detecting and Understanding Human Activity
- Embodiment, Empathy and Intersubjectivity
- Ethical Issues in Human-robot Interaction Research
- Evaluation Methods
- Explainable Human-Robot Interaction
- HRI and Collaboration in Manufacturing Environments
- Human Factors and Ergonomics
- Human–Robot Value Alignment and Safety
- Innovative Robot Designs
- Interaction Kinesics
- Interaction with Believable Characters
- LLM/Gen AI-based HRI
- Linguistic Communication and Dialogue
- Long-term Experience and Longitudinal HRI Studies
- Machine Learning and Adaptation
- Medical and Surgical Applications
- Methodologies in Social Robotics
- Monitoring of Behaviour and Internal States of Humans
- Motion Planning and Navigation in Human-Centered Environments
- Motivations and Emotions in Robotics
- Multimodal Interaction and Conversational Skills
- Multimodal Situation Awareness and Spatial Cognition
- Multimodal, Multilingual and Multitask Modeling
- Narrative and Story-telling in Interaction
- Non-verbal Cues and Expressiveness
- Novel Interfaces and Interaction Modalities
- Personalities for Robotic or Virtual Characters
- Philosophical Issues in Human-Robot Coexistence
- Programming by Demonstration
- Robot Companions and Social Robots
- Robotic Etiquette
- Robots in Education, Therapy and Rehabilitation
- Robots in art and entertainment
- Social Intelligence for Robots
- Social Learning and Skill Acquisition Via Teaching and Imitation
- Social Presence for Robots and Virtual Humans
- Social Touch in Human–Robot Interaction
- Sound design for robots
- Theory of Mind in HRI
- Trust in HRI
- User-centered Design of Robots
- Virtual and Augmented Tele-presence Environments