- RoboCup-worldwide - lists.robocup.org

RoboCup Is Live – Join Us on Twitch!
by Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann 02 Jul '26

02 Jul '26

Dear RoboCup Community, The 2026 world championship in Incheon is underway, and we'd love for you to join us live - even if you may not be able to travel to Korea! Tune in to our Twitch channel to watch exciting matches, robot demonstrations, interviews, and highlights from RoboCup as they happen: https://www.twitch.tv/robocupofficial Please share the stream with your colleagues, friends, family, and anyone who might enjoy the event. Let's have the whole world participate in the spirit of RoboCup and see the latest advances in robotics and technology. See you on the stream! Best, Maike (for the RoboCup Media Team)

1 0

[CFP] Call for Workshops & Tutorials: Humanoids 2026 Conference
by Ross Mead 30 Jun '26

30 Jun '26

CALL FOR WORKSHOPS & TUTORIALS: - What: 2026 IEEE RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots - When: December 6-9, 2026 - Where: Santa Clara, California, USA - Web: https://2026.ieee-humanoids.org — IMPORTANT DATES: - Aug. 3, 2026: Workshop/tutorial proposal deadline - Sep. 28, 2026: Notification of workshop/tutorial acceptance/rejection - Dec. 7, 2026: Humanoids 2026 workshops/tutorials — Dear colleagues, We are very pleased to invite you to contribute proposals for half-day or full-day workshops/tutorials to the 2026 IEEE RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots to be held December 6-9, 2026 in Santa Clara, California, USA. WORKSHOPS & TUTORIALS: The workshop and tutorial sessions are aimed at exploring the frontiers of recent or emerging topics related to humanoid robotics, with relevant topics detailed below. We encourage workshops and tutorials that will promote exchanges and interactions between presenters and participants. Proposals with a diverse set of speakers, including a balance between (i) junior and senior presenters, (ii) genders, (iii) geographic location, (iv) race and ethnicity, and (v) industry and academia, will be preferred. OVERVIEW: Humanoids 2026 aims at bringing together top researchers from humanoid robotics and related disciplines with leading companies in the field. In light of a year of rapidly evolving humanoid technologies with several new platforms coming onto the market and bringing us closer to a wider real-world deployment. Our community envisions innovative areas in humanoid robotics that lie at the intersection of general-purpose physical, cognitive, and motor capabilities, while also considering the scientific understanding of interactions with humanoid and anthropomorphic systems. SCHEDULE: The conference will be organized as a 4-day event opening on December 6th (Sunday) with public panels, seminars, and hackathons, followed by workshops and tutorials on December 7th (Monday), followed by 2 days December 8th-9th (Tuesday-Wednesday) for the main conference with plenaries, keynotes, oral and interactive sessions, and industry events. A centrally located exhibition will feature the latest humanoid technology from both industry and academia. TOPICS: We invite workshops/tutorials in all areas related to humanoid robotics, including, but not limited to: - Human biomechanics and motor control, human body and behavior modeling - Bionic / human-inspired design principles for humanoids - Human-inspired robot control - Whole-body dynamics and control - Optimization, optimal control, and model predictive control methods - Learning methods for humanoid robots - Robot modeling for locomotion and/or manipulation - Exoskeleton / wearable robot design and control - Prosthesis design and control - Physical and social human-humanoid interaction - Dynamic legged locomotion (bipeds, quadrupeds, etc.) - Loco-manipulation, legged manipulation - Dual arm dexterous manipulation - Design, control, and application of multi-finger hands - Stability and robustness of humanoid and legged robots and humans - Simulation and physics-based animations from computer graphics - Humanoid heads and faces, geminoids - Novel materials, mechanisms, and actuators for humanoids - Perception for humanoids - Human-centered robotic studies and applications - Neuro-robotics and brain-robot interfaces for humanoids and humans - Real-world applications for humanoid robots (industry, healthcare, home, space, disaster response) - Benchmarks, performance indicators for humanoid robots - Ethical and social challenges of humanoid robot deployment - Long-term deployment of humanoid, bipedal, or dual arm manipulation robots EXHIBITION: Industry leaders are eager to see your organization’s latest developments, connect, learn, and collaborate. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a strong, in-person impression. For more information contact Hall-Erickson, Inc: humanoids(a)heiexpo.com <HUMANOIDS(a)heiexpo.com> MORE INFORMATION: For more information, please visit the conference contributions webpage ( https://2026.ieee-humanoids.org/call-for-workshops-and-tutorials) or contact the Workshop Chairs: Enrico Mingo Hoffman, Yan Gu, and Rafael Cisneros-Limón (humanoids2026-wt(a)ieee.org). We look forward to your contributions to Humanoids 2026! — The Humanoids 2026 General Chairs: - Andra Keay (Silicon Valley Robotics) - Ross Mead (Semio)

1 0

[RoboCup SML] Open Discussion about SML Entry-level Tasks on Friday, July 3, 2026
by Ferrein, Alexander Antoine 30 Jun '26

30 Jun '26

Dear RoboCuppers, Over the past months, we have made significant progress in defining the scenarios for the Smart Manufacturing League (SML). Throughout this process, we have been striving to balance different objectives: on the one hand, creating challenges that advance the state of the art and address relevant research questions; on the other hand, ensuring that the scenarios remain accessible to new teams and do not create unnecessary barriers to participation. In this context, we have also been discussing how entry-level scenarios could be designed to be suitable for newcomer teams, including teams of younger students. Our goal is to explore pathways that allow young talents to engage with topics in industrial and manufacturing automation at an early stage and, if they wish, to continue their journey within the RoboCup ecosystem. We see considerable value in close collaboration across the RoboCup community. The Major Leagues can contribute their experience in defining technical and scientific challenges that drive innovation and research. The Junior Leagues, on the other hand, bring extensive expertise in working with young participants, designing age-appropriate educational experiences, and creating an engaging and sustainable competition environment. We believe that these perspectives complement each other and can provide valuable input for future developments. The discussions of recent weeks have shown that there are different interpretations and expectations regarding the concept of so-called "bridge leagues" and related approaches such as “SML entry-level tasks". We consider this exchange of views both valuable and constructive, as it helps to highlight opportunities, concerns, and perspectives that should be taken into account as ideas continue to evolve. We would like to emphasize that this remains an open process. No final decisions have been made, and the ideas discussed so far should be understood as a basis for further dialogue rather than as predetermined outcomes. We therefore warmly invite all interested members of the RoboCup community to join us in Incheon. We would like to present the current status of our discussions, share emerging ideas, and engage in an open conversation about possible directions and opportunities for the future development of the league. We look forward to the discussion and to shaping the future together with the community. The meeting will take place on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 6 pm in room 118 right after the “Execs meets Trustees” meeting. Best regards, Alexander on behalf of Maike, Stefan, the SML Execs, the responsible league Trustees (apologies if I forgot to mention someone) -- Prof. Dr. Alexander Ferrein Mobile Autonomous Systems & Cognitive Robotics Institute Robotics and Foundations of Computer Science FH Aachen - University of Applied Sciences Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Eupener Strasse 70 | 52066 Aachen | Germany T: +49 241 6009 51904 | F: +49 241 6009 52190 E: ferrein(a)fh-aachen.de | W: www.ferrein.fh-aachen.de Speaker Major Competitions of the RoboCup German Regional Committee W: www.robocup.de Former Vice-Chair of the African-German Network of Excellence in Science A Network of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation W: www.agnes-h.org

1 0

[Regional Committees] Reports submission due on July 2, 2026
by Ferrein, Alexander Antoine 30 Jun '26

30 Jun '26

Dear all, This is the final announcement to submit your regional committee reports. Please upload them by Thursday, July 2, via the upload link <https://cloud.robocup.org/s/HW3DXP2bGQdxwTB> RoboCup Cloud<https://cloud.robocup.org/s/HW3DXP2bGQdxwTB> cloud.robocup.org<https://cloud.robocup.org/s/HW3DXP2bGQdxwTB> [favicon-touch.png] <https://cloud.robocup.org/s/HW3DXP2bGQdxwTB> (with the password being the place of RoboCup 2026, all in small letters). If you face any problems with the upload, please let me know. Alternatively, you can also send your report as pptx or pdf via email to me. For preparing your report, please use the template which can be downloaded here: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/b9Djf6HcB2zopZf The meeting will take place on Friday, July 3, at 1.30 pm. The room will still be confirmed. Best regards, Maike & Sascha -- Prof. Dr. Alexander Ferrein Mobile Autonomous Systems & Cognitive Robotics Institute Robotics and Foundations of Computer Science FH Aachen - University of Applied Sciences Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Eupener Strasse 70 | 52066 Aachen | Germany T: +49 241 6009 51904 | F: +49 241 6009 52190 E: ferrein(a)fh-aachen.de | W: www.ferrein.fh-aachen.de Speaker Major Competitions of the RoboCup German Regional Committee W: www.robocup.de Former Vice-Chair of the African-German Network of Excellence in Science A Network of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation W: www.agnes-h.org

1 0

[CFP] Humanoids 2026 Conference
by Ross Mead 27 Jun '26

27 Jun '26

CALL FOR PAPERS: - What: 2026 IEEE RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 2026) - When: December 6-9, 2026 - Where: Santa Clara, California, USA - Web: https://2026.ieee-humanoids.org — IMPORTANT DATES: - Jul. 24, 2026: Paper submission deadline - Jul. 27, 2026: Supplementary video deadline (optional) - Oct. 6, 2026: Notification of paper acceptance/rejection - Oct. 16, 2026: Early-bird registration deadline - Oct. 26, 2026: Camera-ready paper deadline - Dec. 6-9, 2026: Humanoids 2026 conference — Dear colleagues, We are very pleased to invite you to contribute to the 2026 IEEE RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 2026) to be held in Santa Clara, California, USA, from December 6 through December 9, 2026. OVERVIEW: Humanoids 2026 aims at bringing together top researchers from humanoid robotics and related disciplines with leading companies in the field. In light of a year of rapidly evolving humanoid technologies with several new platforms coming onto the market and bringing us closer to a wider real-world deployment. Our community envisions innovative areas in humanoid robotics that lie at the intersection of general-purpose physical, cognitive, and motor capabilities, while also considering the scientific understanding of interactions with humanoid and anthropomorphic systems. FORMAT: The conference will be organized as a 4-day event opening on December 6th (Sunday) with public panels, seminars, and hackathons, followed by workshops and tutorials on December 7th (Monday), followed by 2 days December 8th-9th (Tuesday-Wednesday) for the main conference with plenaries, keynotes, oral and interactive sessions, and industry events. A centrally located exhibition will feature the latest humanoid technology from both industry and academia. TOPICS: We invite papers in all areas related to humanoid robotics, including, but not limited to: - Human biomechanics and motor control, human body and behavior modeling - Bionic / human-inspired design principles for humanoids - Human-inspired robot control - Whole-body dynamics and control - Optimization, optimal control, and model predictive control methods - Learning methods for humanoid robots - Robot modeling for locomotion and/or manipulation - Exoskeleton / wearable robot design and control - Prosthesis design and control - Physical and social human-humanoid interaction - Dynamic legged locomotion (bipeds, quadrupeds, etc.) - Loco-manipulation, legged manipulation - Dual arm dexterous manipulation - Design, control, and application of multi-finger hands - Stability and robustness of humanoid and legged robots and humans - Simulation and physics-based animations from computer graphics - Humanoid heads and faces, geminoids - Novel materials, mechanisms, and actuators for humanoids - Perception for humanoids - Human-centered robotic studies and applications - Neuro-robotics and brain-robot interfaces for humanoids and humans - Real-world applications for humanoid robots (industry, healthcare, home, space, disaster response) - Benchmarks, performance indicators for humanoid robots - Ethical and social challenges of humanoid robot deployment - Long-term deployment of humanoid, bipedal, or dual arm manipulation robots PAPERS: The paper submission deadline is July 24th, 2026, Anywhere on Earth (AOE). The maximum paper length is 8 pages, including references; additional pages are not permitted. Papers must be submitted in a PDF format; the maximum paper PDF file size is 6 MB. Papers can be submitted via PaperPlaza: https://ras.papercept.net/conferences/scripts/start.pl SUPPLEMENTARY VIDEOS: Each paper can be accompanied by one (1) optional supplementary video. You may upload or re-upload this attachment up to three (3) days after the paper submission deadline (i.e. by July 27th, 2026, AOE). Videos must be submitted in an MP4, MPG, or MPEG format; the maximum video file size is 20 MB. PAPER PRESENTATIONS: Accepted papers will be presented either in single-track oral sessions or in interactive poster sessions. All accepted papers will appear in the proceedings of the conference and on IEEE Xplore without distinction. EXHIBITION: Industry leaders are eager to see your organization’s latest developments, connect, learn, and collaborate. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a strong, in-person impression. For more information contact Hall-Erickson, Inc: humanoids(a)heiexpo.com <HUMANOIDS(a)heiexpo.com> MORE INFORMATION: For more information, please visit the conference contributions webpage (https://2026.ieee-humanoids.org/call-for-papers) or contact the Program Chairs: Luis Sentis, Serena Ivaldi, and Gentiane Venture (humanoids2026-tc(a)ieee.org). We look forward to your contributions to Humanoids 2026! — The Humanoids 2026 General Chairs: - Andra Keay (Silicon Valley Robotics) - Ross Mead (Semio)

1 0

[Event] IEEE RAS Summer School in Germany 2026
by Zlatan Ajanovic 25 Jun '26

25 Jun '26

IEEE RAS Summer School in Germany 2026First Call for Applications and SAVE THE DATE!!! The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) German Chapter is pleased to announce the IEEE RAS Summer School on Cognitive Robotics, taking place from September 7–11, 2026, at the historic Abtei Frauenwörth, Chiemsee, Germany. ------------------------------ About the Summer School Robotics has rapidly evolved from laboratory research into a transformative technology impacting manufacturing, healthcare, mobility, civil security, and everyday life. At the same time, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have unlocked unprecedented capabilities for autonomous systems. While AI techniques for perception and vision-based action are now widely adopted in robotics, the integration of higher-level cognitive capabilities for long-horizon and long-term autonomy—such as decision making, automated planning, continual learning, task and motion integration, and human-AI interaction—remains one of the most exciting and open research frontiers. This Summer School brings together leading researchers from AI and robotics to explore the foundations and future of cognitive robotics. Participants will gain insights into state-of-the-art methods that enable robots to reason, learn, interact, and pursue goals in dynamic, uncertain, and human-centered environments. Beyond the lectures, the Summer School offers a unique opportunity to: - Learn directly from internationally renowned experts, - Discuss research ideas in an intimate and highly interactive setting, - Build connections with fellow students, researchers, and practitioners, - Engage with successful entrepreneurs working at the forefront of robotics and automation. ------------------------------ How to Apply Applications must be submitted by July 10, 2026 via the following Google Form: https://forms.gle/qPg2g3J8QYWgaarz6 As part of the application, you will be asked to provide: - A Curriculum Vitae (CV) in PDF format (uploaded through the form), - A short statement of motivation explaining why the Summer School is relevant to your interests, studies, research, or professional activities. ------------------------------ Selection and Participation Fee The Summer School is limited to 40 participants, ensuring an engaging learning experience with ample opportunities for interaction with lecturers and fellow attendees. Participants will be selected primarily based on their motivation and the relevance of the Summer School to their academic, research, or professional goals. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive cohort and warmly encourage applications from individuals with a broad range of technical backgrounds. Successful applicants will be invited to confirm their participation through registration and payment of the participation fee. While attendance at all lectures and scientific activities is free of charge, the participation fee covers: - Accommodation (September 6–11, 2026), - Meals, - Coffee breaks, - Social activities during the Summer School. The participation fee will not exceed: - €800 for non-students, - €700 for students. IEEE members are eligible for additional discounts. We are actively pursuing further sponsorship opportunities and will make every effort to reduce the participation fee. The amounts listed above represent the maximum fees, and the final fees may be lower once registration opens. ------------------------------ Confirmed Lecturers We are currently expanding the programme, but are delighted to already announce the following confirmed speakers, whose lectures will cover a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from automated planning and reasoning to the integration of high-level task reasoning with low-level motion planning, as well as state-of-the-art machine learning techniques for robotics. - Brian Williams – Professor, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Hector Geffner – Professor, Chair of Machine Learning and Reasoning, RWTH Aachen University - Hermann Blum – Professor for Robot Perception and Learning, Lamarr Institute/University of Bonn - Jan Peters – Professor for Intelligent Autonomous Systems, TU Darmstadt - João Silvério – Head of the Interactive Skill Learning Group, German Aerospace Center (DLR) - Majid Khadiv – Professor for AI Planning in Dynamic Environments, Technical University of Munich (TUM) - Marc Toussaint – Professor for AI and Robotics, TU Berlin - Rudolf Lioutikov – Professor, Intuitive Robots Lab, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Additional speakers will be announced soon. ------------------------------ Further Information For additional information, please visit: https://r8.ieee.org/germany-ras/2026/05/11/ieee-ras-german-summer-schools-2… If you cannot find the information you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to welcoming you to Chiemsee in September 2026! IEEE RAS German Chapter Summer School Organising Committee

1 0

[meetings] Quori Virtual Community Meeting
by Ross Mead 19 Jun '26

19 Jun '26

Hello colleagues! On Wednesday, June 24th, 11am-1pm PDT (GMT-7), we are hosting a virtual/remote meeting for HRI and general robotics researchers interested in the development status of the Quori robot platform. All are welcome! Quori is an NSF-funded, not-for-profit, open-everything, modular, social robot platform for the robotics research community (https://quori.org). At this virtual meeting, we will provide Quori development updates, and outline plans for cost, timeline, and distribution of Quori units. To attend the meeting or to simply indicate your interest in the Quori robot platform, please RSVP to the Google Form HERE <https://forms.gle/fAGrd7MED31vwyKg9>, and we will get back to you with a meeting invite. You are encouraged to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in Quori. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks and we hope to see you at the Quori virtual community meeting! -- The Quori Project Team * Ross Mead (Semio) * Bill Smart (Oregon State University) * Mark Yim (University of Pennsylvania) * Simon Kim (University of Pennsylvania) * Naomi Fitter (Oregon State University)

1 0

[Regional Committees] Candidate nomination (update and correction)
by Ferrein, Alexander Antoine 11 Jun '26

11 Jun '26

Dear RoboCup Regional Committee Chairs, In my previous email, I included some non-public links, sorry for that. Further, I was asked to give you some more context about the possible elections that might take place at RobCup in Incheon. In case, the election will take place (see my previous mail), each regional committee will have one vote. Before that, Regional Committees can nominate eligible candidates. The list of candidates can be found here: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/LQSpdbPYZpb7cwH How to nominate and vote: The RoboCup bylaws specify that anyone who has been an executive committee member or trustee in the past is eligible to be elected. All candidates must have a Ph.D. (or are at a similar career stage) and have been on the executive committee or board of trustees within the past five years. If you would like to see any of the candidates being nominated for the election to become a RoboCup Trustee, please send us up to 3 nominations by June 24, by filling out the following form: https://cloud.robocup.org/apps/forms/s/Y2WoCxCJDbYT4i4sdtFkWToR Anyone who receives 3 nominations will be included on the ballot (as long as the candidate is interested in being nominated). If you would like to consult with your committee for the nominations, please do. Or else, please act on your own as the committee chair. In a separate email, I will contact the RC Chairs to send them the CVs of the candidates. If there are still some issues with the links or further questions about the matter, please contact me! Kind regards, Maike & Alexander -- Prof. Dr. Alexander Ferrein Mobile Autonomous Systems & Cognitive Robotics Institute Robotics and Foundations of Computer Science FH Aachen - University of Applied Sciences Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Eupener Strasse 70 | 52066 Aachen | Germany T: +49 241 6009 51904 | F: +49 241 6009 52190 E: ferrein(a)fh-aachen.de | W: www.ferrein.fh-aachen.de Speaker Major Competitions of the RoboCup German Regional Committee W: www.robocup.de Former Vice-Chair of the African-German Network of Excellence in Science A Network of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation W: www.agnes-h.org

1 0

[Regional Committees] New procedures and candidate nomination
by Ferrein, Alexander Antoine 10 Jun '26

10 Jun '26

Dear Regional Committee Chair, dear RoboCupers, For a better visibility and presence of all the great RoboCup activities around the world, we need a strong community that builds upon strong organisation in the different regions of the world! We therefore reviewed and are restructuring our processes and organisation of RoboCup representation in the different regions. As of the 2027 season (that starts right after RoboCup 2026 in Incheon), we require a registration of all the regional committees around the world following new and democratic processes with the aim to have a better representation of all the RoboCup leagues and activities that are going on in the world. Another goal is to support long-standing regional RoboCup competitions better, and have a better point of contact, if any questions or issues arise. We make available the new procedures for RoboCup Regional or Superregional Committee with accreditation procedures, FAQs and bylaw templates that you will have to submit in order to become or stay a Regional Committee. The documents will be made available at https://www.robocup.org/organization/regional_committees. This will happen in the next few days. In the meantime, you can make yourself familiar with the new procedures located at For RoboCup 2026, we ask all existing RoboCup Regional or Superregional committees to report on the activities of the 2026 season in the usual way, with a short presentation of the activities. The PowerPoint template is available at: https://cloud.robocup.org/s/e4ztPBn48E4y7eD . <https://cloud.robocup.org/s/9wmeXqCNcGMBDKC> [9wmeXqCNcGMBDKC.png] RoboCup_Regional_Committee-Procedures+FAQ-260528.pdf<https://cloud.robocup.org/s/9wmeXqCNcGMBDKC> cloud.robocup.org<https://cloud.robocup.org/s/9wmeXqCNcGMBDKC> In a separate mail, you will get the invitation to the Regional Committee Meeting at RoboCup 2026 in Incheon. Another topic today is the Trustee election by the Regional Committees. As you know, one of the seats in the Board of Trustees (BoT) is filled by an election from the Regional Committees. As seats might become available (if the existing Trustees will for any reasons not serve their second term), we need to prepare a Trustee election, as we did in the previous years. There is a voting form available at https://cloud.robocup.org/apps/forms/reYYsHcp9JQsEoT5 and you as a Regional Committee Chair are asked to prepare a quorum in your regional committee and submit names of three candidates that your region would like to nominate via the form within the next two weeks. If you have any further question, please feel free to contact us Sincerely, Maike & Alexander on behalf of the Regional Committee Working Group and the Board of Trustees of the RoboCup Federation -- Prof. Dr. Alexander Ferrein Mobile Autonomous Systems & Cognitive Robotics Institute Robotics and Foundations of Computer Science FH Aachen - University of Applied Sciences Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Eupener Strasse 70 | 52066 Aachen | Germany T: +49 241 6009 51904 | F: +49 241 6009 52190 E: ferrein(a)fh-aachen.de | W: www.ferrein.fh-aachen.de Speaker Major Competitions of the RoboCup German Regional Committee W: www.robocup.de Former Vice-Chair of the African-German Network of Excellence in Science A Network of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation W: www.agnes-h.org

1 0

[meetings][CFP] [RO-MAN 2026] Second call for Workshop on Towards Ethical Deception in HRI
by Alessandra Rossi 04 Jun '26

04 Jun '26

Dear colleagues, It is our pleasure to invite you to submit your works at the Workshop on Towards Ethical Deception in HRI that is organised @ the IEEE RO-MAN 2026 conference, held in Kitakyushu, Japan. We will have two exceptional speakers with very interesting and different views on the topic, and they will spark engaging and endearing conversations: Kaoru Sumi, Future University (Hakodate, Japan) and Robert Sparrow, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). Accepted papers will also be invited to submit a paper at the Special Issue based on this workshop at International Journal of Social Robotics (Q1). You can find the full CFP below, but also on our website https://sites.google.com/view/ted-hri Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. best regards Alessandra TED_HRI 2026 Towards Ethical Deception in HRI Kitakyushu International Conference Center, Kitakyushu, Japan 24-28 August 2024 - Workshop website: https://sites.google.com/view/ted-hri - Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ted-hri26 - Deadline for paper submission: 26 June 2026 This workshop focuses on the ethical and pro-social use of deceptive and persuasive behaviours in social robotics, exploring how robots deployed in healthcare, educational, caregiving, and domestic environments can strategically employ techniques such as white lies, intentional errors, and selective information omission to improve user well-being and interaction effectiveness. As social robots evolve beyond reactive dialogue systems toward socio-emotionally aware agents capable of addressing users' broader psychological needs, the deliberate and context-sensitive use of deception emerges as a nuanced but potentially valuable behavioural strategy. At the same time, the workshop critically engages with the controversies surrounding robot deception, acknowledging the lack of scholarly consensus on its definition and the ethical boundaries that must govern its application. By bringing together researchers from multiple disciplines, the workshop aims to advance a shared understanding of how robots might ethically leverage deceptive and persuasive mechanisms to improve human well-being without exploiting human vulnerabilities. Submission & List of Topics The workshop is open to a broad audience from academia and industry researching social robotics, robot ethics, cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy of technology. The workshop aims to attract an interdisciplinary audience that includes academics, industry researchers, designers, and policy-makers interested in exploring the integration of deceptive techniques in designed-centred and ethics-centred HRI. By fostering dialogue across disciplinary and methodological boundaries, the workshop seeks to promote a shared understanding of how social robots might responsibly employ complex behavioural strategies in human-centred contexts, such as education, healthcare and service. We will invite authors to submit scientific papers ranging from 2 to 6 pages, with additional space for references and appendices. We will accept different types of works, including preliminary findings, case studies, position papers, surveys and cutting-edge research on the workshop topics. Accepted papers will have short oral presentations. We will encourage authors of the accepted papers to present a video or to demonstrate their work. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Pro-social deception. - Anti-social robot deception. - Ethical (RoboEthics) implications of deceptive robotics. - Creating deceptive robots. Mechanisms of deceptive robots. - Applications of deceptive robots. - Machine learning and deceptive robots. - Counter-deception and resilience (both for humans and robots) - Who decides who can be deceived (and when)? - Responsible development of robotic deception, including participatory design for the development of appropriate deceptive behaviours - The deception objection debate: Are emotionally expressive robots deceptive? Submission Guidelines Authors should submit their papers formatted according to the IEEE two-column format <http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/support.php>, which is also used for contributions to the main conference. Use the following templates to create the paper and generate or export a PDF file: LaTeX <http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/tex.php> or MS-Word <http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/word.php>. Authors needs to submit their PDF via EasyChair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ted-hri26>. Each paper will receive at least two reviews. All papers are reviewed using a single-blind review process: authors declare their names and affiliations in the manuscript for the reviewers to see, but reviewers do not know each other's identities, nor do the authors receive information about who has reviewed their manuscript. Committees - Kantwon Rogers, Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, Massachusetts, USA - Andres Rosero, George Mason University, Virginia, USA - Alessandra Rossi, University of Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy - Silvia Rossi, University of Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy - Henrik Skaug Sætra, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway - Alan Wagner, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA ContactAll questions about submissions should be emailed to alessandra.rossi(a)unina.it

1 0