IEEE ICRA 2027

Successful Conference Attendance: Prepare Before Conference
2025-05-19 13:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York)

Klaus Building Robotics Lab Tour 2
2025-05-19 13:00 - 15:30
Departure Time: 1:00 PM
Return Time: 3:30 PM
Capacity: 15
Touring of the robotics labs at Klaus Advanced Computing Building (KACB)

Successful Conference Attendance: Provide Ongoing Service
2025-05-19 13:30 - 14:00

Multi-Modal Sensing and Shared Control: The Future of Wearable Robotics?
2025-05-19 13:30 - 17:30
Meeting Room: 309
Multi-modal sensing and shared control are rapidly evolving fields that are pivotal to advancing the field of wearable robotics. This half-day workshop will delve into cutting-edge technologies that incorporate multiple sensing modalities—such as visual, tactile, and electrophysiological inputs—into wearable devices, improving their adaptability and functionality. We will also explore shared control, where users and robotic systems collaborate to enhance both user experience and performance across various applications, from rehabilitation to personal assistance.
By integrating novel sensing modalities and biosignals within unified control architectures, researchers have a unique opportunity to explore how to increase device autonomy while still enabling users to maintain a sense of agency and ownership. Participants will gain insights into the latest innovations and emerging trends in wearable robotics focusing on multimodal sensing and shared control, showing how these technologies can improve device utility, thereby enhancing quality of life for users.

Learning Meets Model-Based Methods for Contact-Rich Manipulation
2025-05-19 13:30 - 17:30
Meeting Room: 412
This workshop explores the challenge of enabling robots to autonomously handle complex, contact-rich interactions. Traditionally, model-based methods have provided structured frameworks for planning and control, while recent learning-based methods have leveraged large datasets to achieve new capabilities. However, these methods often overlook the structured insights that model-based approaches offer.
As robotics continues to evolve, there is a growing need to integrate the adaptability of learning-based techniques with the precision and efficiency of model-based strategies. The workshop will bring together researchers to debate the future of dexterous robot manipulation and the roles of model-based optimization versus data-driven approaches.
Key questions to be explored include:

Is a structured approach still necessary for future robots, or can expressive neural networks alone suffice?
What role will model-based optimization play in the future of dexterous robot manipulation?
How can we effectively use limited data to train robots, and should we impose more structure to enhance learning?
Will the development of comprehensive robot datasets remain an open challenge?
Can the integration of model-based and learning-based methods lead to more robust and versatile robotic systems?

The workshop will feature talks, presentations, and heated debates to evaluate how these approaches can be combined to enhance robotic autonomy and efficiency in contact-rich environments. Participants will critically examine whether traditional robotics techniques remain relevant in a field increasingly dominated by machine learning and discuss the skills and strategies needed to develop the next generation of intelligent robots.

Successful Conference Attendance: Participate in Conference Activities
2025-05-19 14:00 - 14:30, 2025-05-19 14:30 - 15:00

Break/Graduate Student Panel
2025-05-19 15:00 - 16:30

Panel on Future Opportunities & Challenges in Robotics
2025-05-19 16:30 - 17:30
Panelists: Michael Beetz, Kostas Bekris, Stephen Guy

Welcome Reception
2025-05-19 18:00 - 19:30
Meeting Room: Hall A1/A2

Arts in Robotics: Medusai
2025-05-19 19:30 - 21:30 | The Goat Farm Arts Center
Performance + Installation of Medusai by Gil Weinberg and team
Buses will leave GWCC at 7:30 p.m. and 8:10 p.m., with the performance starting at 8:30 p.m., then return to GWCC at 9:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m., respectively.

Registration Open
2025-05-20 08:00 - 18:30, 2025-05-21 08:00 - 17:30
Meeting Room: Level 4 Concourse

Opening Session
2025-05-20 09:00 - 09:30
Meeting Room: Hall A3

Exhibit Hall Open
2025-05-20 09:00 - 18:00

Morning Coffee Break
2025-05-20 09:30 - 09:55

Technical Sessions & Keynote
2025-05-20 09:55 - 11:05, 2025-05-20 11:15 - 12:15, 2025-05-20 15:15 - 16:25, 2025-05-20 16:35 - 17:35
View Technical Sessions >
View Keynote Sessions >

Break
2025-05-20 11:05 - 11:15, 2025-05-20 16:25 - 16:35

Lunch
2025-05-20 12:15 - 13:45

Lunch with Leaders
2025-05-20 12:15 - 13:45
Meeting Room: International Ballroom F (Omni Hotel)
As a student or young professional attendee, you will meet and interact with distinguished RAS leaders from academia and industry. The event will feature informal roundtable discussions over lunch, which allows participants to receive career advice, gain insight into the future, or simply engage in general conversation to get to know pioneers in the field.
Don’t miss out on this chance to elevate your networking experience and make meaningful connections with figures in the world of robotics and automation.
There is no charge for this luncheon; however, space is limited. Register in advance at this link here.
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Young Professionals Luncheon
2025-05-20 12:30 - 13:30
Meeting Room: International Ballroom E (Omni Hotel)
Empowering the Next Generation: IEEE Young Professionals Luncheon
Join us for a dynamic and engaging luncheon designed to empower the next generation of leaders in technology and engineering. This event provides a unique opportunity for IEEE Young Professionals to network with peers, industry experts, and thought leaders. Attendees will gain valuable insights into career development, emerging technologies, and strategies for professional growth. Enjoy a delicious meal while participating in interactive discussions and activities aimed at fostering innovation and collaboration. Don’t miss this chance to build connections, share experiences, and be inspired to take your career to the next level.
From Tool to Threat? Generative AI and the Future of Robotic Research
As generative AI technologies rapidly evolve, their integration into robotic research has ushered in unprecedented possibilities, from accelerating simulation environments and optimizing control systems to enabling autonomous decision-making and human-robot interaction. However, alongside these innovations arise critical concerns around transparency, reproducibility, ethical boundaries, and the potential for misuse. The objective of the event is to discuss both the constructive and controversial roles of generative AI in robotics. Topics of discussion will include methodological integrity, dataset biases, synthetic data generation, algorithmic accountability, and the implications of AI-authored research. The event aims to have a critical reflection to chart a responsible path forward for integrating generative AI in robotics while safeguarding scientific rigor and societal trust.
SPEAKERS

Elena De Momi, Full professor at Politecnico di MilanoTitle of the presentation: “Gen AI in the medical robotics domain”

Read Speaker Bio

Elena received her MSc in Biomedical Engineering in 2002, PhD in Bioengineering in 2006, and she is currently Full Professor in the Electronic Information and Bioengineering Department (DEIB) of Politecnico di Milano. She is co-founder of the Neuroengineering and Medical Robotics Laboratory, in 2008, being responsible of the Medical Robotics section. IEEE Senior Member, she is currently Senior Editor of the Int. Journal of Robotics Research, Editor of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine and Associate Editor of the IEEE Transaction on Robotics and Robotics and Automation Letters and of the IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering. She has been Publication Chair and Co-Chair for IEEE ICRA 2019, 2023 and 2024 and is Program Chair of IROS 2025. She is responsible for the lab course in Medical Robotics, of the courses on Clinical Technology Assessment and Smart Hospital of the MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano and of the course in Healthcare Robotics and Active Ageing at MEDTEC (Humanitas University) and she serves in the board committee of the PhD course in Bioengineering and of the National PhD in Robotics and Intelligent Machines.

Elena received her MSc in Biomedical Engineering in 2002, PhD in Bioengineering in 2006, and she is currently Full Professor in the Electronic Information and Bioengineering Department (DEIB) of Politecnico di Milano. She is co-founder of the Neuroengineering and Medical Robotics Laboratory, in 2008, being responsible of the Medical Robotics section. IEEE Senior Member, she is currently Senior Editor of the Int. Journal of Robotics Research, Editor of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine and Associate Editor of the IEEE Transaction on Robotics and Robotics and Automation Letters and of the IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering. She has been Publication Chair and Co-Chair for IEEE ICRA 2019, 2023 and 2024 and is Program Chair of IROS 2025. She is responsible for the lab course in Medical Robotics, of the courses on Clinical Technology Assessment and Smart Hospital of the MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano and of the course in Healthcare Robotics and Active Ageing at MEDTEC (Humanitas University) and she serves in the board committee of the PhD course in Bioengineering and of the National PhD in Robotics and Intelligent Machines.

Rachid Alami, Senior Scientist at LAAS-CNRSTitle of the presentation: “Toward AI-enabled HRI: Human and robot are not equal”

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Dr. Rachid Alami is Senior Scientist at LAAS-CNRS. He received an engineer diploma in computer science in 1978 from ENSEEIHT, a Ph.D in Robotics in 1983 from Institut National Polytechnique and an Habilitation HDR in 1996 from Paul Sabatier University. He contributed and took responsibilities in several national, European and international research and/or collaborative projects (ESPRIT: MARTHA, PROMotion, IST FP6 projects: COGNIRON, URUS, PHRIENDS, and FP7 projects: CHRIS, SAPHARI, ARCAS, SPENCER, H2020: MuMMER, France: VAP-RISP for planetary rovers, several ANR projects). He is holding since 2019 the Academic Chair on Cognitive and Interactive Robotics at the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI) His main research contributions fall in the fields of Robot Decisional and Control Architectures, Task and motion planning, multi-robot cooperation, and human-robot interaction.

Dr. Rachid Alami is Senior Scientist at LAAS-CNRS. He received an engineer diploma in computer science in 1978 from ENSEEIHT, a Ph.D in Robotics in 1983 from Institut National Polytechnique and an Habilitation HDR in 1996 from Paul Sabatier University. He contributed and took responsibilities in several national, European and international research and/or collaborative projects (ESPRIT: MARTHA, PROMotion, IST FP6 projects: COGNIRON, URUS, PHRIENDS, and FP7 projects: CHRIS, SAPHARI, ARCAS, SPENCER, H2020: MuMMER, France: VAP-RISP for planetary rovers, several ANR projects). He is holding since 2019 the Academic Chair on Cognitive and Interactive Robotics at the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI) His main research contributions fall in the fields of Robot Decisional and Control Architectures, Task and motion planning, multi-robot cooperation, and human-robot interaction.

Plenary Session
2025-05-20 13:45 - 14:45
For information on the plenary sessions taking place at ICRA 2025, including the speakers, topics, and abstracts, please visit this page: https://2027.2025.ieee-icra.org/program/plenary-sessions/

Robot Ethics Forum
2025-05-20 13:45 - 18:00 | Room 310
Meeting Room: 310
Since its inception, the field of Robotics has been fraught with ethical risk. Moreover, the same risks that haunted the field at its inception continue to represent prominent challenges today. In this forum, we will focus on two key areas of ethical concern surrounding robots: their use as tools of surveillance and their impacts on labor.
To explore these topics, the ICRA 2025 Ethics Forum will bring together experts from disparate fields of study to examine the historical antecedents of these concerns, the modern ways in which these concerns manifest, the ways these concerns are expected to manifest in the future, the technical approaches that we (as technologists) might take to address the concerns, and the social approaches that we (as citizens) might also (or alternatively) pursue to address those same concerns.
2:00 PM – 2:10 PM: Ayanna Howard: Introduction
2:10 PM – 2:45 PM: Tom Williams
2:45 PM – 3:15 PM: Main Break on schedule
3:15 PM – 3:50 PM: Bill Smart
3:50 PM – 4:25 PM: Wendy Ju
4:25 PM – 4:35 PM: Short Break on schedule
4:35 PM – 5:10 PM: Hee Rin Lee
5:10 PM – 6:00 PM: Panel: Bill Smart, Wendy Ju, Hee Rin Lee, Salem Elzway, Jules Roscoe (Mod. Tom Williams)

Afternoon Coffee Break
2025-05-20 14:45 - 15:15

IEEE RAS Town Hall
2025-05-20 17:45 - 18:45
Meeting Room: Sidney Marcus Auditorium
Calling all Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) members, and those interested in learning more about RAS! The RAS leaders want to connect with you at the upcoming RAS Town Hall. They will be present to discuss current initiatives and future programs, and to hear your voice on the priorities of RAS and our community. More details to follow.
All in-person attendees of the Town Hall will be provided with a small RAS gift.
View Presentation >

SAC and Young Reviewers Program (YRP) Social Hour
2025-05-20 19:00 - 21:00
Meeting Room: International Ballroom F (Omni Hotel)
RSVP Form
The Student Activities Committee (SAC) and Young Reviewers Program (YRP) have joined forces to create a memorable event to address some of the common questions that students have about the peer-review process and to connect the community.
These questions include:

How often do you receive shallow and poorly written reviews for your papers?
Have you ever doubted the right way to review somebody else’s work?
Do you really know everything about the review process of the conference/journal where you would like to submit your contribution?

If you are interested in learning more about these topics, then the SAC and YRP Social Hour is the perfect event for you!
The Young Reviewers Program (YRP) is designed to help RAS members learn about the best practices in peer review. This event will provide information about RAS’s review process and offer guidelines for reviewing scientific papers. Both senior and junior reviewers are welcome to attend!
Additional time will be available for students to get to know each other and network, which makes it easier to engage in thoughtful conversations on the future of robotics and automation during the remainder of the conference.
There is NO CHARGE for this event, but space is limited. Register in advance!
