Call for Papers: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) 2026

The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is the premier venue for innovations on human-robot interaction. The 21st edition of HRI, themed “HRI Empowering Society”, will be held from March 16–19, 2026. HRI brings together researchers spanning robotics, human-computer interaction, human factors, artificial intelligence, engineering, and social and behavioral sciences.

HRI seeks contributions from a broad set of perspectives, including technical, design, behavioral, theoretical, and methodological, that advance fundamental and applied research in human-robot interaction. Full papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library.

Tracks

The HRI 2025 full paper submissions will have five tracks:

• Theory and Methods: Focuses on conceptual foundations and expanding how we think about human-robot interaction and research methods.
• Design: Focuses on design-centric research, including novel design approaches, morphologies, behavior paradigms, interaction techniques, and contexts.
• Technical: Focuses on novel algorithms, mathematical models, tools, hardware elements, or human-robot interfaces with details for reproducibility.
• Systems: Focuses on contributions that synthesize techniques and/or technologies for system-level HRI behavior, best observed through integrated system performance.
• User Studies: Welcomes submissions providing new knowledge about human-robot interactions based on studies involving people, including laboratory or field studies, ethnographic work, and replication studies.

User Studies Subthemes:

• Interpersonal Constructs: Focuses on emotional, social, behavioural, and interpersonal aspects of HRI.
• Special Populations: Examines how robots support learning, therapy, care, or personal growth.
• Teams, Collaboration & Communication: Explores task-based interaction and teamwork with robots.

Important Dates

• Abstract Submission Deadline (required for all full papers): September 22, 2025
• Full Paper Submissions Deadline: September 30, 2025
• Review Notification: November 10, 2025
• Rebuttals Due: November 14, 2025
• Decision Notification: December 1, 2025
• Camera Ready Deadline: January 9, 2026
• Workshop Proposals: October 2025 (Tentative)
• Late-Breaking Reports: December 2025 (Tentative)

Submission Guidelines

Format and Submission

• Full papers are up to eight camera-ready pages, including figures, but excluding references. Submissions exceeding this limit (excluding references) will be desk rejected.
• All papers must be submitted in PDF format and conform to IEEE Proceedings specifications.
• Templates are available via the IEEE Proceedings specifications link and can be used via Overleaf.

Abstract Requirement

Please note that all full papers require submitting an abstract and basic details about the paper one week before the paper submission deadline. Submissions with incomplete or placeholder information will not be accepted.

Anonymization

• The HRI 2026 full papers review process is double-blind.
• Every aspect of all submissions must be properly anonymized. Violations will lead to desk rejection. Detailed guidelines will be provided.

Supplementary Materials

• Authors may upload up to three supplemental files (videos, appendices, artifacts) but they must be properly anonymized and cannot be used to bypass page limits.

Studies with Human Participants

• Submissions involving studies with human participants must clearly outline their methodology, including participant demographics, data collection/analysis methods, study environment, and details on robot platforms or Wizard-of-Oz paradigms if applicable.
• An ethical approval statement is required, including the name of the IRB/ethics committee or an explanation for its absence. Consent from legal carers/parents and oral assent from minors must be described.
• Authors will be asked to declare whether their research involves human participants and if ethics approval was obtained during submission.

Policy on Use of ChatGPT or Similar Models

• Text, images, or any material generated from foundation models (LLMs, VLMs etc.) must be clearly marked.
• AI systems do not satisfy the criteria for authorship and cannot be used as citable sources. Authors are responsible for content, plagiarism, and veracity.

Desk Rejects

Desk rejections occur during initial checks for reasons including:

• Scope: Clearly out of scope for the conference.
• Anonymization: Violation of anonymization rules.
• Incomplete submissions: Missing essential information.
• Formatting issues: Exceeding page limits or incorrect format.
• Other obvious issues: Unfinished paper, un-marked LLM use, not in English.

Publication Model (ACM Open)

ACM is transitioning to 100% Open Access starting January 1, 2026. Authors can publish via the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs).

• Authors from institutions participating in ACM Open will generally not require APCs.
• Authors from non-participating institutions may need to pay an APC, unless they qualify for a waiver.
• For 2026, ACM is offering a temporary subsidized APC:
  • $250 for ACM/SIG members
  • $350 for non-members

Contact Information

For any questions, please contact the Program Chairs:

• Maartje de Graaf (Utrecht University)
• Matthew Gombolay (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Ilaria Torre (Chalmers University of Technology)

Email: pc2026@humanrobotinteraction.org