The 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2025) will be held from 19-25 October in Hangzhou, China. The programme includes plenary and keynote talks, workshops, tutorials, forums, competitions, and a debate.
Plenary talks
There are three plenary talks on the programme this year, with one per day on Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22, and Thursday 23 October.
- Marco Hutter – The New Era of Mobility: Humanoids and Quadrupeds Enter the Real WorldHyoun Jin Kim – Autonomous Aerial Manipulation: Toward Physically Intelligent Robots in FlightSong-Chun Zhu – TongBrain: Bridging Physical Robots and AGI Agents
Keynote talks
The keynotes this year fall under eleven umbrella topics:
- Rehabilitation & Physically Assistive Systems
- Patrick Wensing – From Controlled Tests to Open Worlds: Advancing Legged Robots and Lower-Limb ProsthesesHao Su – AI-Powered Wearable and Surgical Robots for Human AugmentationLorenzo Masia – Wearable Robots and AI for Rehabilitation and Human AugmentationShingo Shimoda – Science of Awareness: Toward a New Paradigm for Brain-Generated Disorders
- Kevin Chen – Agile and robust micro-aerial-robots driven by soft artificial musclesJosie Hughes – Bioinspired Robots: Building Embodied IntelligenceJee-Hwan Ryu – Soft Growing Robots: From Disaster Response to ColonoscopyLei Ren – Layagrity robotics: inspiration from the human musculoskeletal system
- Bram Vanderborght – Self healing materials for sustainable soft robots”Cecilia Laschi – From AI Scaling to Embodied Control: Toward Energy-Frugal Soft RoboticsKyu-Jin Cho – Soft Wearable Robots: Navigating the Challenges of Building Technology for the Human BodyLi Wen – Multimodal Soft Robots: Elevating Interaction in Complex and Diverse Environments
- Fei Miao – From Uncertainty to Action: Robust and Safe Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Embodied AIXifeng Yan – Adaptive Inference in TransformersLong Cheng – Learning from Demonstrations by the Dynamical System ApproachKarinne Ramírez-Amaro – Transparent Robot Decision-Making with Interpretable & Explainable Methods
- Davide Scaramuzza – Low-latency Robotics with Event CamerasKris Dorsey – Sensor design for soft robotic proprioceptionPerla Maiolino – Shaping Intelligence: Soft Bodies, Sensors, and ExperienceRoberto Calandra – Digitizing Touch and its Importance in Robotics
- Javier Alonso-Mora – Multi-Agent Autonomy: from Interaction-Aware Navigation to Coordinated Mobile ManipulationJing Xiao – Robotic Manipulation in Unknown and Uncertain EnvironmentsDongheui Lee – From Passive Learner to Pro-Active and Inter-Active Learner with Reasoning CapabilitiesYa-Jun Pan – Intelligent Adaptive Robot Interacting with Unknown Environment and Human
- Fumiya Iida – Informatizing Soft Robots for Super Embodied IntelligenceNidhi Seethapathi – Predictive Principles of LocomotionCewu Lu – Digital Gene: An Analytical Universal Embodied Manipulation IdeologyLong Cheng – Learning from Demonstrations by the Dynamical System Approach
- Kenji Suzuki – Small-data Deep Learning for AI Doctor and Smart Medical ImagingLi Zhang – Magnetic Microrobots for Translational Biomedicine: From Individual and Modular Designs to MicroswarmsKanako Harada – Co-evolution of Human and AI-Robots to Expand Science FrontiersLoredana Zollo – Towards Synergistic Human–Machine Interaction in Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics: Multimodal Interfaces, Sensory Feedback, and Future Perspectives
- Matteo Matteucci – Robotics Meets Agriculture: SLAM and Perception for Crop Monitoring and Precision FarmingBrendan Englot – Situational Awareness and Decision-Making Under Uncertainty for Marine RobotsAbhinav Valada – Open World Embodied Intelligence: Learning from Perception to Action in the WildTimothy H. Chung – Catalyzing the Future of Human, Robot, and AI Agent Teams in the Physical World
- Kei Okada – Transforming Humanoid Robot Intelligence: From Reconfigurable Hardware to Human-Centric ApplicationsXingxing Wang – A New Era of Global Collaboration in Intelligent RoboticsWei Zhang – Towards Physical Intelligence in Humanoid RoboticsDennis Hong – Staging the Machine: Not Built for Work, Built for Wonder
- Kenjiro Tadakuma – Topological Robotic MechanismsAngela P. Schoellig – AI-Powered Robotics: From Semantic Understanding to Safe AutonomyLu Liu – Safety-Aware Multi-Agent Self-Deployment: Integrating Cybersecurity and Constrained CoordinationFuchun Sun – Knowledge-Guided Tactile VLA: Bridging the Sim-to-Real Gap with Physics and Geometry Awareness
Debate
On Wednesday, a debate will be held on the following topic: “Humanoids Will Soon Replace Most Human Workers: True or False?” The participants will be: XingXing Wang (Unitree Robotics), Jun-Oh Ho (Samsung and Rainbow Robotics), Hong Qiao (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Andra Keay, (Silicon Valley Robotics), Yu Sun (EiC, IEEE Trans on Automation Science and Engineering), Tamim Asfour (Professor of Humanoid Robotics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Ken Goldberg (UC Berkeley, Moderator).
Tutorials
There are three tutorials planned, taking place on Monday 20 and Friday 24 October.
- Enhancing Digital Accessibility in Higher EducationDesign and Development of Rehabilitation Robotic Devices: Healthcare ChallengesRetico: A Framework for Robot-ready Spoken Dialogue with Robots
Workshops
You can find a list of the workshops here. These will take place on Monday 20 and Friday 24 October.There are 83 to choose from this year.
