London Archives - ROBOPHILOSOPHY

July 3, 2026July 4, 2026

Goodbye, ICSR + Art 2026

The 18th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR + Art 2026) took place in London from July 1–4, bringing together researchers, academics, and industry professionals from around the world to explore the latest advances in social robotics. Hosted by Hooman Samani and Saina Akhond from the University of the Arts London, the conference welcomed around 350 participants who presented their latest research in the main track and special sessions while engaging in lively discussions with both humans and robots in the Debate Room. Teams also competed in the Grand Challenge, showcasing innovative concepts and working prototypes that demonstrated the future potential of social robotics. A series of inspiring keynote presentations explored emerging technologies as well as important methodological questions shaping the field, while robot performances and a memorable robot dance featuring Silke Grabinger added an artistic dimension to the event. Throughout the conference, attendees had the opportunity to meet an impressive range of social robots, including Furhat, Ameca, Euclid, Lovot, and Mirumi. Furhat and Ameca represented highly expressive humanoid platforms capable of remarkably lifelike interactions, while Euclid attracted particular attention as an open-source humanoid robot built for only a few hundred dollars, proving that affordable hardware can compete with well-known androids such as Sophia and Erika. In contrast, Lovot and Mirumi showcased the softer side of social robotics. Mirumi, a small furry wearable companion robot, charmed visitors with its ability to cling to the handle of a handbag using its tiny arms and is expected to appear soon in pop-up stores, particularly targeting girls and women. On the third evening, after a thought-provoking panel discussion and another series of robot performances, enthusiastic participants left the illuminated Senate House inspired by several days of groundbreaking research, creative collaboration, and a shared vision of how humans and robots will shape the future together. Further information is available at icsr2026.uk.

July 2, 2026July 4, 2026

Can MLLMs Distinguish Human Laughter?

The 18th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR + Art 2026) is currently taking place in London from July 1–4, bringing together researchers, academics, and industry professionals from around the world to explore the latest developments in social robotics. The conference serves as an international platform for exchanging ideas on how intelligent systems can better understand, interact with, and support people in everyday life. On the second day of the conference, Sahan Hatemo, a student at the FHNW School of Computer Science, presented the paper “Reading Between the Laughs: A Human-Referenced Audio Evaluation of MLLMs for Social Robotics”, co-authored with Dr. Katharina Kühne (University of Potsdam) and Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel (FHNW School of Business). The study investigates whether today’s leading multimodal large language models (MLLMs) can distinguish authentic from non-authentic laughter using audio signals alone. As laughter is an important social cue, the ability to recognize its authenticity could significantly improve how robots and AI systems communicate with people in social settings. The researchers found notable differences in how the evaluated AI models interpreted laughter. OpenAI models showed a clear tendency to classify most laughter as genuine, while Gemini models were generally more skeptical in their assessments. Despite these contrasting biases, several models performed significantly better than chance, with Gemini 2.5 Pro achieving the strongest overall performance. A closer analysis also revealed qualitative differences in the models’ decision-making. Less capable models appeared to rely on superficial acoustic features, such as pitch, and were more likely to classify higher-pitched laughter as less authentic. In contrast, the best-performing model seemed to focus on more sophisticated aspects of voice quality, indicating a deeper understanding of the characteristics that distinguish genuine from non-authentic laughter. The findings demonstrate the growing potential of multimodal AI for social robotics. As robots increasingly become part of everyday environments, the ability to accurately interpret subtle social signals such as laughter could play a crucial role in fostering trust, improving communication, and strengthening human-robot relationships. Further information is available at icsr2026.uk.

April 15, 2026April 15, 2026

Keynote Speakers of ICSR + Art 2026

The 18th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR + Art 2026) will take place in London, UK, from 1–4 July 2026. ICSR is the leading international forum that brings together researchers, academics, and industry professionals from across disciplines to advance the field of social robotics. This year’s conference will feature three distinguished keynote speakers whose work is shaping the future of artificial intelligence, robotics, and human-robot interaction. Hatice Gunes, Professor of Affective Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Cambridge, is internationally recognised for her pioneering research on affective computing, multimodal intelligence, and socially aware AI systems, with a strong emphasis on ethics, fairness, and wellbeing in robotics. Jean Oh, Associate Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and Director of the roBot Intelligence Group, is known for her work on collaborative robots, social navigation, and creative physical AI, focusing on developing robots that learn, adapt, and work safely alongside humans in shared environments. Nicolas Heess, Research Scientist and Director at Google DeepMind, leads cutting-edge research on general-purpose robotics and embodied AI, exploring how advances in machine learning, perception, and motor control can bring intelligent robots into the physical world. Together, these keynote speakers represent the forefront of research and innovation driving the next generation of social robotics. Further information on the keynote programme is available at: icsr2026.uk/keynote/.

March 5, 2026March 5, 2026

Final Call for ICSR + Art 2026

The 18th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR + Art 2026) will take place in London, UK, from 1–4 July 2026. ICSR is the leading international forum that brings together researchers, academics, and industry professionals from across disciplines to advance the field of social robotics. For its 18th edition, the conference will present the special theme ICSR + Art, highlighting how robots can move beyond their conventional roles to become tools, partners, and co-creators within artistic and creative practices. At the same time, the conference remains open to the full breadth of social robotics research, including human–robot interaction, medical and assistive robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, ethics, design, education, and cultural applications. Accepted papers will be published in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) series and indexed in major academic databases. Due to current extenuating circumstances worldwide and following requests from several authors, the submission deadlines have been extended by a few additional days to allow additional time for final submissions. No further extensions of the submission deadlines are planned, and all submissions must follow the updated schedule. All deadlines are based on Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time. Authors who have already submitted a paper may use the extension to update their submission; if any difficulty occurs when modifying the existing entry in the system, the previous submission may be withdrawn and replaced with a new version. Updated dates are available at icsr2026.uk/dates/ and submission instructions can be found at icsr2026.uk/submission/ (Photo: stevecadman/CC BY-SA 2.0).

February 15, 2026March 2, 2026

Deadlines Extended for ICSR + Art 2026

The 18th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR + Art 2026) will take place in London, UK, from 1-4 July 2026. ICSR is the leading international forum that brings together researchers, academics, and industry professionals from across disciplines to advance the field of social robotics. For its 18th edition, the conference will present the special theme ICSR + Art, highlighting how robots can move beyond their conventional roles to become tools, partners, and co-creators within artistic and creative practices. At the same time, the conference remains open to the full breadth of social robotics research, including human-robot interaction, medical and assistive robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, ethics, design, education, and cultural applications. Accepted papers will be published in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) series and indexed in major academic databases. The conference programme will encompass regular papers, short papers, special sessions, a design and art competition, debates, the Robot Fringe live performance strand, and an Industry Day dedicated to emerging robotics and technology companies. Regular Papers for the main track must follow the submission guidelines provided on the conference website and be submitted via the Springer Meteor system by 6 March 2026. Contributions to Special Sessions should likewise follow the Regular Paper instructions and be submitted to the respective session. Short Papers must comply with the specific Short Paper guidelines and be submitted accordingly. The ICSR Design / Art Competition, proposals for debates, and submissions for the Robot Fringe live robotic performance programme are due by 15 March 2026. Early-stage robotics and technology companies wishing to showcase their work at the Industry Day may apply until 15 May 2026. Further details, submission instructions, and relevant links are available at icsr2026.uk.