HRI ’26: HRI Empowering Society

The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is the premier venue for innovations on human-robot interaction. Sponsored by the ACM special interest groups on computer-human interaction (SIGCHI) and artificial intelligence (SIGAI) as well as the IEEE robotics and automation society (RAS), HRI brings together researchers spanning robotics, human-computer interaction, human factors, artificial intelligence, engineering, and social and behavioral sciences.

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How to get there

Monday 16th March	Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18, Thursday 19
Workshops and Tutorials – Industry Day – Pioneers – Special Session by Meta	Main Conference – Public Engagement Event
Heriot-Watt University Campus is 30-50 minutes from the city centre and Haymarket area. Check your workshop room and lunch spot allocation on the workshops page. Registration Desk at the National Robotarium open from 8:30am to 2:45pm.	The main conference events take place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Haymarket area. Check out the conference schedule for additional details. The Registration Desk is open at these times: Monday 16th: 3pm-5pm Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday: throughout the duration of the conference.

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The theme of the 21_^st edition of HRI is HRI Empowering Society.

Our field has the potential to bring about positive change in many areas of our societies such as healthcare, transport, remote working, agriculture and industry. However, this change cannot happen if we do not engage properly with the end users who will potentially utilize robots in their jobs and daily lives.

For this reason, HRI 2026 will focus on: 1) how we can ethically integrate robots in everyday processes without creating disruptions or inequalities, carefully thinking at the future of work and services; 2) how we can make them accessible to the general public (in terms of design, technical literacy and cost) with the final aim to make robots more willingly adopted as technological helpers.