Partners

“Semio” is represented by two related but independent entities: Semio AI, Inc. and Semio Community.

Semio AI, Inc. is a software startup defining the way in which people will live, work, and play with robots in their everyday lives. Semio’s latest software allows robot developers to rapidly create and deploy robot apps, and allows robot end-users to easily access and use those robot apps via natural communication, including both speech and body language.

Semio Community is a 501(c)(3) community nonprofit organization enabling “science as a service”, fostering reproducible, replicable, and generalizable human-robot interaction (HRI) research through community-driven hardware, community-driven software, and community-driven studies.

At the HRI 2026 conference, Semio will be offering pre-launch, hands-on demos of its first public-facing software tools for creating robot behaviors and applications, and we are looking for feedback from the HRI community to help make the software great!

We seek to gather a community of researchers and practitioners building the underlying technology that enables interactions between robots and humans. We are interested in meeting with HRI researchers to help design and manufacture their HRI robot hardware for scale, to collaborate on open source HRI software projects, and to facilitate replication studies to support HRI research.

The new Semio website/platform is currently in development, and conversations at the HRI 2026 conference will help guide its contents.

Furhat Robotics is robotics startup building social humanoid robots for research and innovation. Grounded in years of research in human-robot interaction, human communication and speech technology, our flagship Furhat Robot provides a customizable platform integrated with the latest face animation, speech and vision models that allow it to carry complex social interactions with people in the real world.

Furhat’s core mission is to enable people to easily build real-world use cases and give robots all the essential social and conversational skills needed to interact with humans just as we interact with each other.

Furhat Robotics is proud to sponsor HRI 2026 as part of our ongoing commitment to advancing research in human–robot interaction (HRI). We are showcasing Furhat, our humanoid robot, alongside our latest software innovations, including the new Furhat Research API that enables real-time communication between the Furhat robot and external systems. We are determined to push the limits of social robotics capabilities through advanced AI, research tools, and robot customization. Our team looks forward to sharing our newest developments, connecting with the community, and meeting old and new friends.

PlaiPin is a social robotics company building physical bodies for AI agents. We believe every personal agent will eventually need to see, touch, and move through the physical world and that these embodied interactions should feel warm and approachable, not intimidating. Our modular hardware platform lets the same AI inhabit different forms: collectible plushie companions, walking crab robots, and lightweight flying drones. We integrate with open agent frameworks and are open-sourcing key components to support the research and open source community.

Our work sits at the intersection of embodied AI and human-robot interaction. We’re here to showcase our modular hardware platform and let attendees experience what it feels like when an AI agent has a physical presence. We’re also here to connect with researchers working on social robotics, novel interaction modalities, and open-source hardware and to find collaborators exploring how people form relationships with embodied agents.

Google is home to world-class research teams whose foundational breakthroughs have helped usher in a new era of AI.

Meta’s mission is to build the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible. 3.5 billion people around the world use our technologies to share ideas, offer support, and make a difference. Meta is building superintelligence for everyone, and our commitment to responsible AI is driven by the belief that everyone should have equitable access to information, services, and opportunities. All of our work begins with our responsible innovation principles: Never surprise people, Provide controls that matter, Consider everyone, and Put people first.

Meta Robotics Studio’s mission is to build a home assistant robot, leveraging the core technologies we’ve already invested in and built out across Meta. Meta is sponsoring the HRI Conference 2026 in support of a global exchange of ideas and discussion about building for human-robot interaction. Meta is sponsoring and co-organizing the Special Session Workshop on “HRI and Consumer Robots: Building Robots that are Useful and Acceptable” to foster discussion on these important topics.

LuxAI is a leading social robotics company specializing in Human–Robot Interaction and human-centered AI systems. Our portfolio includes QTrobot, an expressive humanoid research platform widely used in academia and innovation labs worldwide. LuxAI develops advanced socially assistive robotics technologies that enable researchers to study interaction, engagement, and AI-driven behavior in real-world environments. With R&D and manufacturing based in Luxembourg and commercial offices in the US and UK, LuxAI supports the global research community with flexible, developer-ready robotic platforms designed for cutting-edge HRI and AI experimentation.

At HRI 2026, LuxAI is showcasing QTrobot as an advanced platform for researchers and developers working on Human–Robot Interaction and AI at the edge. We are highlighting our latest high-performance QTrobot configurations (i5/i7, AI@Edge) enabling on-device intelligence, multimodal interaction, and real-time experimentation. We are excited to connect with academic labs and industry innovators exploring embodied AI and socially interactive robots.
We are also hiring and looking for strong AI/ML talent, especially in LLM fine-tuning, alignment, NLP data engineering and MLOps.
Interested candidates can send their CV to career@luxai.com or bring it in person to the LuxAI booth.

ROBOTERA is a leading robotics company, founded in 2023, specializing in fully in-house humanoid robots and
dexterous hands. From core actuators and joints to complete robotic systems, we develop high-performance, reliable
robots entirely in-house, ensuring precise control and robust engineering across all our products.
Our lineup includes the L7 full-size bipedal humanoid, built for complex motion and stability; the Q5 intelligent service robot, designed for service and research applications; and the XHAND1 dexterous hand, demonstrating advanced manipulation capabilities. Each product showcases our engineering excellence and hardware innovation.
By combining robust engineering with versatile robotic systems, ROBOTERA delivers solutions ready for real-world
environments. Our mission is to advance robotics technology and provide reliable robots that enhance human
productivity, safety, and collaboration across industries and research.

We are attending HRI 2026 to engage with researchers, industry practitioners, and system integrators who are exploring real-world applications of humanoid robots. Our focus is on sharing practical insights from deploying humanoid platforms in service, research, and industrial scenarios, and on learning from the broader HRI community. We are particularly interested in discussions around human–robot interaction, teleoperation, embodied intelligence, and scalable deployment. We also welcome conversations around collaboration, pilot projects, and future use cases.

Pollen Robotics, now part of Hugging Face, is a robotics company dedicated to making humanoid AI accessible, open, collaborative and fun. At the heart of our work right now is Reachy Mini, an expressive, open-source desktop humanoid robot designed for human-robot interaction, creative coding, education, and embodied AI experimentation. Reachy Mini combines whimsical physical interaction with modern AI capabilities and integrates seamlessly with the Hugging Face ecosystem, empowering developers, researchers, and learners around the world to build, explore, and share robotics applications. Our philosophy centres on openness, community-driven innovation, and lowering barriers to robotics and AI.

We are attending HRI 2026 to deepen our connection with the HRI research community and better understand how Reachy Mini can integrate with ongoing academic work. HRI research directly informs our robot’s mechanical design, behaviour, and interaction choices. HRI is embedded by design, not added afterwards. We are especially interested in voice interaction, personality design, and long-term engagement challenges: avoiding animal or gender stereotypes, defining a unique robot identity, and exploring the boundaries between assistant and companion roles. Privacy, trust, and the limits of intimate HRI are central questions we aim to explore collaboratively.