alt.HRI

alt.HRI invites high-quality, thought-provoking, original work that pushes the boundaries of human-robot interaction research. Submissions are expected to challenge or re-imagine human-robot interaction research and design. The goal for alt.HRI is to broaden the scope of research and present submissions that prove difficult to assess through the main papers track. alt.HRI invites submissions that are bold, compelling, critical, and innovative. We particularly aim to reach colleagues who use those “ways of knowing” that are not yet part of mainstream HRI research and ask for the unexpected, the controversial, the creative, and the diverse. With this in mind, alt.HRI aims to be inclusive of perspectives, epistemologies, and methodologies relevant to HRI that may be less commonly included in the main track.

High-quality alt.HRI contributions can take multiple forms. This year, alt.HRI accepts Papers and Pictorials. Authors interested in creating videos in the spirit of alt.HRI are encouraged to submit them to the HRI Interactivity (Videos) track. We have worked with the Interactivity chairs to ensure that creative, critical, speculative, and experimental videos aligned with the ethos of alt.HRI are explicitly welcomed there.

Important Dates

Reviewing

All submissions will be rigorously reviewed by a cohort of HRI experts from the most diverse backgrounds. alt.HRI review criteria include:

• How well does the work embody alt.HRI’s values of creativity, criticality, reflection, and originality?
• Is the work compelling and relevant to an open-minded HRI audience?
• How coherent is the work conceptually, philosophically, and methodologically?
• To what extent does the work express a voice and argument that is unlikely to be heard in the main track?
• Is there potential for impact, controversy, or thought-provoking discussion, even if the work seems unusual or unorthodox?

Every co-author of a submitted paper is expected to participate in the review process. This means that the responsibility to review at least one alt.HRI submission applies to all authors, rather than being limited to the first or corresponding author. alt.HRI follows the double-blind review process of the annual HRI conference; every aspect of all submissions must be appropriately anonymized. Please see the anonymization guidelines.

Papers

The vast majority of typical HRI Papers are inherently not suitable for submission to alt.HRI. alt.HRI 2027 should be viewed as an opportunity to shape the conversation by introducing creative and controversial research questions; novel, subversive, and/or unorthodox research methods; and explorations of novel methods through which to present HRI research – both in the submission and through the conference presentation. We also encourage diverse submissions, including HRI and art, critical HRI, and speculative HRI. Feel free to have a look at accepted papers in alt.HRI in the previous conference programs. Submissions will be rigorously peer-reviewed in a double-blind fashion. The acceptance rate for the alt.HRI track is typically lower than that of the main track.

You can refer to prior years’ alt.HRI proceedings in the ACM Digital Library for inspiration.

• HRI 2026
• HRI 2025
• HRI 2024

Pictorials

Apart from papers, alt.HRI also invites pictorial submissions, which provide an opportunity to present artworks, design research, performances, and other visually driven contributions that introduce different ways of researching within HRI. We also encourage authors who are interested in other formats to contact the alt.HRI chairs for more information.

Guidelines

alt.HRI Paper Submissions

Papers must be submitted via the online submission system. Accepted papers will be orally presented at the conference. Papers can be up to eight camera-ready pages, including figures but excluding references. Accepted papers will be published in the conference companion proceedings and presented in an oral session. All papers for the conference must be submitted in PDF format and conform to ACM Proceedings specifications. Templates are available at this link (US letter). In addition, ACM has partnered with Overleaf, where you can start writing using this link directly (note that this Overleaf document uses the new ACM workflow by default, which is not what HRI is using; to fix this, make sure the document uses the “sigconf” document class, rather than the “manuscript,screen,review” document class that is enabled in the Overleaf document by default).

alt.HRI Pictorial Submissions

Pictorials published in alt.HRI will be part of the companion proceedings and will be accessible through the ACM Digital Library. They will undergo double-blind peer review, similar to technical program papers, and will be considered valuable contributions. A good Pictorial should be precise and provide context, aiming to present a concise argument rather than a full paper. Pictorials aim to contribute to knowledge instead of documenting known concepts, methods, and processes. Visual components can contribute to design knowledge on their own, but they should be accompanied by a narrative that helps the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) audience understand the contribution being made. This narrative is crucial in transforming a Pictorial into research and ensuring it can be treated as a valid argument in research discussions. However, the textual narrative should primarily serve as a support structure for the visual content. Pictorials are an excellent format for reporting design work, especially for designers who often question the effectiveness of words in capturing design accurately.

Pictorials must be submitted using exactly the same template as the alt.HRI Paper Submissions. They should not exceed 12 pages, excluding references. Please keep the first page of the submission following the template (see the Paper Submissions guidelines above) to include the submission’s title, author(s) and their affiliation(s) (leave blank for double-blind review), and a written abstract of no more than 150 words succinctly describing the background and context of the pictorial as well as its contribution to the HRI community. Further written parts known from other conference formats such as Introduction, Conclusion, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and References, are optional. The main part of the submission should be an annotated visual composition, and we encourage submissions to use the format creatively.

Here are some examples for inspiration. Please note that while these past pictorials are in a horizontal (landscape) format, submissions this year must use a vertical (portrait) format.

• Lux Miranda, Ginevra Castellano, and Katie Winkle. 2026. Robot as Self, Blurred Boundaries, and the Auxthetic Mind-Body: A Speculative Design through Poetry. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1421–1432. https://doi.org/10.1145/3757279.3788819
• Winkle, K. (2025, March). Robots from Nowhere: A Case Study in Speculative Sociotechnical Design and Design Fiction for Human-Robot Interaction. In 2025 20th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (pp. 1152-1165). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/HRI61500.2025.10974123
• Jeesun Oh, Nayeong Kim, Yuchun Yan, and Sangsu Lee. 2024. VOICON: Geometric Motion-Based Visual Feedback in Voice User Interface. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 102–115. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3660741
• Doenja Oogjes, Meghann O’Brien, Hannah Turner, Kate Hennessy, Reese Muntean, and Melanie Camman. 2023. Transmediating Sky Blanket: tensions with a digital jacquard loom. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 371–386. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3595965
• Gabrielle Benabdallah, Ashten Alexander, Sourojit Ghosh, Chariell Glogovac-Smith, Lacey Jacoby, Caitlin Lustig, Anh Nguyen, Anna Parkhurst, Kathryn Reyes, Neilly H. Tan, Edward Wolcher, Afroditi Psarra, and Daniela Rosner. 2022. Slanted Speculations: Material Encounters with Algorithmic Bias. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 85–99. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533449
• Dianya Mia Hua, Rhys Jones, Jeffrey Bardzell, and Shaowen Bardzell. 2022. The Hidden Language of Vibrators: A Politico-Ontological Reading. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 400–414. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533448