IEEE International Symposium on Robotics Research

IEEE International Symposium on Robotics Research
Name	IEEE International Symposium on Robotics Research
Abbreviation	ISRR
Discipline	Robotics
First	1985
Organizer	Independent academic steering committee
Frequency	Biennial (historically irregular)
Location	Rotating international venues

Contents

IEEE International Symposium on Robotics Research

The IEEE International Symposium on Robotics Research is a biennial research meeting that gathers leading investigators in Robotics and related fields for the presentation of peer-reviewed advances in autonomous systems, perception, control, and manipulation. Founded in the mid-1980s, the symposium has served as a forum bridging work from laboratories such as MIT CSAIL, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, ETH Zurich and institutions including NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Imperial College London and Tsinghua University. The meeting routinely attracts contributors associated with awards like the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award, the ACM A.M. Turing Award, and the Japan Prize.

History

ISRR originated from informal gatherings of researchers active in projects at SRI International, CMU Robotics, UC Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR), University of Pennsylvania GRASP Lab and Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Early program chairs included faculty from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Cornell University and University of Cambridge. Over successive editions the symposium reflected breakthroughs from labs tied to initiatives such as the DARPA Grand Challenge, the Human Brain Project, the European Robotics Forum and the Horizon 2020 framework. Venues have rotated among cities with major technical ecosystems including Tokyo, Zurich, Cambridge (UK), Boston, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Rome and Beijing. ISRR’s archival proceedings track methodological shifts influenced by projects at Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Boston Dynamics, Honda Research Institute and NVIDIA Research.

ISRR is overseen by an independent steering committee comprised of senior academics affiliated with institutions like University of Southern California, Yale University, Northwestern University, University of Edinburgh and University of Melbourne. Program committees have included members with histories at Bell Labs, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The selection process for papers and speakers follows peer review practices similar to those used by conferences such as NeurIPS, ICRA, ICRA (IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation), IROS and RSS (Robotics: Science and Systems), with invited talks drawn from awardees of the IEEE Medal of Honor, Royal Society Fellowships, and recipients of the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science.

Typical programs emulate formats used by SIGGRAPH, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, KDD, CVPR and ECCV, featuring oral sessions, poster sessions, keynote lectures, and topical workshops. ISRR schedules demonstrations influenced by prototypes from Boston Dynamics, aerial systems inspired by DJI Innovations and space robotics work from European Space Agency and Roscosmos. Tutorials and panels often include participants from Oxford Robotics Institute, MILA, INRIA, RIKEN, and representatives from standards bodies like ISO and IEEE Standards Association. Social events and satellite meetings have been hosted in partnership with local groups such as IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and regional chapters of ACM.

ISRR proceedings have published influential contributions that connect to foundational work at MIT, Stanford University, CMU, Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR), and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Notable topics include algorithms influencing legged locomotion research at Boston Dynamics and University of Oxford, manipulation frameworks adopted by ABB Robotics and KUKA, perception systems leveraging architectures from Google Research and Facebook AI Research, and motion planning methods building on theory from Rutgers University and University of California, Santa Barbara. Papers presented at ISRR have been cited alongside seminal works from Alan Turing-linked traditions, contributions recognized by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and follow-on research at organizations like Honda Research Institute USA and Toyota Research Institute.

ISRR confers presentation awards and best paper accolades judged by committees with members from National Academy of Engineering and Royal Society. Alumni of the symposium have been recipients of major honors including the IEEE Fellow grade, the Royal Society Fellowship, the Prince Philip Prize and the MacArthur Fellows Program. Work first shown at ISRR has later been recognized by prizes such as the Turing Award (through authors’ other contributions), the European Research Council Advanced Grant, and national awards from agencies including NSF, EPSRC, JSPS and DFG.

Attendees typically include professors and students from universities such as Imperial College London, University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore and Monash University, researchers from corporate labs including Google Research, Microsoft Research Cambridge, Apple Inc., Amazon Robotics and Sony CSL, as well as delegates from government laboratories like NASA, DLR (German Aerospace Center), CNRS and CNAF. Workshops attract interdisciplinary participation from engineers and scientists affiliated with ETH Zurich, EPFL, University of Toronto, Seoul National University and Purdue University; poster sessions and demonstrations draw industry partners such as Boston Dynamics, KUKA, ABB, Fanuc and DJI Innovations.

Category:Robotics conferences