IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Name	IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
Abbreviation	IROS
Discipline	Robotics
Publisher	IEEE
Frequency	Annual
First	1988

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) is an annual international conference that focuses on robotics and automation, bringing together researchers from organizations such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Robotics Society of Japan, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University. The conference convenes alongside technical demonstrations and exhibits involving institutions like European Space Agency, NASA, Toyota, Honda, and Siemens. IROS serves as a venue for presenting peer-reviewed work from laboratories including Carnegie Mellon University, University of Tokyo, ETH Zurich, University of Oxford, and Tsinghua University.

Overview

IROS functions as a flagship meeting where authors from Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, Imperial College London, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology present research spanning hardware and software, with keynote appearances from figures affiliated with Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Facebook AI Research, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, and Sony Research. The program typically includes plenary lectures, workshops, tutorials, and exhibitions involving contributors from National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Riken, Nanyang Technological University, Seoul National University, and University of Toronto. Attendees often include delegates from European Commission, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Swiss National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation, and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan).

History and Development

The conference originated in the late 1980s with founding participation from organizations such as IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Robotics Society of Japan, University of Tokyo, Waseda University, and Keio University and has evolved through decades of meetings involving venues like Kobe, San Diego, Beijing, Vancouver, and Barcelona. Over time, the program expanded to include research advances from laboratories such as MIT CSAIL, Honda Research Institute, Toshiba, Fujitsu Laboratories, and Hitachi and has reflected trends driven by breakthroughs from groups at Google Research, DeepMind, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, and Intuitive Surgical. Milestones include the incorporation of workshops on topics pioneered at Carnegie Mellon University, theoretical sessions influenced by work from Princeton University, and field trials coordinated with European Space Agency and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Conference Scope and Topics

IROS covers technical areas such as perception, planning, manipulation, locomotion, human-robot interaction, multi-robot systems, and learning, with contributions from researchers at Pieter Abbeel Laboratory, Yoshua Bengio Lab, Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, Andrew Ng, Fei-Fei Li, and Sebastian Thrun appearing in program tracks. The conference includes sessions on applied topics represented by institutions like Toyota Research Institute, Uber Advanced Technologies Group, Waymo, Amazon Robotics, and ABB Robotics, as well as fundamental work from groups at Caltech], [University of Cambridge, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and University of Edinburgh. Special sessions have drawn panels with members from International Federation of Robotics, IEEE Standards Association, World Economic Forum, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and United Nations initiatives.

Organization and Sponsorship

The conference is organized by professional bodies including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Robotics Society of Japan, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Japan Science and Technology Agency, and local host universities such as University of Tokyo, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Washington, and Tokyo Institute of Technology. Corporate sponsorship and exhibition partners have included Sony Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Co., Microsoft Research, Google, Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, Siemens AG, and Bosch. Financial and logistical coordination often involves agencies like National Science Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, European Research Council, Japan External Trade Organization, and regional convention bureaus from cities like Vienna, Seoul, Honolulu, Tokyo, and Kyoto.

Notable Papers and Awards

Influential papers presented at the conference have come from teams at Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, ETH Zurich, and University of Toronto and have introduced methods later adopted by corporations such as Boston Dynamics, SoftBank Robotics, iRobot, ABB, and KUKA. Award categories include best paper, best student paper, and distinguished service awards, with recipients often affiliated with Sven Behnke, Ruzena Bajcsy, Marc Raibert, Oussama Khatib, and Rodney Brooks or institutions like Brown University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Southern California, McGill University, and Peking University. Highly cited works from the conference have intersected with research milestones credited to Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun, Andrew Ng, David Silver, and Dario Amodei.

Conferences by Year and Locations

Past meetings were hosted in cities such as 1988, 1993, 1999, 2006, 2012, 2017, and recent editions in Tokyo, Vancouver, Madrid, Macau, Kobe, and Chicago with organizing committees drawn from University of Tokyo, McGill University, University of British Columbia, Polytechnic University of Madrid, and City University of Hong Kong. Future and historical programs have been archived by entities including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Robotics Society of Japan, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, and university libraries at Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Tokyo.

Community Impact and Collaborations

IROS has catalyzed collaborations among universities and corporations including Stanford University, Google, Toyota Research Institute, Honda Research Institute, Sony, and NASA and fostered spin-off companies such as Boston Dynamics, iRobot, Anki, Savioke, and Zipline. Cross-disciplinary partnerships have involved organizations like European Space Agency, World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Development Programme, and think tanks such as Brookings Institution and RAND Corporation, influencing policy dialogues and technology transfer initiatives mediated by National Science Foundation, European Research Council, and national ministries in Japan, United States, China, and South Korea.

Category:Robotics conferences