IROS 2026 Paper Submission Deadline

## TEE Take

**IROS** (IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) is **ICRA**'s sibling conference — slightly more applied, slightly more international, and increasingly the venue where robotics companies publish their systems papers. If your startup has novel technical work and you're trying to recruit, an **IROS** publication is a stronger signal than any job posting. Researchers apply to companies whose papers they've read.

The 2026 conference will be held in October. This July 1 deadline is for full paper submissions to the main conference track.

## Insider Tip

Submit to the "Late Breaking Results" track if you miss the main deadline — it's less competitive, still gets you a poster presentation, and the networking value is 90% the same. The real goal is having your work visible at the conference, not the publication prestige. For startups, a strong poster with a live demo beats a mediocre oral presentation every time.

## What to Expect

Standard double-blind review process. Expect 3,000+ submissions with ~40% acceptance rate. Papers should be 6-8 pages in IEEE format. Topics span manipulation, locomotion, perception, planning, multi-robot systems, HRI, and field robotics.

## Who Should Attend

Robotics startup CTOs and technical leads with publishable results. University research groups. Anyone building a public technical profile in the robotics community. Investors who want to understand the technical frontier should note this deadline — accepted papers preview what will be presented in October.