2027 Global Robotics Events Preview | The year's must-attend robotics conferences and trade shows
From CES in January to iREX in December, 2027 brings Automate's first year in Las Vegas, ICRA in Seoul, IROS in Florence, and the return of automatica and iREX. Physical AI and humanoids run through almost every program.
RobotToday's 2027 calendar now lists more than 50 robotics events. This preview picks the flagship shows and conferences in each quarter. Every event link goes to its page on the RobotToday Event Calendar, where dates and venues are checked against organizer websites.
Four things define the 2027 calendar:
Physical AI is the common thread. NVIDIA GTC, the Physical AI Expo series (London and San Jose), CES and the new humanoid forums all put embodied AI at the center.
Humanoids get their own stages. The A3 Humanoid Robot Forum (inside Automate) and HRI both focus on robots that work alongside people.
The big biennial shows are back. automatica returns to Munich in June and iREX returns to Tokyo in December, alongside the annual Hannover Messe, ProMat and Automate.
The research calendar circles the globe. HRI in Santa Clara, ICRA in Seoul, RSS in Athens, CASE in Linz and IROS in Florence.
RobotToday's 2027 shortlist (by audience):
| Audience | Must-attend 2027 |
|---|---|
| Industrial automation buyers | Hannover Messe · Automate · automatica · iREX |
| Logistics and warehousing | LogiMAT · ProMat |
| Physical AI and humanoids | NVIDIA GTC · Physical AI Expo · A3 Humanoid Robot Forum |
| Researchers | ICRA · RSS · IROS |
| China market | WRC · LogiMAT China |
| Startups and investors | CES · Robotics Summit & Expo |
Q1 2027: Physical AI sets the agenda
The year opens with CES and NVIDIA GTC, the two stages where the year's physical AI and humanoid announcements usually land first. Europe's robotics community meets at ERF, and HRI opens the research season in Silicon Valley.
| Event | Dates | Location | Type | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CES 2027 | Jan 6–9 | Las Vegas, USA | Tech platform | The year's first big stage for consumer, home and humanoid robots and for physical AI keynotes |
| A3 Business Forum 2027 | Jan 18–20 | Orlando, USA | Industry summit | A3's executive forum: North American automation market outlook and order data |
| Physical AI Expo Global 2027 | Feb 3–4 | London, UK | Trade show | First 2027 stop of the Physical AI Expo series, at Olympia London |
| RoboDEX 2027 | Feb 17–19 | Tokyo, Japan | Trade show | Japan's robot development show within Factory Innovation Week at Tokyo Big Sight |
| ERF 2027 | Mar 2–4 | Birmingham, UK | Industry summit | European Robotics Forum: the yearly meeting of Europe's robotics research, industry and policy community |
| HRI 2027 | Mar 8–12 | Santa Clara, USA | Academic conference | ACM/IEEE flagship on human-robot interaction, timely for humanoid and service robots |
| NVIDIA GTC 2027 | Mar 15–18 | San Jose, USA | Tech platform | NVIDIA's developer conference, where its robotics and physical AI platform updates are announced |
| Global Industrie 2027 | Mar 15–18 | Lyon, France | Trade show | France's main manufacturing show, with a dedicated robotics sector |
| LogiMAT 2027 | Mar 16–18 | Stuttgart, Germany | Trade show | Europe's intralogistics show: AMRs, warehouse automation and picking robots |
Also in Q1: RoboBoat 2027 (Feb 18–23, Sarasota), ROSCon Korea 2027 (Feb 17–19, Daegu), ICARA 2027 (Feb 25–27, Paris), World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit (Mar 9–10, San Francisco), IEEE ARSO 2027 (Mar 13–15, Mountain View).
Q2 2027: The busiest quarter of the year
Q2 packs the year's largest industrial shows into twelve weeks. Hannover Messe (partner country Spain) opens April, Automate makes its first Las Vegas run in May, ICRA goes to Seoul, and automatica returns to Munich in June.
| Event | Dates | Location | Type | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HANNOVER MESSE 2027 | Apr 5–8 | Hannover, Germany | Trade show | Deutsche Messe's flagship industrial technology fair; partner country Spain |
| IEEE RoboSoft 2027 | Apr 5–9 | Brisbane, Australia | Academic conference | IEEE's soft robotics conference |
| ProMat 2027 | Apr 19–21 | Chicago, USA | Trade show | MHI's supply chain and warehouse automation show |
| LogiMAT China 2027 | Apr 21–23 | Shenzhen, China | Trade show | China edition of LogiMAT, centered on intralogistics and AMRs |
| Automate 2027 | May 10–13 | Las Vegas, USA | Trade show | North America's largest automation show, held in Las Vegas for the first time |
| A3 Humanoid Robot Forum 2027 | May 11–12 | Las Vegas, USA | Industry summit | A3's humanoid program, held during Automate |
| XPONENTIAL 2027 | May 17–20 | Miami Beach, USA | Trade show | AUVSI's show for drones and uncrewed systems |
| ICRA 2027 | May 24–28 | Seoul, South Korea | Academic conference | IEEE's flagship robotics conference, back in Asia |
| Robotics Summit & Expo 2027 | Jun 2–3 | Boston, USA | Industry summit | Commercial robot development and deployment in the Boston robotics cluster |
| Physical AI Expo North America 2027 | Jun 16–17 | San Jose, USA | Trade show | North American stop of the Physical AI Expo series |
| automatica 2027 | Jun 22–25 | Munich, Germany | Trade show | Messe München's biennial robotics and automation fair returns (official dates); RobotToday page coming soon |
| SRS 2027 | Jun 23–27 | Rome, Italy | Vertical | Society of Robotic Surgery annual meeting |
Also in Q2: Construction Robotics Summit (Apr 14, Brooklyn), INTERMAT 2027 (Apr 21–24, Paris), ISMR 2027 (Apr 27–29, Nashville), FIRST Championship 2027 (Apr 28–May 1, Houston), RoboBoston 2027 (May 1, Boston), CICEE 2027 (May 12–15, Changsha), RehabWeek 2027 (May 31–Jun 4, Lausanne), ISARC 2027 (Jun 26–Jul 1, Odense), IEEE/ASME AIM 2027 (Jun 29–Jul 2, Calgary).
Q3 2027: Research summer, Beijing in August
The summer belongs to research: RSS in Athens, CASE and RO-MAN in the same August week, and IROS in Florence to close September. In between, the World Robot Conference in Beijing is the year's main window on China's humanoid and industrial robot makers.
| Event | Dates | Location | Type | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSS 2027 | Jul 6–11 | Athens, Greece | Academic conference | Robotics: Science and Systems, the single-track conference for robot learning and core robotics research |
| WHC 2027 | Jul 13–16 | Boston, USA | Academic conference | IEEE World Haptics Conference: touch sensing and tactile interfaces for robots |
| Ai4 2027 | Aug 2–5 | Las Vegas, USA | Industry summit | Enterprise AI conference with growing physical AI content |
| WRC 2027 | Opens Aug 18 | Beijing, China | Trade show | World Robot Conference: China's largest robot event, with a big humanoid expo floor; end date not yet published |
| IEEE CASE 2027 | Aug 23–27 | Linz, Austria | Academic conference | IEEE conference on automation science and engineering |
| RO-MAN 2027 | Aug 23–27 | Waterloo, Canada | Academic conference | IEEE conference on robot and human interactive communication |
| IFA 2027 | Sep 3–7 | Berlin, Germany | Tech platform | Europe's consumer electronics show; home and service robots |
| FABTECH 2027 | Sep 13–16 | Chicago, USA | Trade show | North America's metal forming, fabricating and welding show; welding and cobot automation |
| IROS 2027 | Sep 26–Oct 1 | Florence, Italy | Academic conference | IEEE/RSJ's flagship conference on intelligent robots and systems |
Also in Q3: ACIRS 2027 (Jul 23–25, Hong Kong).
Q4 2027: iREX closes the year
The year ends in Tokyo. iREX, the International Robot Exhibition held every two years, returns in early December as the largest gathering of Japanese robot makers. Before that, ROSCon brings the open-source robotics community to Kraków.
| Event | Dates | Location | Type | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ROSCon Global 2027 | Oct 12–14 | Kraków, Poland | Industry summit | The ROS developer conference, the main yearly meeting of open-source robotics |
| Big Data & AI World Asia 2027 | Oct 13–14 | Singapore | Tech platform | Southeast Asia's enterprise AI and data show |
| AGRITECHNICA 2027 | Nov 14–20 | Hanover, Germany | Vertical | The world's leading agricultural machinery show; autonomous tractors and field robots |
| iREX 2027 | Early Dec (dates TBA) | Tokyo, Japan | Trade show | Japan's biennial International Robot Exhibition: FANUC, Yaskawa, Kawasaki and the full Japanese supply chain |
Watch list: 2027 dates not yet announced
These events are likely to rank among the year's most important, but organizers have not yet published 2027 dates. RobotToday will add them to the Event Calendar once confirmed.
| Event | Usual timing | Location (expected) | Why we are watching |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAIC 2027 (World Artificial Intelligence Conference) | July | Shanghai, China | China's biggest AI show, with a large humanoid and embodied AI exhibit |
| CIIF 2027 (China International Industry Fair) | September–October | Shanghai, China | Home of the Robotics Show, China's largest industrial robot exhibition |
| CoRL 2027 (Conference on Robot Learning) | Autumn | TBA | The leading conference for robot learning and foundation models for robots |
| IEEE Humanoids 2027 | Late in the year | TBA | IEEE-RAS's conference dedicated to humanoid robots |
| Humanoids Summit 2027 | Late in the year | TBA | Industry summit series focused on humanoid deployment |
| World Humanoid Robot Games 2027 | August | Beijing, China (expected) | Humanoid robot competition that drew wide attention in 2025 and 2026 |
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