From August 23, 2027 to August 27, 2027
RO-MAN 2027 | Waterloo hosts IEEE's human–robot interaction conference on ethics, emotion and culture
The 36th IEEE RO-MAN conference runs August 23–27, 2027 as a hybrid event at the University of Waterloo, under the theme 'Ethical, Affective, and Transparent HRI Across Cultures'. Furhat Robotics and Rockwell Automation are among early sponsors.
QUICK FACTS
| Date | Aug 23–27, 2027 |
| Location | Waterloo, Canada |
| Venue | University of Waterloo, Main Campus (hybrid format) — 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada |
| Organizer | IEEE with IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Robotics Society of Japan and Korea Robotics Society (logos on official site); hosted by the University of Waterloo. |
| Event type | Academic Conference |
| Official website | https://www.ro-man2027.ca/ |
| Registration | Not published |
| Admission | Not published. Conference registration fees are not yet posted. Sponsorship packages range from Bronze CAD 2,000 (US$1,500) to Diamond Plus at CAD 40,000 or more (US$30,000 or more); exhibit booths start at Silver, and Platinum and above include 1–4 full registrations. |
| Scale | Not published. No attendance, submission or exhibitor figures on the official site. |
EVENT OVERVIEW
RO-MAN 2027, the 36th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, takes place August 23–27, 2027 on the University of Waterloo main campus in Waterloo, Ontario. The conference will run in a hybrid format. The official site shows IEEE, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, the Robotics Society of Japan and the Korea Robotics Society alongside the University of Waterloo and Waterloo Engineering. General Chairs are Moojan Ghafurian and Yue Hu of the University of Waterloo and Silvia Rossi of the University of Naples Federico II. Advisory Chairs include Kerstin Dautenhahn, Goldie Nejat and Gentiane Venture. RO-MAN is an annual conference focused on human–robot interaction. Attendance figures are not published. The campus is about 100 km west of Toronto Pearson airport and is served by ION light rail.
The 2027 theme is 'Ethical, Affective, and Transparent HRI Across Cultures'. The call for papers groups topics into three areas: ethical, cultural and human-centred robotics; affective, social and multimodal robotics; and transparent, adaptive and trustworthy robotics. Listed topics include assistive robotics, robots in education and therapy, HRI in manufacturing, robot learning, teleoperation, and navigation in human environments. The program will include regular papers, special sessions, workshops and tutorials, and late breaking reports, with double-anonymized review. Keynote speakers are not yet announced. Confirmed sponsors include Furhat Robotics (Gold), Rockwell Automation with Clearpath Robotics and OTTO Motors (Silver), University of Waterloo Electrical and Computer Engineering (Silver), and Mirsee Robotics, Axibo, PAL Robotics, Haply Robotics and Yavin Holdings. Higher sponsorship tiers include industry panel seats.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
36th edition; hybrid format at University of Waterloo
Theme: Ethical, Affective, and Transparent HRI Across Cultures
Paper deadline Mar 7, 2027, strict with double-anonymized review
Sponsors include Furhat, Rockwell Automation, PAL Robotics and Haply
Co-sponsoring societies from Japan and Korea alongside IEEE RAS
RECOMMENDED ATTENDEES
Best for researchers and product teams working on social robots, assistive and service robots, collaborative robots, conversational agents on robots, and trust and safety in HRI. Startups selling social or research robot platforms can reach university buyers through exhibits. It is academic first; industrial automation buyers will find more at Automate. Those focused on physical touch and teleoperation may also look at IEEE World Haptics 2027 in July, and the larger ACM/IEEE HRI conference is the main alternative in the HRI field.
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