We invite submissions for the Workshop on Designing Transparent and Understandable Robots (D-TUR) (https://dtur-hri.github.io/workshop2026/), which will be held as part of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, on March 16, 2026.
Summary
As robots become increasingly autonomous and integrated into everyday human environments, understanding how and why they behave as they do is critical for establishing trust, safety, and effective collaboration. The Designing Transparent and Understandable Robots (D-TUR) workshop aims to bring together researchers interested in improving robot transparency across physical and social contexts of Human–Robot Interaction (HRI).
The workshop will explore design, perception, and evaluation of transparency and understandability in robots—bridging insights from cognitive science, social robotics, machine learning, and human–computer interaction. We encourage participation from both academia and industry to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on creating robots that communicate intent, uncertainty, and reasoning processes in ways that are intuitive to diverse users.
Submissions
We welcome papers that are maximum 6 pages in length, excluding references.
All papers are reviewed using a double-blind review process, and authors should use the templates and Anonymization Guidelines provided by the HRI conference and follow the format specified there. Authors should submit their papers electronically, in PDF format, via Open Review.
Submission website: https://openreview.net/group?id=humanrobotinteraction.org/HRI/2026/Workshop/D-TUR
Topics of Interest
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:
Designing understandable robots through affordances
Designing legible robot behaviors
Transparency through XAI or mechanistic interpretability
Understanding robot failures
Understanding robot intent
Understanding robot capability
Explanations in HRI
Metrics & evaluation methods for measuring understanding
Co-designing understandable robots with users
(Dis-)Advantages of making robots understandable
Personalization to improve understanding
Adapting the level of transparency based on context
Important Information and Dates
Workshop: Workshop on Designing Transparent and Understandable Robots (D-TUR)
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Submission opens: January 1, 2026
Early bird submission deadline: January 18, 2026
Early bird submission notification acceptance: January 22, 2026
Regular Submission deadline: February 20, 2026
Regular Notification of acceptance: February 25, 2026
Camera-ready deadline: March 1, 2026
Workshop date: March 16, 2026
Submission website: https://openreview.net/group?id=humanrobotinteraction.org/HRI/2026/Workshop/D-TUR
More details: https://dtur-hri.github.io/workshop2026/
Organizers
Merle Reimann, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Gregory LeMasurier, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
Parag Khanna, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Lennart Wachowiak, King’s College London / Imperial College London, UK
Wenxi Wu, King’s College London / Imperial College London, UK
Martim Brandão, King’s College London, UK
Gerard Canal, King’s College London, UK
Christian Smith, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Iolanda Leite, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden