[Deadline Extension] [CfP] ICRA 2026 Workshop on Exploration in Robotics, RL, and Search

[Pulkit Verma]

[Apologies for cross-posting]

ICRA 2026 Workshop on Cross-Disciplinary Aspects of Exploration in Robotics, Reinforcement Learning, and Search
Vienna, Austria | June 5, 2026 
Workshop Website

New Submission Deadline: April 27, 2026 (AoE, UTC-12)

The objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers from RL, SA, and ROB communities to discuss exploration as a unifying challenge across sequential decision-making, planning, and real-world robotics. While exploration has been central to advances in each of these fields, there has been limited interaction between them. RL research has focused on balancing exploration and exploitation in learning policies; SA has developed systematic and heuristic-driven search strategies; and AR has addressed the physical and safety constraints of navigating unknown environments. By fostering dialogue across these communities, this workshop aims to uncover synergies, compare methodologies, and explore opportunities for hybrid approaches.

We welcome submissions that address formal as well as empirical issues on topics such as:

• Exploration vs. exploitation dilemma
• Exploration in reinforcement learning, search algorithms, and autonomous robotics
• Safe exploration and exploration for Sim2Real
• Large language model–guided exploration
• Artificial curiosity and intrinsic motivation
• Exploration in hierarchical and abstract worlds
• Active learning and proactive querying
• Evolutionary algorithms for exploration
• Reward shaping, hacking, and diversity measures
• Attention and pruning mechanisms
• Exploration in human–robot interaction
• Tactile exploration and manipuation in a clutter
• Exploration in Continual and reset-free learning
• Horizon-aware exploration and planning for exploration
• Meta-learning and learning-to-explore
• Open-ended, open-world exploration
• Exploration for Visual question answering

INVITED SPEAKERS

Peter Auer, Montanuniversität Leoben

Hermann Blum, University of Bonn
Jen Jen Chung, The University of Queensland
Jens Kober, University of Stuttgart
Bakir Lacevic, University of Sarajevo
Steven M. LaValle, University of Oulu
Antonin Raffin, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Sebastian Tschiatschek, University of Vienna

WORKSHOP FORMAT

The workshop will feature invited talks, a selected set of spotlight contributed talks, and discussions. The workshop will be in-person and is scheduled for one day. ICRA 2026 will be an in-person event this year, and the workshop will follow the same format as the conference.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

The workshop will accept two kinds of submissions:

• Traditional submissions presenting preliminary results of ongoing research (long papers), including negative results and open problems (extended abstracts).
• Submissions linked to already published papers, including:
• Journal papers that have not been discussed at a conference.
• Conference papers from other Robotics and Machine Learning/AI venues where a focused community discussion would add value.

Paper Length:

• Paper (long): up to 6 pages (excluding references).
• Extended abstract: up to 2 pages (excluding references).

Style: Use the IEEE conference style for submissions.
Review: Single-blind review process.
Multimedia: Authors are encouraged to include videos illustrating their work.

IMPORTANT DATES

• New Paper submission deadline: April 20 April 27, 2026 (AoE, 11:59 PM UTC-12)

• Author notification: May 20, 2026

• Workshop date: June 05, 2026 

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Zlatan Ajanovic, UAS Technikum Wien
Marija Popovic, TU Delft

Pulkit Verma, Indian Institute of Technology Madras