ICSR: Special Session – Call for Proposals

We invite submissions to the special session Skillful Practices in Social Robotics and HRI – Approaches from the Performing Arts at the International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2026), held 1–4 July 2026 in London, UK.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The past decades have witnessed increased recognition of the relevance of skills and expertise from the performing arts to the development of robot behavior and HRI. Acting and directing methods, choreography and movement analysis, puppeteering, improvisation, scripting, as well as other aspects of making and analyzing theatre and dance have been tried and tested for how they may further the development of social interaction, robotic gesture, movement, and identity, support engagement with users and stakeholders, and contribute to the implementation of robotic assistants in a variety of social contexts. The integration of AI, motion capture, and algorithmic movement-mapping expands what counts as “expressive” robotic behavior, while simultaneously challenging assumptions about authenticity and affective fidelity—especially in non-humanoid systems with limited expressive affordances.

This special session invites contributions that show how various skills and expertise from the performing arts (such as acting, directing, dancing, choreographing, scenography, puppeteering, playwriting, and improvising) are deployed for the development of social robots and HRI, and what they can contribute to the advancement of innovative, creative, and responsible approaches to social robotics.

Topics include (but are not limited to):

• Examples of the use of skills and expertise from the performing arts (such as acting, directing, dancing, choreographing, scenography, puppeteering, playwriting, and improvising) for various aspects of robotics and HRI
• The practice of performing arts-robotics collaborations: how to organize them, how to make them successful, how to deal with power dynamics, challenges, risks, and gains
• The emergence of new specializations such as robo-puppeteers, techno-dramaturgs, computational dramaturgy, improbotics, and robostories.
• The transferability of skills, and questions related to tools and training for new types of collaborations
• New conceptual and methodological frameworks for developing and understanding performing arts-robotics collaborations, such as co-design, rehearsal-based iterative development, and embodied prototyping in performing-arts-robotics collaborations

Organizers:
Maaike Bleeker, Utrecht University, The Netherlands (m.a.bleeker@uu.nl)
Ester Fuoco, IULM University, Italy (ester.fuoco@iulm.it)
Marco C. Rozendaal, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (m.c.rozendaal@tudelft.nl)

Submissions:
Submission deadline: 15 February 2026

For the conference submission, authors can submit their papers to the appropriate Special Session via the ICSR conference submission system, using the designated SS code. Each paper will undergo a peer-review process managed by the special session organisers, who will invite at least two independent reviewers for each submission.

Instructions for Submission: https://icsr2026.uk/submission/ (Special Sessions)