Touch-to-Action — IROS 2026 Workshop

Why touch, why now?

Touch is fundamental to human interaction with the world, yet in robotics it remains far less developed and standardized than vision, proprioception, or language-based AI. This workshop brings together complementary perspectives from across the tactile sensing and manipulation pipeline: from biological inspiration and sensor design to simulation, perception, learning, control, and real-world applications. It offers a vertical roadmap covering sensor technologies, design and fabrication, simulation for sensor optimization and policy learning, deep learning for tactile perception, multimodal fusion, and tactile feedback for robot control, with applications highlighted in manufacturing and healthcare.

The program features Keynote Talks, an Industry Session, a Panel Discussion, Lightning Talks, and Poster Presentations, creating an interactive forum for the robotics and AI communities to exchange ideas and discuss future directions for tactile intelligence.

Event: Half-day workshop @ IROS 2026
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Dates: October 1, 2026
Submission Types: Short papers/Mini-reviews/Demos

Workshop scope

Bioinspiration

Functional principles of human and animal touch inspiring artificial tactile systems.

Transduction & Design

Exploring optical and magnetic sensing, design trade-offs, materials, morphology, and system integration.

Simulation

From high-fidelity FEM modeling to real-time simulators — bridging the sim-to-real gap in tactile sensing and control.

Perception & Touch Processing

Learning from tactile data — domain adaptation, and multimodal fusion with vision and proprioception.

Control for Manipulation

Enhancing multimodal control policies in imitation learning and reinforcement learning through tactile sensing.

Tentative Schedule

All times local (Pittsburgh, USA) • Subject to change

01:00 pm Workshop Opening & Introduction
10 min
01:10 pm Wearable Pneumatics for Bidirectional Tactile Interaction: From Human Communication to Training Autonomous Policies Allison Okamura
20 min
01:30 pm Towards Generalizable Tactile Sensors and Sensing via Simulation Wenzhen Yuan
20 min
01:50 pm Sim-to-real tactile sensing for robot control Nathan Lepora
20 min
02:10 pm Scaling Tactile Perception and Learning: Sim2Real Transfer and Learning from Humans Nima Fazeli
20 min
02:30 pm Robot Learning from Human Touch Lerrel Pinto
20 min
02:50 pm Lightning Presentations
10 min
03:00 pm Coffee Break & Interactive Poster Session
30 min
03:30 pm Industry Session
35 min
04:05 pm Interactive Panel Discussion All Speakers & Mark Cutkosky
35 min
04:55 pm Best Paper Award (XELA Robotics) & Closing
5 min

Call for Submissions

Regular Short Papers (up to 4 pages, excl. references)

Original research across sensing, perception, simulation, learning, and control. Accepted papers will be selected for Lightning Talks or Poster presentations. A Best Paper Award, supported by XELA Robotics, will be presented to an outstanding regular paper.

OpenReview Submission →

Mini-Reviews and Perspectives (up to 4 pages, excl. references)

Concise overviews of topics covered by the workshop that summarize recent advances, highlight open challenges, and point to emerging trends. Authors of particularly promising mini-reviews may be invited to collaborate with the organizers on a review article building on the workshop themes.

OpenReview Submission →

Physical Demos

Live or video demonstrations of tactile sensors, hands, and manipulation systems. Space and power are limited; details TBA.

Demo Guidelines →

Important dates (tentative)

Submission site opens: TBA
Submission deadline: September 15, 2026
Notification: TBA
Camera-ready & poster upload: TBA

Inclusion Sponsorship

To support broader participation, DAIMON Robotics will sponsor the participation of one student who submits a paper to the workshop and self-identifies as belonging to a group or circumstance underrepresented in robotics and AI. Eligible authors can apply via the form after submitting their paper.

Application form

Young Speakers Talks

Ahead of the workshop, we are running a series of online Young Speakers talks (~10–15 min + Q&A) so early-career researchers can present their work, connect with other labs, and spark new collaborations. Interested? Post in the #talks channel of our Slack; sessions are scheduled once enough participants express interest.

Join the Slack →

Touch-to-Action — IROS 2026 workshop flyer

Spread the word

Share our workshop flyer with your group and mailing lists. Click the flyer to open the full-resolution version. To stay in the loop and meet other participants ahead of the workshop, join our community Slack channel.

Download flyer Join our Slack