IEEE ICRA 2025

Human-Centered Robot Learning in the Era of Big Data and Large Models
2025-05-19 08:30 - 17:30 (America/New_York)
Meeting Room: 301
Recent advances in training large-scale models on massive internet-scale data show great promise for developing foundation models that enable robots to perform sophisticated tasks in human-centered environments, such as transportation, households, healthcare, and warehouses. These models introduce new paradigms for human-robot interaction, allowing robots to follow complex human instructions, collaborate effectively, and understand and comply with social norms.
However, deploying embodied AI agents in the physical world presents additional challenges compared to deploying AI models that interact with humans virtually. First, these models must be grounded in human representations and understandings of the physical world to ensure effective and trustworthy interactions. Second, the risk of physical harm to humans imposes significantly higher requirements on AI safety. Third, acquiring human-robot interaction data is significantly more difficult than accessing internet-scale data used for training large language models (LLMs).
This workshop aims to bring together interdisciplinary experts in fields such as robot learning, human-robot interaction, natural language processing, cognitive science, and trustworthy AI to discuss these grand challenges. We envision that this exchange of ideas within and across disciplines will help build new bridges toward the development and deployment of large-scale models for interactive embodied AI systems.

Open Challenges in Robotics for Asset Inspection and Management (OCRAIM)
2025-05-19 08:30 - 17:30
Meeting Room: 310
This workshop aims to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world applications in robotics for asset inspection and management. In the context of this workshop, an “asset” refers to any valuable physical resource or piece of infrastructure that requires regular monitoring, maintenance, or management to ensure its proper functioning and longevity. While robotic inspection has made significant progress in recent years, many challenges remain unresolved when translating these innovations into practice. With invited talks from both world-leading researchers and industry representatives, this workshop will discuss the real problems faced by industry professionals and highlight the research at the forefront of addressing these problems. The outcome will be a clearer understanding of the open challenges in this field and a roadmap for future developments that meet industry expectations.

Undergraduate Research Outreach Workshops
2025-05-19 08:30 - 17:30
Meeting Room: International ballroom B (Omni Hotel)
To see a complete list of Undergraduate Research Outreach Workshops, please click here.

ICRA 2025 Doctoral Consortium
2025-05-19 08:30 - 17:30
Meeting Room: International ballroom D (Omni Hotel)
Meeting Agenda
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM: Arrival & Registration
9:00 AM – 9:10 AM: Opening Session
9:10 AM – 10:00 AM: Poster Highlights
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Poster Session & Coffee Break
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Career Panel (Panelists: Animesh Garg, Hadas Kress-Gazit, Hanna Kurniawati, Alberto Quattrini)
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM: Lunch with Mentors
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Plenary Keynote by Tomas Lozano-Perez (MIT)
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM Job Search Panel (Panelists: Torsten Kroeger, Elena Messina, Stergios Roumeliotis, Dezhen Song)
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Poster Session & Coffee Break
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM Panel on Future Opportunities & Challenges in Robotics (Panelists: Michael Beetz, Kostas Bekris, Stephen Guy)
International Program Committee (IPC)
Noa Agmon
Francesco Amigoni
Hau Chan
Glen Chou
Animesh Garg
Lu Gan
Peng Gao
Giuseppina Gini
Maria Gini (co-chair)
Ioannis Karamouzas
Shreyas Kousik
Yunzhu Li
Ming C. Lin (co-chair)
Wei-Chiu Ma
Marco Morales
Yiling Qiao
Gita Sukantkar
Lydia Tapia
Shenlong Wang
Lirong Xia
Yuke Zhu

Technical Tours
2025-05-19 09:00 - 15:30
Join us for a technical tour! For a list of the tours taking place on Monday 19 May 2025, please visit this page: https://2025.ieee-icra.org/technical-tours/

Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility
2025-05-19 09:10 - 11:30
Departure Time: 9:10 AM
Return Time: 11:30 AM
Capacity: 20
High Bay user facility of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute focused on translating manufacturing 4.0 technologies into industry adoption, with a focus on additive metal manufacturing, FIS, and AI in manufacturing.

Keynote Speaker: Dr Chris Crawford
2025-05-19 09:15 - 10:00

Georgia Tech Research Institute
2025-05-19 09:15 - 11:30
Departure Time: 9:15 AM
Return Time: 11:30 AM
Capacity: 20
Presentation of Georgia Tech Research Institute research labs and demonstration of robotics applications including multi-robot collaborative manipulation, VR tasking, adaptive cutting, and robotics for animal systems.

Georgia Tech Hi-bay Robotics and Human-Augmentation Space
2025-05-19 09:15 - 11:30
Departure Time: 9:15 AM
Return Time: 11:30 AM
Capacity: 45
Group will be split in 3 and rotated through 3 lab areas:
1) CAREN area
2) Overground motion lab area
3) Autonomous legged robotics area. Each area will host 15 people per time, and 30 minutes per session

Break
2025-05-19 10:00 - 10:30

Reading Research Papers
2025-05-19 10:30 - 12:00

Klaus Building Robotics Lab Tour
2025-05-19 11:40 - 14:00
Departure Time: 11:40 AM
Return Time: 2:00 PM
Capacity: 15
Touring of the robotics labs at Klaus Advanced Computing Building (KACB)

Lunch
2025-05-19 12:00 - 13:00

Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility 2
2025-05-19 12:45 - 15:00
Departure Time: 12:45 PM
Return Time: 3:00 PM
Capacity: 20
High Bay user facility of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute focused on translating manufacturing 4.0 technologies into industry adoption, with a focus on additive metal manufacturing, FIS, and AI in manufacturing.

Georgia Tech Research Institute 2
2025-05-19 12:45 - 15:00
Departure Time: 12:45 PM
Return Time: 3:00 PM
Capacity: 20
Presentation of Georgia Tech Research Institute research labs and demonstration of robotics applications including multi-robot collaborative manipulation, VR tasking, adaptive cutting, and robotics for animal systems.

Georgia Tech Hi-bay Robotics and Human-Augmentation Space 2
2025-05-19 12:45 - 15:00
Departure Time: 12:45 PM
Return Time: 3:00 PM
Capacity: 45
Group will be split in 3 and rotated through 3 lab areas:
1) CAREN area
2) Overground motion lab area
3) Autonomous legged robotics area. Each area will host 15 people per time, and 30 minutes per session

Successful Conference Attendance: Prepare Before Conference
2025-05-19 13:00 - 13:30

Klaus Building Robotics Lab Tour 2
2025-05-19 13:00 - 15:30
Departure Time: 1:00 PM
Return Time: 3:30 PM
Capacity: 15
Touring of the robotics labs at Klaus Advanced Computing Building (KACB)

Successful Conference Attendance: Provide Ongoing Service
2025-05-19 13:30 - 14:00

Multi-Modal Sensing and Shared Control: The Future of Wearable Robotics?
2025-05-19 13:30 - 17:30
Meeting Room: 309
Multi-modal sensing and shared control are rapidly evolving fields that are pivotal to advancing the field of wearable robotics. This half-day workshop will delve into cutting-edge technologies that incorporate multiple sensing modalities—such as visual, tactile, and electrophysiological inputs—into wearable devices, improving their adaptability and functionality. We will also explore shared control, where users and robotic systems collaborate to enhance both user experience and performance across various applications, from rehabilitation to personal assistance.
By integrating novel sensing modalities and biosignals within unified control architectures, researchers have a unique opportunity to explore how to increase device autonomy while still enabling users to maintain a sense of agency and ownership. Participants will gain insights into the latest innovations and emerging trends in wearable robotics focusing on multimodal sensing and shared control, showing how these technologies can improve device utility, thereby enhancing quality of life for users.

Learning Meets Model-Based Methods for Contact-Rich Manipulation
2025-05-19 13:30 - 17:30
Meeting Room: 412
This workshop explores the challenge of enabling robots to autonomously handle complex, contact-rich interactions. Traditionally, model-based methods have provided structured frameworks for planning and control, while recent learning-based methods have leveraged large datasets to achieve new capabilities. However, these methods often overlook the structured insights that model-based approaches offer.
As robotics continues to evolve, there is a growing need to integrate the adaptability of learning-based techniques with the precision and efficiency of model-based strategies. The workshop will bring together researchers to debate the future of dexterous robot manipulation and the roles of model-based optimization versus data-driven approaches.
Key questions to be explored include:

Is a structured approach still necessary for future robots, or can expressive neural networks alone suffice?
What role will model-based optimization play in the future of dexterous robot manipulation?
How can we effectively use limited data to train robots, and should we impose more structure to enhance learning?
Will the development of comprehensive robot datasets remain an open challenge?
Can the integration of model-based and learning-based methods lead to more robust and versatile robotic systems?

The workshop will feature talks, presentations, and heated debates to evaluate how these approaches can be combined to enhance robotic autonomy and efficiency in contact-rich environments. Participants will critically examine whether traditional robotics techniques remain relevant in a field increasingly dominated by machine learning and discuss the skills and strategies needed to develop the next generation of intelligent robots.

Successful Conference Attendance: Participate in Conference Activities
2025-05-19 14:00 - 14:30, 2025-05-19 14:30 - 15:00

Break/Graduate Student Panel
2025-05-19 15:00 - 16:30

Panel on Future Opportunities & Challenges in Robotics
2025-05-19 16:30 - 17:30
Panelists: Michael Beetz, Kostas Bekris, Stephen Guy

Welcome Reception
2025-05-19 18:00 - 19:30
Meeting Room: Hall A1/A2

Arts in Robotics: Medusai
2025-05-19 19:30 - 21:30 | The Goat Farm Arts Center
Performance + Installation of Medusai by Gil Weinberg and team
Buses will leave GWCC at 7:30 p.m. and 8:10 p.m., with the performance starting at 8:30 p.m., then return to GWCC at 9:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m., respectively.

Registration Open
2025-05-20 08:00 - 18:30
Meeting Room: Level 4 Concourse

Opening Session
2025-05-20 09:00 - 09:30
Meeting Room: Hall A3

Exhibit Hall Open
2025-05-20 09:00 - 18:00
