Call for Papers

Call for Papers

The USCToMM's Symposium on Mechanical Systems and Robotics (2026 MSR) is organized by the U. S. Committee on the Theory of Mechanisms and Machine Science, and is sponsored by the International Federation on the Theory of Mechanisms and Machine Science.  will be held Thursday through Saturday, May 21-23, 2026 at the University of California, Irvine Campus. The 2024 USCToMM Annual General Meeting will be held during the Symposium.

The symposium is designed to foster meaningful interactions and collaborations: single track, peer-reviewed papers; 20-minute presentations plus 10 minutes for Q & A allowing for substantial discussions; and a social program that fosters networking and collaborations among attendees including an excursion to a local site.

Paper Topics

The 2026 MSR Symposium welcomes submissions that address: Specialized Robotic Systems; Soft, Wearable & Origami Robotic Systems; Applications to Walking, Flying, Climbing, Ground, Underground, Swimming, & Space Systems; Human Rehabilitation & Performance Augmentation; Design and Analysis of Mechanisms & Machines; Human-Robot Collaborative Systems; Service Robotics; Mechanical Systems & Robotics Education; Commercialization of Mechanical Systems & Robotics; and related topics. Accepted papers will be indexed in Scopus, Ei Compendex, and Web of Science.

Proceedings

The 2026 MSR Symposium proceedings will be published by Springer in a single volume and indexed in Scopus, Ei Compendex, and Web of Science. Click here to view the 2022 published proceedings. Selected authors will be invited to submit expanded versions of their paper for archival publications in a special issue of the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics. 

Author Guidelines

Full papers should be submitted as an unsecured PDF file formatted according to the USCToMM LaTeX class or MS Word template (click here to download the LaTeX template and click here to download the Word template). Full papers should not exceed 12 pages. All communications with the corresponding authors of each paper will be conducted by email. Each corresponding author submitting a full paper will be requested to produce at least two reviews per paper submitted, and at least one author is required to register, attend, and present the paper at the symposium. Click here to submit your paper.

Important Dates

December 19, 2025 Submission of full papers. Click here to submit your paper.

January 16, 2026 Submission of reviews

January 30, 2026 Notice of decision

February 27, 2026 Submission of final papers

April 14, 2026 Early registration deadline

MSR 2026 Scientific Committee

- Sunil Agrawal, Columbia University

- David Cappelleri, Purdue University

- Mary Frecker, Penn State University

- Bill Goodwine, Notre Dame University

- Larry Howell, Brigham Young University

- Andrew Murray, University of Dayton

- Carl Nelson, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

- Alba Pérez Gracia, Idaho State University

- Madhu Raghavan, General Motors

- Bahram Ravani, University of California, Davis

- Nina Robson, California State University Fullerton

- Bernie Roth, Stanford University

- Vladimir Vantsevich, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Patronage

2026 MSR Symposium is organized in partnership with the Canadian Committee for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms (CCToMM) and with the patronage of the International Federation of the Theory of Mechanisms and Machine Science.