user’s Mental mOdels and behaVior in HRI
The 18th International Conference on Social Robotics + Art, 1-4 July, 2026 London (UK)
Date: 3 Jul 2026 - Time: 14:00 – 17:00 - Location: Workshop Room 2
ASIMOV - Adaptive Social Interaction based on user’s Mental mOdels and behaVior in HRI -
will be held in conjunction with the 18th International Conference on Social Robotics + Art - London (UK)
July 3, 2026 - 14:00-17:00 - Room 2
Welcome to ASIMOV 2026, the Workshop on "Adaptive Social Interaction based on user’s Mental mOdels and behaVior in HRI", that will be held in conjunction with the 18th International Conference on Social Robotics +Art in July 1-4, 2026 in. London (UK).
The workshop aims to bring together a diverse and interdisciplinary community of researchers working on the next generation of socially and cognitively capable robots. It provides an interactive forum to explore cutting-edge developments related to mental models in HRI, human-aware perception–action loops, affective and cognitive processes for socially interactive robots, multimodal understanding, and long-term, symbiotic human–robot partnerships.
Building on the vision of a new generation of robots with an embodied intelligence, the workshop addresses how robots can develop cognitive, affective, and social competencies through continuous symbiotic interaction. Key themes include developmental learning, lifelong adaptation, and embodied intelligence, which are essential for robots that co-evolve with users, interpret complex human behaviors, and sustain meaningful relationships over time.
The workshop also focuses on advances in emotion and intention recognition, empathy and Theory of Mind in robotics, mutual affective understanding, real-time monitoring of behavior and mental states, and detection of non-verbal cues. Other core topics include robots with personality, online adaptive behavior, short- and long-term personalization, cognitive models for sustained interaction, physiological monitoring, BCI-enabled adaptive interaction, explainable AI for transparent decision-making, objective metrics for HRI evaluation, integration of generative language models that adapt to the user’s emotional and cognitive state, enabling user profiling, affect- and cognition-aware dialogue, and context-sensitive behavioral adaptation in robots.
The ASIMOV Workshop investigates how social robots can engage in meaningful, ethically aware, and cognitively grounded interactions with humans, particularly in sensitive contexts such as education, healthcare, and assistive scenarios. Despite the promise of social robots in such domains, users often remain cautious about employing them due to ethical, psychological, and safety concerns as well as a lack of trust in such technologies. Addressing these acceptability challenges requires considering not only individual psychological and behavioral factors, but also emergent group dynamics in the design of social interactions, integrating insights from ethics, philosophy of mind, and moral psychology. Central to this exploration is the question of how robots can be designed and behave to respect and respond to human values, expectations, and vulnerabilities. To achieve natural and effective human-robot interaction (HRI), robots must be endowed with learning and real-time adaptation abilities to perceive and interpret users’ mental states, navigate group dynamics in teamwork scenarios, while explicitly taking into account social and ethical rules. Beyond functional alignment, we seek to understand how socio-cognitive architectures, adaptive behaviors, and affective signals can support morally appropriate engagement—avoiding manipulation, misunderstanding, or dehumanization. This requires not only technical innovation, but also a reflective framework that integrates perspectives from ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of mind. Recent research shows that these capabilities are essential to bridge the gap between user expectations and the robot’s actual behavior, enhancing mutual understanding, engagement, and interaction efficiency. Robots' acceptability increases when they can understand and meet people's expectations during HRI. By equipping robots with moral, social and cognitive skills, which may be integrated through AI supports, they can convey contextually appropriate affective and social signals in an intelligent and readable way. From the mutual comprehension of mental states, an effective HRI can emerge, allowing human partners to suspend disbelief and fostering trust, partnership, and acceptability.
The ASIMOV Workshop brings together interdisciplinary experts in robotics, AI, cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy to explore the design of socially assistive robots that are cognitively competent in modeling both individual mental states and complex group dynamics, while being ethically informed and norm-aware. Focusing on sensitive domains such as education, healthcare, and assistive technologies, the workshop emphasizes integrating socio-cognitive architectures with normative frameworks to ensure robots respect human values, autonomy, and dignity. Key topics include individual and multi-user interaction modeling, moral agency, and mechanisms for real-time ethical adaptation, all aimed at fostering trustworthy, human-centered human-robot interaction grounded in moral psychology and philosophy of mind.
The workshop targets a broad and interdisciplinary audience, including researchers, practitioners, and students from social and assistive robotics, cognitive and behavioral robotics, and human–robot interaction (HRI). It particularly encourages the participation of PhD students and early-career researchers working on user modeling, developmental and lifelong learning, adaptive machine learning, generative and affect-aware language models, advanced control interfaces, and novel approaches to monitoring and interpreting internal states in humans and robots. The workshop offers an interactive and collaborative platform to exchange ideas, present innovative concepts, and foster cross-disciplinary collaborations. Participants will engage in discussions on embodiment, symbiotic long-term interactions, cognitive and affective adaptation, explainable AI, and personalized behavioral strategies, all aimed at shaping the next generation of socially intelligent robots that can interact with humans in dynamic, context-aware, and ethically responsible ways.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
Mental models in HRI
Human-aware perception–action loops
Embodied intelligence
Symbiotic HRI
Long-term social-aware interaction
Cognitive model adaptation for long-term interaction
Emotion, intention, and affect recognition
Empathy, Theory of Mind, and mutual affective understanding
Real-time monitoring of internal states and non-verbal cues
Multimodality in human–robot interaction
Robots with personality and online adaptive behavior
Short- and long-term personalization and developmental learning
Generative and affect-aware language models for adaptive interaction
Physiological monitoring, biofeedback, and BCI-enabled adaptive interaction
Explainable AI, objective evaluation metrics, and ethical considerations
Human partnership, trust, safety, and security in HRI