Call for Papers

Call for Submissions to The 3rd InterAI Workshop: "Interactive AI for Human-Centered Robotics" at ACM CHI 2026

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Date: TBD (Half-day workshop in the afternoon)

Location: Barcelona, Spain, as part of ACM CHI 2026

Paper submission site: OpenReview submission link.

Contact for submissions: yuchongz@kth.se, yong.ma@uib.no

*IMPORTANT DATES* 

Submission deadline: 6th Feb, 2026

Notification of acceptance: 20th Feb, 2026

Camera-ready deadline: 27th Feb, 2026

Workshop date: TBD.

All deadlines are at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth time.

AIM AND SCOPE 

This workshop aims to explore and discuss the advancements and challenges in human-centered interactive artificial intelligence (AI) within the field of human-robot interaction (HRI). It will focus on the integration of AI technologies that enhance human-robot collaboration, ensuring these interactions are intuitive, efficient, and tailored to human needs and behaviors.

Based on Schmidt et al., human-centered interactive AI is defined as an AI that enables interactive exploration and manipulation in real-time and is designed with a clear purpose for human benefit while being transparent about who has control over data and algorithms. This workshop is dedicated to exploring the cutting-edge developments in AI that prioritize interactive, real-time exploration and manipulation, all within the sphere of HRI. We aim to address the design considerations that make AI systems transparent, particularly in terms of data control and algorithmic operations, ensuring that users understand and trust the technology they interact with in the context of human-centered robotics.

As the 3rd edition, this workshop will serve as a platform for fostering innovation, collaboration, and discussion among the CHI community, driving forward the development of human-centered interactive AI in robotics. Through a series of keynotes, paper presentations, panel discussions, and interactive sessions, we aspire to foster a deep understanding of how human-centered interactive AI can be effectively integrated into HRI systems to create more effective, ethical, and user-friendly interactions.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Human-centered AI for HRI systems; 

• Explainability, transparency, and intelligibility in AI and robotics; 

• Interaction and user experience design principles for interactive AI in robotics; 

• Methods and study designs of embodied AI in HRI; 

• Participatory and co-design approaches for AI-powered HRI; 

• Ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI-driven HRI ; 

• Case studies: successful implementations of interactive AI in HRI; 

• Enhancing user experience, engagement, and trust in HRI with interactive AI; 

• Accessibility and inclusive design in HRI supported by interactive AI;

• Social and conversational robotics through interactive AI; 

• Robotics and interactive AI in assistive technologies; 

• Interactive AI in wearable, rehabilitative, and exoskeleton robotics; 

• Applications and comparisons of interactive AI vs. generative AI in HRI; 

• Multimodal social signal processing in HRI with interactive AI; 

• Affect modeling for HRI with interactive AI; 

• Adaptive learning in HRI using human-centered AI; 

• Trust and safety in interactive AI for HRI; 

• Personalization in AI-driven conversational agents/robots/robotic systems; 

• Collaborative learning and mutual adaptation between humans and AI-powered robots; 

• Cross-cultural considerations in designing AI for HRI; 

• AI-driven behavior adaptation in robotic agents for dynamic and unstructured environments;

• Interactive AI for teleoperation and remote robotic systems; 

• Seamless human-agent collaboration in complex tasks through interactive AI; 

• AI-enabled learning and interaction for improved HRI effectiveness; 

• Interactive AI for emotional well-being in HRI; 

• Embodied interactive AI for physically situated HRI; 

• Embodied AI methods for human-centered communication in HRI.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

InterAI accepts paper submissions of length of 2-4 pages (without references) including position paper, work-in-progress, or prospective work. Papers available online without peer review (e.g., already available on ArXiv but not already accepted or published in another venue) can be submitted.

All accepted papers will be presented as oral presentations during the workshop and will be archived (optional) on the workshop website and published on OpenReview.

Submissions ***do not*** need to be anonymized. All author information should be put on the manuscript.

Authors should use the same template as CHI submission: the ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column). The templates for US Letter format paper should be used.