The Award
New this year, the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Verification of Autonomous Systems (TC-VAS) is introducing a Best Paper Award recognizing the outstanding IROS 2026 regular paper on the verification of autonomous systems.
The award carries a prize of US$500, reimbursable in accordance with IEEE and RAS regulations. The winner will be announced at the TC workshop, AI and the Verification of Autonomous Systems, on the afternoon of Thursday, October 1.
Eligibility
The paper must be accepted as a regular paper at the IROS 2026 main conference. Workshop extended abstracts, late-breaking results, and papers presented only at other venues are not eligible.
The award's primary focus follows the theme of the workshop, described at https://sites.google.com/view/vas-iros-workshop/home: the verification of autonomous systems that incorporate artificial intelligence, with particular attention to foundation models, large language models, and generative AI.
Papers addressing the broader scope of the Technical Committee, listed at https://www.ieee-ras.org/verification-of-autonomous-systems/, are equally welcome and will be judged on equal footing.
How to Nominate
Nominations are made by email to kleahy@wpi.edu with the subject line "TC-VAS Best Paper Award". Please include:
Paper title, author list, and IROS 2026 paper ID
The full text of the accepted paper, attached as a PDF
A brief statement, no more than 250 words, describing the paper's contribution to the verification of autonomous systems
Self-nominations are welcome and expected. Nominations may also be made by any member of the community on behalf of a paper's authors.
Nomination deadline: September 27, 2026
Selection
Nominations will be evaluated by a committee drawn from the TC-VAS leadership and the workshop organizing committee, on the basis of originality, technical rigor, significance to the verification of autonomous systems, and potential impact on practice. Committee members will recuse themselves from evaluating any paper with which they have a conflict of interest.
The organizers reserve the right to decline to make the award in the event of an insufficient number of nominations or where nominated papers fall outside the scope of the award.