The European Robotics Forum 2026 in Stavanger brought together companies, universities, and organizations from across the global robotics community. Among the exhibitors was the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society represented by Jim Ostrowski. We caught up with him to find out what the organization is announcing and where it sees the field heading.
The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society arrived in Stavanger with some significant news. The organization is gearing up for two of the robotics world’s biggest annual gatherings. First up is the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), taking place in Vienna during the first week of June. With over 7,000 attendees expected and more than 170 companies exhibiting, it promises to be a landmark event for the industry.
Later in the year, IROS — Intelligent Robots and Systems — will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in September or October, at a similar scale. Together, the two conferences represent the central meeting points for the global robotics and automation community.
AI and Humanoids Dominate the Conversation
Asked about the hottest topics in robotics right now, Ostrowski didn’t hesitate. “It’s hard to avoid AI and humanoids,” he said. Humanoid robots in particular are generating enormous buzz, with a wave of new companies unveiling machines of varying sizes that can walk, navigate environments, and manipulate objects with increasing sophistication. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is permeating virtually every corner of robotics research and development.
With geopolitical tensions increasingly shaping the technology landscape, we asked Ostrowski how IEEE views the current climate. His answer was clear: the organization remains firmly committed to being a global platform. “We’re looking across all geopolitical and geographic boundaries,” he said, noting that roughly a third of exhibitors at ICRA Vienna are expected to come from China, alongside strong representation from the US and Europe. IEEE also actively works to include voices from South America, Africa, and Australia — regions not always in the spotlight of mainstream robotics discourse.
If there’s a single thread running through everything IEEE is doing, it’s the drive to connect academia with industry. “We have a lot of folks coming from universities and research labs with great ideas and new technologies,” Ostrowski explained. “How do we connect those to industry and start to transfer them into products in the real world?” That question — and the effort to answer it — seems to define the society’s mission at this moment in robotics history.
