The Space Robotics Workshop at IROS 2026 is scheduled for September 27, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, aligned with the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. The workshop theme is "Space Exploration and Sustained Operations Beyond Earth," and it explicitly targets planetary robotics and autonomy for extreme surface environments, including the Moon, Mars, and other bodies. Submission deadlines were extended to August 21, 2026 at 11:59 PM AoE, and extended abstracts could be up to 4 pages in IEEE RAS double-column format, submitted through OpenReview.
The technical focus is directly relevant to lunar construction: lunar surface logistics, construction, assembly, servicing, maintenance, and in-situ resource utilization are listed as core topics, alongside mobility, manipulation, and loco-manipulation across wheeled, legged, aerial, and hybrid robots. For the Lunar Ark, this signals maturation of the robotics stack needed to build radiation shielding, excavate regolith, assemble pressurized modules, service power and thermal infrastructure, and reduce EVA dependence in hostile terrain. The workshop’s emphasis on scaling robotic infrastructure also indicates a shift from proofs-of-concept to operational systems for sustained habitation.
The Ark team should monitor the proceedings, speaker outputs, and accepted abstracts for reusable design patterns in autonomy, modular construction, and ISRU-driven logistics. Priority research targets are excavation, transport, precision assembly, fault-tolerant teleoperation, and human-robot collaboration for surface construction in low-gravity, dusty, high-radiation environments. Any validated methods that reduce crew exposure, increase construction throughput, or enable repairable infrastructure should be fast-tracked into Ark architecture reviews and prototype roadmaps.