What: AAAI 2026 Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD)
When: November 5-7, 2026
Where: Arlington, VA
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Dear colleagues,
We invite you to submit a paper and/or participate in the 4th AAAI Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD). UR-RAD 2026 will be an in-person event.
Capturing a desired task or interaction as a computational artifact (i.e., a representation) has long played a pivotal role in robotics. Many robotic subfields have traditionally employed a variety of different representational techniques, such as LTL, planning languages, social representations, natural language, and many more. These representations, however, lack cohesion in when and how they are applied. The 4th Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD) therefore aims to increase engagement between junior and senior researchers, elevate discussion between audiences and speakers, and provide unique avenues of interaction for all participants.
Symposium Website: ur-rad.github.io
AAAI Fall Symposium Series Website: https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/2026-fall-symposium-series-2/
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Submission Topics of Interest
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– Representational trends
– Natural language in robotics
– Novel representations & uses
– AI planning for robotics
– Formal methods in robotics
– Representations for robot learning
– Representations for UI
– Robot EUD and programming
– Robot runtime/control environments
– Opportunities for standardization
– Frameworks (e.g., ROS or middleware)
– Open-source & collaboration initiatives
– Identifying representation requirements
– Neurosymbolic representations
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Important Dates
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– EXTENDED Submission deadline: August 31, 2026 AoE
– Notification date: September 14, 2026
– Camera Ready Deadline: September 29, 2026
Authors are encouraged to submit earlier rather than later. Submissions should be anonymized for double-blind review. All papers will have the option to be archived in the AAAI Fall Symposium proceedings.
– Full Papers (5-8 pages): Novel research, artifact submissions, or strong works in progress.
– Short Papers (2-4 pages): Positions, smaller artifacts, and early works in progress.
The symposium will also offer mentoring connections for early career researchers. Paper authors and junior members of the community who opt in will have the opportunity for extensive interaction with mentors, who will also guide discussions about individual papers.
If you intend to submit a paper, please email us at
urrad.symposium@gmail.com. Use the subject line, “[UR-RAD] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers. Note that at least one author from each paper will be expected to review 2-3 UR-RAD papers themselves.
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Organizing Committee
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David Porfirio (George Mason University)
Saad Elbeleidy (Peerbots)
Laura M. Hiatt (Naval Research Laboratory)
Cynthia Matuszek (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
Ross Mead (Semio)
Andrew Schoen (Semio)
Laura Stegner (George Washington University)
August 25th, 2026 
Daniela Lopez de Luise 