A comprehensive guide for authors targeting the IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots. This skill helps frame, scope, and structure research papers in humanoid robotics. It dictates the necessary level of hardware evidence, whole-body control integration, and perception depth required to succeed at this top-tier venue, while distinguishing it from general robotics conferences like ICRA or RoboCup.
IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids)
Conference positioning
IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids) is a top computer-science conference venue for humanoid robots, whole-body control, locomotion, manipulation, perception, and human-like interaction. It rewards a humanoid robotics paper with strong hardware evidence and control/perception integration. Treat this skill as a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool for conference submission strategy, not as a substitute for the current year's CFP, author kit, ethics policy, or submission portal.
Because CS conferences change deadlines, templates, page limits, review workflow, artifact rules, AI-use policy, and rebuttal formats every cycle, always verify the live official instructions before making a submission-ready recommendation. Start from the official source anchor recorded for this venue in ../../resources/conference-roster.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md.
When to trigger
The author names Humanoids / IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots as the target venue.
A manuscript in humanoid robots needs a conference-fit read before being formatted or submitted.
The paper must be re-framed from journal style or arXiv style into a selective CS conference narrative.
The author needs an evidence-gap, anonymity, artifact, rebuttal, or re-routing diagnosis for this venue.
Best submissions make a precise contribution type visible: algorithm, theorem, system, dataset, benchmark, empirical finding, design artifact, tool, or socio-technical analysis.
The paper should explain why the result matters to Humanoids's reviewers, not just why it is interesting to the authors' lab or product context.
Position related work against the most recent conference-cycle papers in this venue and its closest siblings; stale comparisons are a common early-review weakness.
If the contribution is interdisciplinary, state which part is CS research and which part is domain evidence.
Venue-specific calibration
Reviewer lens: Treat Humanoids as a humanoid robotics venue whose reviewers expect the scope and evidence to match its own community. Do not submit a generic CS paper until the introduction names the exact subcommunity, contribution type, and proof or empirical standard.
Contribution hook to foreground: the venue-specific contribution bar.
Scope vocabulary to use naturally in the abstract and introduction: humanoid robots, whole-body control, locomotion, manipulation, perception, and human-like interaction.
Official anchor domain: www.ieee-ras.org. Quote annual rules only after opening that source and the current-year CFP/author kit.
Close-neighbor routing guardrail
Use this profile only when the manuscript's central contribution is genuinely in humanoid
robotics and the author can say why Humanoids reviewers are the primary audience, not merely
a convenient deadline.
Closest roster neighbors to compare before final routing: international-symposium-on- experimental-robotics (ISER), robocup (RoboCup), international-symposium-on-distributed- autonomous-robotic-systems (DARS). Break ties by contribution type, evidence shape,
reviewer community, and the current official CFP from www.ieee-ras.org.
What distinguishes this venue from its closest siblings
What Humanoids is. The IEEE-RAS conference on humanoid robots specifically — bipedal locomotion, whole-body control, humanoid hardware and manipulation.
vs RoboCup. RoboCup is a competition-anchored event (leagues + symposium); route archival humanoid-science contributions here and competition/benchmark results there.
vs ICRA/IROS. Use Humanoids when the humanoid form factor is the contribution; general robotics breadth fits the IEEE flagships.
Humanoids-specific routing detail
Prefer Humanoids when the contribution depends on humanoid morphology, bipedal locomotion, manipulation, whole-body control, human-like interaction, or humanoid platforms.
Route robot competitions and benchmark leagues to RoboCup, distributed multi-robot autonomy to DARS, and general robotics results to ICRA/IROS/RSS.
Humanoids evidence should specify platform constraints, whole-body behavior, balance/control, hardware reliability, task setup, and failures tied to humanoid embodiment.
Method & evidence bar
Report hardware, simulation, environment, task distribution, reset procedure, and failure cases; embodied evidence must be inspectable.
Compare against meaningful robot-learning, planning, or control baselines under matched assumptions.
Separate simulation gains from real-world transfer and quantify reliability, not only best-case success.
For Humanoids, the evidence must support the venue-specific signature: a humanoid robotics paper with strong hardware evidence and control/perception integration.
Include limitations, negative results, compute/resource reporting, data provenance, and ethics details when they affect the claim.
Structure & house style
Lead with the robot task and system constraint before the algorithmic component.
Use video or supplementary material only as allowed by the current anonymous-review policy.
Use the current official template exactly; do not guess page limits, font sizes, supplement rules, anonymity exceptions, or camera-ready requirements from old cycles.
The introduction should answer: problem, why now, what is new, why this venue, and what evidence proves the claim.
Put the strongest result in the main paper, not only in the appendix or supplement; reviewers should not have to reconstruct the contribution.
Re-check the current cycle's CFP, author kit, submission system, abstract/paper deadlines, page limits, supplementary-material rules, anonymity policy, dual-submission policy, ethics policy, AI-use policy, artifact/code/data expectations, rebuttal/author-response format, and camera-ready requirements.
Confirm the review workflow and portal: OpenReview / CMT / HotCRP / PCS / START or society portal, as specified for the current cycle.
Check whether accepted papers require in-person presentation, separate registration, artifact badges, proceedings copyright, or post-acceptance release forms.
If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.
Pre-submission self-check
One sentence states why this manuscript belongs at Humanoids, using the venue's scope rather than generic "top conference" language.
The claim is calibrated to the evidence: no broader than the datasets, proofs, systems, user studies, deployments, or threat model support.
Related work includes the nearest current-cycle humanoid robotics papers and explains the technical delta.
The paper satisfies the current official template, anonymity, ethics, artifact, and rebuttal requirements.
The main paper is self-contained enough for reviewers to evaluate novelty and correctness without hunting through external links.
Common desk-reject triggers
Simulation-only evidence for a claim about real robots.
No clear task distribution, few trials, or missing failure analysis.
A learning curve without robot-specific insight or system integration.
Formatting, anonymity, dual-submission, external-link, or supplement violations under the current-year policy.
A contribution framed for a neighboring field while giving Humanoids reviewers too little technical or empirical substance.
Re-routing decision
If the paper misses Humanoids's bar, compare against ieee-international-conference-on-robotics-and-automation / ieee-rsj-international-conference-on-intelligent-robots-and-systems / robotics-science-and-systems / conference-on-robot-learning. Re-route based on contribution type, not prestige: theory to a theory venue, systems to a systems venue, application-heavy work to a domain venue, and early ideas to workshops or shorter tracks when the official CFP supports them.
Output format
[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids)
[Contribution type] algorithm / theory / system / dataset / benchmark / empirical / design / security / other
[Main evidence gap] <single most important missing proof, experiment, study, artifact, or policy check>
[Official items to re-check] CFP / author kit / deadline / format / anonymity / ethics / AI-use / artifact / rebuttal / camera-ready
[Top rejection risk] <venue-specific risk>
[Re-route suggestion] <better-matched conference or journal if not a fit>