About us

FoRMA1: Foundation Models in the Ro-Man Age - Responsible Development for Social Robotics is a workshop held in conjunction with the 35th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2026). It explores the intersection of foundation models and social robotics, focusing on safety, embodiment, and interdisciplinary approaches. The workshop accepts extended abstracts (2-3 pages) for lightning talks, which will not be published in the main proceedings but will be hosted on a repository.

Important Dates

Wed, Jun 3, 2026

Submission deadline

Paper Submission

Research Paper Submission Tracks

Ethics

Social robotics

Foundation models

Vulnerable populations

Embodiment and Foundation Models

Unique capabilities and challenges for foundation models in physically embodied agents

Novel failure modes introduced by embodiment

Physical presence influence on user trust, perception, and susceptibility to model limitations

How foundation models reshape human-robot relational dynamics

Safety Evaluations and Benchmarking

Sycophancy, boundary maintenance, and proactive redirection in social robot interactions

LLM safety evaluations to assess risk of physical or psychological harm in embodied contexts

Gender, racial, or cultural biases embedded in foundation models used for social robots

Evaluation approaches that account for social embodied context

Age-appropriate language and interactions

Accessibility in embodied LLMs for users with disabilities

Minority languages, multiculturalism, and code-switching

Interdisciplinary Methods and Approaches

Evaluation metric co-design

Impact of emerging AI regulations on the development and deployment of social robots

Impact evaluation in real-world contexts

Policy and sustainability aspects

Call for Papers Description

We invite authors to submit their contributions as extended abstracts. Extended abstracts can take the traditional form of approaching a topic of interest to the workshop and research. We are also interested in submission on study designs (either at conceptualisation, ongoing or submitted) as an opportunity to reflect on the usage of foundation models. The accepted submissions will be presented as lightning talks during the workshop.