Messages

Masanori Sugisaka

Honorary General Chair of ICAROB

(President, ALife Robotics Co., Ltd., Japan)

It is my great honor to invite you all to The 2026 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2026) to be held at B-Con Plaza, Beppu, Oita, Japan, 2026. This Conference is changed as the old symposium from the first (1996) to the Eighteenth (2013) annually which were organized by Oita University and ALife Robotics Corporation Ltd. under the sponsorship of the Science and Technology Policy Bureau, the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture (Monbusho), presently, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (Monkasho), Japanese Government, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), The Commemorative Organization for the Japan World Exposition (’70), Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (AFOSR/AOARD), USA. I would like to express my sincere thanks to not only Monkasho (annually fund support from 1996 to 2013) but also JSPS, the Commemorative Organization for the Japan World Exposition (’70), Japanese companies for their repeated support.
The old symposium was organized by International Organizing Committee of AROB and was co-operated by the Santa Fe Institute (USA), RSJ, IEEJ, ICASE (Now ICROS) (Korea), CAAI (P. R. China), ISCIE, IEICE, IEEE (Japan Council), JARA, and SICE. The old AROB symposium was growing up by absorbing many new knowledge and technologies into it. This history and character was inherited also from ICAROB2014(The 2014 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics, included a series of ICAROB proceedings indexed by SCOPUS and CPCI-Web of Science now. This year we have The 2026 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB2026). The future of The ICAROB is brilliant from a point of view of yielding new technologies to human society in 21st century. I have founded Robot Artificial Life Society in 2017/12/07 together with Professor at Hiroshima University Takao Ito and Professor at University of Miyazaki Makoto Sakamoto. I hope that fruitful discussions and exchange of ideas between researchers during Conference (ICAROB2026) will yield new merged technologies for happiness of human beings and, hence, will facilitate the establishment of an international joint research institute on Artificial Life and Robotics in future.

Takao Ito

General Chair of ICAROB

(Professor Hiroshima University, Japan)

It is my great honor and pleasure to invite you all to the 2026 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2026). The ICAROB has a long history. First launched in 1996 as ISAROB, this former organization of ICAROB, was developed under the strong leadership and yeoman efforts of the former President—the internationally famous Professor Masanori Sugisaka, who is widely acknowledged as the father of our AROB conference. Our conference has brought together many research scholars, faculty members, and graduate students from all over the world, and published numerous manuscripts in high-quality proceedings as well as highly reputed journals every year. Over the years, dramatic improvements have been made in the field of artificial life and its applications. The ICAROB has provided a foundation for unifying the exchange of scientific information on the studies of man-made systems that exhibit the behavioral characteristics of natural living systems, including software, hardware, and wetware. Our conference shapes the development of artificial life, extending our empirical research beyond the territory circumscribed by life-as-we-know-it and into the domain of life-as-it-could–be. It will provide us with a good place to present our new research results, innovative ideas, and valuable information about artificial intelligence, complex systems theories, robotics, and management of technology. The conference site is B-con plaza, one of the most famous international convention centers in Oita prefecture, Japan. You will find many fantastic scenic spots and splendid historical places in Oita prefecture. Please enjoy your stay! I eagerly look forward to personally meeting you during the ICAROB 2026 and to sharing a most pleasant, interesting, and fruitful conference with you. Do come and make this conference a fruitful, productive as well as enjoyable event!

Yingmin Jia

Co-General Chair of ICAROB

(Professor, Beihang University,P.R. China)

It is my great pleasure to invite you to The 2026 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB2026), will be held at B-Con Plaza, Oita, JAPAN, from January 29 to February 1, 2026，and your understanding and support will be the strongest driving force for us to organize the meeting well.
ICAROB develops from the AROB, which was created in 1996 by Prof. Masanori Sugisaka and will celebrate her 31st Anniversary in 2026. So far, many important results have been presented at past meetings and have a profound impact on artificial life and robotics. Doubtless, it is really one of the most representative international conferences in the field of artificial intelligence and attracts wide interests among scientists, researchers, and engineers around the world, and effectively promotes the unprecedented popularity of artificial intelligence. Especially, we congratulate Prof. Ito Takao on his taking over from Prof. Sugisaka as the new General Chair of ICAROB and look forward to the conference getting better and better.
For a successful meeting, many people have contributed their great efforts to ICAROB. Here, I would like to express my special thanks to all authors and speakers, and the organizing team for their excellent works. Looking forward to seeing you at ICAROB2026.

Ju-Jang Lee

Co-General Chair of ICAROB

(Honorary professor, KAIST)

The First International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB) was held in Oita City, Oita, Japan from Jan. 11th to 13th, 2014. This year’s Conference will be held amidst the high expectation of the increasingly important role of the new interdisciplinary paradigm of science and engineering represented by the field of artificial life and robotics that continuously attracts wide interests among scientist, researchers, and engineers around the globe.
Distinguished researchers and technologists from around the world are looking forward to attending and meeting at ICAROB. ICAROB is becoming the annual excellent forum that represents a unique opportunity for the academic and industrial communities to meet and assess the latest developments in this fast-growing artificial life and robotics field. ICAROB enables them to address new challenges, share solutions, discuss research directions for the future, exchange views and ideas, view the results of applied research, present and discuss the latest development of new technologies and relevant applications.
In addition, ICAROB offers the opportunity of hearing the opinions of well-known leading experts in the field through the keynote sessions, provides the bases for regional and international collaborative research, and enables to foresee the future evolution of new scientific paradigms and theories contributed by the field of artificial life and robotics and associated research area. The twenty-first century will become the century of artificial life and intelligent machines in support of humankind and ICAROB is contributing through wide technical topics of interest that support this direction.
It is a great honor for me as a Co-General Chair of the 13th ICAROB 2026 to welcome everyone to this important event. Also, I would like to extend my special thanks to all authors and speakers for contributing to their research works, the participants, and the organizing team of the 13th ICAROB.
I’m looking forward to meeting you at the 13th ICAROB at B-Con Plaza in Beppu city and wishing you all the best.