2026 Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW)

June 11–12, 2026

Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago
6045 S. Kenwood Avenue (map)
Chicago, IL 60637

Overview

The robotics field is experiencing tremendous growth as a result of algorithmic and technological advances, the availability of common, low-cost sensors and platforms, and a standardization in open-source development. These factors together with the growing community of talented, highly-trained roboticists combine to render feasible real-world applications in our homes and workplaces, and on our streets.

The Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW) is intended to bring together roboticists from academia and industry in and around the Midwestern United States. Building on successful workshops in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2024 and 2025 it is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to share their work with others and to network, with the goal of creating a more cohesive and vibrant robotics community in the Midwest. The workshop will feature invited talks by leading researchers, and an exciting collection of oral presentations and interactive poster sessions.

If you have any questions, please contact the organizers.

Call for Participation

We invite all roboticists from the Midwest (broadly interpreted) to participate in the Midwest Robotics Workshop to be held at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) on the University of Chicago campus (map) on June 11–12, 2026.

We encourage participants to use the workshop as an opportunity to present recent research either as a talk or during an interactive poster session. If you are interested in presenting, please submit a title and abstract summarizing your work. Since the workshop does not have published proceedings, abstracts that describe work that was previously published or is still in progress are welcome.

Keynote Speakers

Peter Stone (University of Texas at Austin)
From How to learn to What to learn in Multiagent Systems and Robotics

Dr. Peter Stone holds the Truchard Foundation Chair in Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He is Chair of the Computer Science Department, as well as Founding Director of Texas Robotics. In 2013 he was awarded the University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award and in 2014 he was inducted into the UT Austin Academy of Distinguished Teachers, earning him the title of University Distinguished Teaching Professor. Professor Stone's research interests in Artificial Intelligence include machine learning (especially reinforcement learning), multiagent systems, and robotics. Professor Stone received his Ph.D in Computer Science in 1998 from Carnegie Mellon University. From 1999 to 2002 he was a Senior Technical Staff Member in the Artificial Intelligence Principles Research Department at AT&T Labs – Research. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, AAAI Fellow, IEEE Fellow, AAAS Fellow, ACM Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and 2004 ONR Young Investigator. In 2007 he received the prestigious IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, given biannually to the top AI researcher under the age of 35, in 2016 he was awarded the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award, and in 2024 he was awarded the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award. Professor Stone co-founded Cogitai, Inc., a startup company focused on continual learning, in 2015, and currently serves as Chief Scientist of Sony AI.


Brenna Argall (Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab)
Evolution and Translation: Robotics Intelligence to Meet the End-User

Brenna Argall is a professor of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Northwestern University. She is founder and director of the assistive & rehabilitation robotics laboratory (argallab) at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), the #1-ranked rehabilitation hospital in the United States. The mission of the argallab is to advance human ability by leveraging robotics autonomy. Argall is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2023), a recipient of the NSF CAREER award (2016), and one of the 40 under 40 by Crain's Chicago Business (2016). Her Ph.D. in Robotics (2009) was received from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, as well as her B.S. in Mathematics (2002). She has been a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health (2002–2004), the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, 2009–2011), and the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering (2019) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Invited Speakers

MWRW 2026 will feature talks by senior researchers, early-career faculty, and students. Some of the confirmed speakers include:

Edgar Bolivar-Nieto (University of Notre Dame)
Venanzio Cichella (University of Iowa)
Mark Draelos (University of Michigan)
Rachel Hawe (University of Minnesota)
Ayonga Hereid (Ohio State University)
Zachary Kingston (Purdue University)
Sam Kriegman (Northwestern University)
Hee Rin Lee (Michigan State University)
Siyi Xu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Justin Yim (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Important Dates

May 10, 2026* Registration and Abstract Submission Deadline (Register here)
May 10, 2026 Student Lodging Grant Application Deadline (Apply here)
June 11–12, 2026 Workshop

*Note: Registration will close early if we reach maximum capacity.

Program

The workshop will start at 09:30am on Thursday and will end with lunch on Friday. Breakfast and lunch will be provided both days. The program will include invited and contributed talks, as well as poster sessions.

The following times are subject to change.

Thursday, June 11

09:30–10:00am Breakfast (provided)
10:00–10:15am Welcoming Remarks
10:15–11:15am Keynote Talk (Chair: Matt Walter)
Peter Stone (University of Texas at Austin)
From How to learn to What to learn in Multiagent Systems and Robotics
11:15am–12:45pm Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Dan Bruder)
11:15–11:35am Zachary Kingston (Purdue University)
Real-Time Motion Planning for Any Robot
11:35–11:55am Siyi Xu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Electrical Sensing, Actuation and Control of Soft Robots: Towards Wearable and Implantable Systems
11:55am–12:15pm Justin Yim (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
A Leg Up: It Takes Just One to Jump
12:15–12:35pm Student/Postdoc Speaker
12:45–02:15pm Lunch (provided) and Poster Session I
02:15–04:00pm Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Kathryn Daltorio)
02:15–02:35pm Venanzio Cichella (University of Iowa)
Coordination and Motion Planning Strategies for Multi-Vehicle Systems in Communication-Constrained Environments
02:35–02:55pm Sam Kriegman (Northwestern University)
Fantastic Machines and Where to Find Them
02:55–03:15pm Rachel Hawe (University of Minnesota)
Robotic Assessments of Bilateral Coordination in Neurologic Conditions Across the Lifespan
03:15–03:35pm Edgar Bolivar-Nieto (University of Notre Dame)
Convexity and Compliance for Better Design, Control, and Estimation of Your Wearable Robot
03:35–03:55pm Student/Postdoc Speaker
04:00–05:30pm Poster Session II and Happy Hour

Friday, June 12

09:00–10:30am Breakfast (provided) and Poster Session III
10:30–11:30am Keynote Talk (Chair: Matt Walter)
Brenna Argall (Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab)
Evolution and Translation: Robotics Intelligence to Meet the End-User
11:30am–01:00pm Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Ram Vasudevan)
11:30–11:50am Mark Draelos (University of Michigan)
The Micro Made Macro: Microsurgery at Human Scales
11:50am–12:10pm Hee Rin Lee (Michigan State University)
Worker-Robot Collaboration: Exploring Emerging Labor Issues
12:10–12:30pm Ayonga Hereid (Ohio State University)
TBD
12:30–12:50pm Student/Postdoc Speaker
01:00–01:15pm Closing Remarks and Best Poster Award Announced
01:15–02:30pm Lunch (provided)

Poster Session I (Thursday)

  1. Minjae Cho (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
    CARL: Contraction-Aware Reinforcement Learning for Robust Path-Tracking
  2. Marco DiGiorgio (DePaul University)
    Adaptive Time-Stepping for Massively Parallel Hardware Accelerated Robot Simulation
  3. Agnel Fernando (DePaul University)
    Bridging Simulation and Real-World Manipulation with Vision-Language-Action Models on UR3 Robots
  4. Rhet Hailey (Auburn University)
    Assessing Activation Functions for Hybrid Learning Control of an Upper-Extremity Exoskeleton
  5. Yun Ho (University of Chicago)
    Embodied-AI: Automating Body Movements to Provide Users with Physical Assistance
  6. Saima Jamal (University of Michigan)
    Distributed Pneumatic Energy Storage for Burst-Actuation, Untethered Inflatable Robots
  7. Minhyuk Jang (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
    Distributionally Robust Extended Kalman Filter
  8. Tianchong Jiang (Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago)
    Do You Know Where Your Camera Is? View-Invariant Policy Learning with Camera Conditioning
  9. Randy Landsberg (Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago)
    Autonomous Robotics Immersions for High School Students & Teachers (ARM)
  10. Nhan Le (Purdue University)
    Biased H-LIP Control for Walking on Sloped and Accelerating Ground
  11. Xinyi Liu (Joint BME Department of UNC/NCSU)
    Beyond Motion Imitation: Is Human Motion Data Alone Sufficient to Explain Gait Control and Biomechanics?
  12. Hao Luo (University of Notre Dame)
    Design and Implementation of Novel 7-bar Variable Stiffness Mechanism Based on Singularities
  13. Zaid Mahboob (Iowa State University)
    Dynamic Spin-Stabilized Throws: Tight-Spiral American Football by a Humanoid Robot
  14. Kayla McFarlane (Carnegie Mellon University)
    SAFE: A Black-Box Safety Evaluation Benchmark for Autonomous Mobile Robots
  15. Shaiv Mehra (Purdue University)
    Comparing Human Grasp Control of Rigid and Compliant Grippers in Assistive Robotic Manipulation
  16. Azhang Nazaripouya (University of Notre Dame)
    Adaptive Locomotion in Salamander-Inspired Robot via Central Pattern Generators and Reinforcement Learning
  17. Sam O'Connor (University of Notre Dame)
    Computational Design of a Spherical Five-bar Flipper Mechanism with Ellipse Synthesis
  18. Anvay Pradhan (University of Michigan)
    A Unified Bar-and-Hinge Modeling Framework for Architected Soft Materials
  19. Abu Nayem Md. Asraf Siddiquee (University of Notre Dame)
    Design, Simulation, and Locomotion Analysis of a Modular Sea Star-Inspired Robotic Ray with Passive Anisotropic Friction
  20. Luzhe Sun (Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago)
    Flow Shared Autonomy with Anomaly Detection
  21. Daniel Volpi (University of Notre Dame)
    Adapting Rigid-Body Dynamics Derivatives for Constraint Embedding Closed-Chain Models
  22. Bowen Weng (Iowa State University)
    Betting for Sim-to-Real Performance Evaluation
  23. Xiaoran Zha (University of Notre Dame)
    Deep Koopman Based Dynamical Probability Density Function Voltage Control for Power Systems
  24. Michelle Zhang (Northwestern University, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab)
    Curating User-Defined Interface Maps for Robot Teleoperation

Poster Session II (Thursday)

  1. Benjamin Andelman (University of Michigan)
    MICSR: A Mixing, Current-Sensing Robot
  2. Elif Pinar Aydin (University of Notre Dame)
    Maneuverability of a SMA-Embedded Soft Flagellated Swimmer in Viscous Environments
  3. Soumith Batta (University of Minnesota)
    GeoVLM: Multimodal Fusion of Vision Language Models and LiDAR for Explainable Trajectory Prediction in Autonomous Driving
  4. Yujia Chen (Iowa State University)
    Importance Sampling Meets Predictive Advantage at Sea: Rare-Event Safety Testing for Legged Locomotion in Non-Inertia Environments
  5. Alex Chortos (Purdue University)
    Multifunctional Soft Robotics Enabled by Multimaterial Extrusion Manufacturing
  6. Allison Fick (University of Notre Dame)
    High Strength Latching for Soft Growing Vine Robots
  7. Fran Fuentes (Purdue University)
    Linking Exteroception and Proprioception through Improved Contact Modeling for Soft Growing Robots
  8. Yitian Gao (Purdue University)
    Parallel Simulation of Contact and Actuation for Soft Growing Robots
  9. Zhixian Hu (Purdue University)
    MuxGel: Simultaneous Dual-Modal Visuo-Tactile Sensing via Spatially Multiplexing and Deep Reconstruction
  10. Yi Jin (DePaul University)
    Language-Guided, Map-Free Navigation Using Vision-Language-Action Models (VLA)
  11. Ananya Kankane (Illinois Institute of Technology)
    Multi-Node Inertial Motion Capture Device
  12. Shinsaku Kuwada (Illinois Institute of Technology)
    Integrity Monitoring for Collaborative Localization of Connected and Automated Vehicles
  13. Omer Kurkutlu (University of Illinois Chicago)
    Onboard AI-Driven Perception and Navigation for Resource-Constrained Tiny Drones
  14. Sidharth Kudupudi (University of Minnesota)
    Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning of Vision-Language Models for Pedestrian Intent Prediction
  15. Sharanya Mishra (Illinois Institute of Technology)
    OptiWeb: A Web-Based Framework for Reproducible Trajectory Optimization
  16. Emiliano Mora (Illinois Institute of Technology)
    Model Predictive Control in Resource-Constrained Hardware
  17. Chearim Moon (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
    Motion Design for Grasp-Based Dynamic Locomotion in Microgravity
  18. Xiangshan Tan (Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago)
    HapCompass: A Rotational Haptic Device for Contact-Rich Robotic Teleoperation
  19. Ludwig Tay (Purdue University)
    HybridMimic: Hybrid RL-Centroidal Control for Humanoid Motion Mimicking
  20. Renkun Wang (Purdue University)
    Mechanics of Defect-Induced Failure in Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
  21. Sicheng Wang (Purdue University)
    Origami-Inspired Fluidic Logic Devices for Mechanical Intelligence in Soft Robots
  22. Yang Yang (Purdue University)
    Novel Design, Fabrication and Control of Bio-inspired Magnetic Microrobot
  23. Ryan Yu (University of Michigan)
    Geometrically Tuning Soft Joints to Mimic Intervertebral Joint Mechanics
  24. Margaret Zhang (University of Michigan)
    Geometrically Tuning Soft Joints to Mimic Intervertebral Joint Mechanics
  25. Pouang Zhou (Purdue University)
    Learning Tactile-Aware Quadrupedal Loco-Manipulation Policies

Poster Session III (Friday)

  1. Mobina Amrollahi (Iowa State University)
    Safe Social Robot Navigation with Behaviorally Adaptive Human Models in Efficient Spaces
  2. Sandeep Banik (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
    Shared Autonomy: A Unified Framework for Dynamic Agency Allocation in Human-AI Systems
  3. William Bartel (University of Notre Dame)
    Physics-Guided Flow Matching for Humanoid Loco-Manipulation
  4. Konner Brickey (University of Minnesota)
    Spacecraft Relative Motion Simulation using Cable-Driven Parallel Robots
  5. Syed Talha Bukhari (Purdue University)
    Variational Shape Inference for Grasp Diffusion on SE(3)
  6. Sai Coumar (Purdue University)
    PyRoFFI: Accelerating Foreign Kinematics Kernels
  7. Camila Fernandez (Carnegie Mellon University)
    SLUGBOT V2: An Aplysia-Inspired Robotic Grasper with Improved Anatomical Accuracy
  8. Austin Garrett (Purdue University)
    Sequential Monte Carlo for Model Predictive Control
  9. Axel González Cornejo (University of Notre Dame)
    Towards Estimating Interface Forces in Prosthetic Sockets via Least Squares and Mechanics Modeling
  10. Suhrud Parag Joglekar (University of Notre Dame)
    Towards Functional Return-to-Sport Assessment after Anterior-Cruciate-Ligament Reconstruction: A Wearable Framework to Estimate Muscle Strength
  11. Jaeeun Kim (Purdue University)
    Soft Surfaced Vision-Based Tactile Sensing for Bipedal Robot Applications
  12. Fanxin Kong (University of Notre Dame)
    SafeNet: A Neural-Symbolic Network for Safe Planning in Robotic Systems using Formal Method-Guided LLM Fine-Tuning
  13. Minho Lee (University of Notre Dame)
    Reducing Knee Torque during Sit-to-Stand Transitions through Parallel Elasticity: A Passive Exoskeleton Approach
  14. Austin Mills (Case Western Reserve University)
    TBD
  15. Alan Pham (University of Chicago)
    Towards Context-Aware Task Learning and Moderation via User Manipulable Tabletop Multi-Robots
  16. Md Rakibul Islam Prince (Purdue University)
    TacScope: A Miniaturized Vision-Based Tactile Sensor for Surgical Applications
  17. Muhammad Wasif Raheel (Illinois Institute of Technology)
    Spherical Robot with Two Actuated Internal Pendulums
  18. Shashank Ramesh (University of Notre Dame)
    The AI-Assisted Ellipse Synthesis Framework: Achieving both Design Exploration and Tuning of Planar Robot Mechanisms
  19. Abriana Stewart-Height (University of Illinois Chicago)
    Risk-Aware Learning for Long-Horizon Autonomous Robot Operation
  20. Willa Yang (University of Chicago)
    PopTuber: Discretely Reshaping High Resolution 3D Curves with “Serial Multistable” Tubes
  21. Gloria Yutong Zhang (Purdue University)
    SAATT Nav: A Socially Aware Autonomous Transparent Transportation Navigation Framework for Wheelchairs
  22. Kaidi Zhang (Purdue University)
    TacVLA: Contact-Aware Tactile Fusion for Robust Vision-Language-Action Manipulation
  23. Zhiyuan Zhang (Purdue University)
    What Matters in Vision-Tactile World Models for Contact-Rich Manipulation
  24. Yuhao Zhou (Purdue University)
    Synergizing Fingertip Sensing and a Tactile Active Palm for Dexterous In-Hand Manipulation

Awards

MWRW 2026 will feature a Best Poster Award. Winners will be announced at the end of the workshop.

Accommodations

There are several hotels nearby the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park, where TTIC is located. These include:

See this list for more options, including hotels in downtown Chicago.

Lodging Grants: We will provide a limited number of grants for student lodging at a nearby hotel for the night of June 11. Please see the Registration section for information on how to apply.

Parking: Free parking is available in the commuter parking lot at 60th St. and Stony Island Ave. and free street parking on many streets near TTIC (just beware of "permit parking" and "street cleaning" signs!). Parking can be found on 61st Street (between Woodlawn Ave and Blackstone Ave), on Dorchester Street (between 60th and 61st Streets).

Registration

Registration: If you are interested in presenting your work as a poster or talk, or would like to simply attend the workshop, please sign up here. There is no cost to register. Please note that the schedule is pretty tight, so we may not be able to honor every presentation request.

Lodging Grants: We are awarding a limited number of lodging grants for students from outside the Chicagoland area who would like to attend. The grants will provide a one-night stay at a nearby hotel on June 11. Please fill out this form if you would like to apply.

Organizers

Daniel Bruder (University of Michigan)
Kathryn Daltorio (Case Western Reserve University)
Ram Vasudevan (University of Michigan)
Matthew Walter (TTIC)