The 2nd Space Robotics Workshop (SRW) will be held in conjunction with the IEEE SMC-IT/SCC from July 28-29, 2025, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA. The workshop will bring together experts in robotics, autonomy, AI, and aerospace to shape the next era of innovation driving our return to the Moon, the sustainable exploration of Mars and beyond, and the expansion of commercial activity beyond Earth orbit.

As national space agencies and commercial ventures capitalize on next-generation robotics, we stand at a critical juncture. Increasing mission complexity, evolving space architectures, expanding commercial services, and the rapid progress in AI present both unprecedented opportunities and new challenges in how we explore, operate, and build a sustainable space economy. Rapid advances in terrestrial robotics are directly influencing the development of space robotics and are poised to play a central role in enabling more autonomous, resilient, and ambitious missions, while also laying the groundwork for future off-world economic activities.

Building on the foundation laid during our inaugural event, this year's workshop will focus on the recent breakthroughs in the field of robotics, the current state of space robotics, the rise of the commercial space sector supporting the lunar economy, and emerging concepts aimed at enabling more capable, adaptable, and cost-effective missions.

The program will be organized around a set of focused technical sessions, with keynote talks, spotlight presentations, panels, and a poster session.

We are pleased to announce our confirmed speakers for the 2nd Space Robotics Workshop:

Maruthi R. Akella
University of Texas at Austin

Lindy Elkins-Tanton
UC Berkeley

Dennis Hong
UCLA

Dean Bergman
Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin)

Grace Gao
Stanford

Pascal Lee
SETI Institute / Mars Institute

Ignacio López-Francos
NASA

Rob Mueller
NASA

Dan Negrut
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Brice Howard
Sentric Solutions

Hiro Ono
NASA JPL

Feifei Qian
USC

Lutz Richter
SoftServe

Annika Rollock
Aurelia Institute

Luis Sentis
University of Texas at Austin

Yue Wang
USC
NVIDIA

Dennis Wingo
Skycorp

Brian Yamauchi
Starpath Robotics

All sessions will be held in Room CR4

Day 1 - Monday, July 28

• Opening Remarks
  10:30 - 10:35 AM PT
  

  

  Speaker: Ignacio López-Francos (NASA)
• Unlocking the Offworld Economy with Robotic Technologies
  10:35 AM - 12:00 PM PT
  

  Speakers:

  

  Maggie Wang (Stanford) (Session Chair)

  

  Dennis Wingo (Skycorp)

  

  Grace Gao (Stanford)

  

  Rob Mueller (NASA)

  

  Brice Howard (Sentric Solutions)

  

  Brian Yamauchi (Starpath Robotics)

  The mineral resource map of our solar system is still largely blank, leaving the scientific, economic, and strategic value of lunar terrain—and of nearby asteroids—uncertain. This uncertainty is especially critical for New Space companies pursuing hi... [Expand]
• Lunch Break
  12:00 - 1:00 PM PT
• Mars Settlement Starts with Autonomy and Robotics
  1:00 - 2:30 PM PT
  

  Speakers:

  

  Luis Sentis (University of Texas at Austin / Apptronik) (Session Chair)

  

  Ignacio López-Francos (NASA)

  

  Maruthi R. Akella (University of Texas at Austin)

  

  Pascal Lee (SETI Institute / Mars Institute)

  As we extend robotic exploration to Mars and lay the groundwork for crewed missions and sustained human presence, increasing levels of autonomy become essential. Far from Earth and constrained by communication delays, robotic systems must perceive th... [Expand]
• One-Shot Interplanetary Exploration With Software-Defined Robotic Systems (Part 1)
  2:30 - 3:00 PM PT
  

  Speakers:

  

  Hiro Ono (NASA JPL) (Session Chair)

  

  Annika Rollock (Aurelia Institute)

  

  Lindy Elkins-Tanton (UC Berkeley)

  As we look beyond Mars toward the outer Solar System, the traditional model of incremental mission development becomes infeasible. This session will explore emerging concepts for adaptive, autonomous robotic systems capable of operating in unknown an... [Expand]
• Coffee Break
  3:00 - 3:30 PM PT
• One-Shot Interplanetary Exploration With Software-Defined Robotic Systems (Part 2)
  3:30 - 5:00 PM PT
  

  Speakers:

  

  Hiro Ono (NASA JPL) (Session Chair)

  

  Dean Bergman (Honeybee Robotics / Blue Origin)

  

  Feifei Qian (USC)

  As we look beyond Mars toward the outer Solar System, the traditional model of incremental mission development becomes infeasible. This session will explore emerging concepts for adaptive, autonomous robotic systems capable of operating in unknown an... [Expand]

Day 2 - Tuesday, July 29

• High-Fidelity Simulation and Digital Twins for Space Robotics
  10:30 AM - 12:00 PM PT
  

  Speakers:

  

  Lutz Richter (SoftServe) (Session Chair)

  

  Dan Negrut (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

  

  Yue Wang (USC, NVIDIA)

  High-fidelity simulation is playing an increasingly critical role in the development, testing, and validation of autonomous robotic systems for space exploration. This session will focus on the state of the art in simulation tools and digital twin fr... [Expand]
• Lunch Break
  12:00 - 1:00 PM PT
• Special Session: Earth and Beyond: The State of Robotics
  1:00 - 2:00 PM PT
  

  Speakers:

  

  Ignacio López-Francos (NASA) (Session Chair)

  

  Brice Howard (Sentric Solutions)

  

  Hiro Ono (NASA JPL)

  

  Luis Sentis (University of Texas at Austin)

  

  Yue Wang (USC, NVIDIA)

  Robotics is advancing rapidly on Earth, driven by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and increasingly capable, compact, and cost-effective hardware, including advanced sensors, actuators, and onboard computing. Translating these capabilities in... [Expand]
• Spotlight Talks (Part 1)
  2:00 - 3:00 PM PT
  

  2:00 PM – "Experimental Study of Magnetically-Actuated Satellite Swarm: Controllability Extension via Time-Integrated Control with Geometry Learning" – Yuta Takahashi

  2:15 PM – "Validation and Verification of Safety-Critical Aspects of Autonomy in Orbital Robotics" – Roberto Lampariello

  2:30 PM – "Learning Surface and Vertical Mobility for Enceladus Direct Ocean Access" – Jack Naish

  2:45 PM – "Adaptive Science Operations in Deep Space Missions Using Offline Belief State Planning" – Hailey Warner
• Coffee Break
  3:00 - 3:30 PM PT
• Spotlight Talks (Part 2)
  3:30 - 4:30 PM PT
  

  3:30 PM – "Drift-Free Visual Compass Leveraging Digital Twins for Cluttered Environments" – Jungil Ham

  3:45 PM – "A Rigid-Soft Underactuated Tendon-Driven Gripper Prototype for Free-Flying Manipulation" – Brian Coltin

  4:00 PM – "RA-SR: A 16–32-Channel Low-Power FPGA Multi-Protocol ESC Controller for Space Robotics" – Mohamed El-Hadedy

  4:15 PM – "Free-Flying Intra-Vehicular Robots: A Review" – Jordan Kam
• Best Paper Award + Closing Remarks
  4:30 - 5:00 PM PT

Day 3 - Wednesday, July 30 (Optional)

• Tours (limited capacity & pre-registration required)
  Morning - Afternoon

We invite submissions on research and development at the intersection of robotics, autonomy, and space applications. Contributions should highlight innovative methods, systems, and technologies for exploration, in-space services, or science operations beyond Earth.

Relevant topics:

• Autonomous navigation and mobility for planetary and orbital environments, including terrain-relative localization, path planning, and novel locomotion systems (e.g., rovers, drones, subsurface robots).
• Manipulation in space and planetary environments, including dexterous handling, microgravity operations, and contact dynamics in ISAM or EVA contexts.
• In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) and In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) enabled by robotic autonomy.
• AI agents for perception, decision-making, task planning, and multi-robot coordination in space environments.
• Foundation models and multimodal learning (vision-language-action) for general-purpose space robotic systems.
• Photogrammetry, Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs), 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), and other volumetric representation techniques for environment modeling and scene understanding, particularly under challenging illumination conditions.
• Human-robot teaming strategies for crewed and uncrewed missions, including shared autonomy, intent recognition, and adaptive interfaces.
• Sim-to-real transfer, domain adaptation, and policy generalization for space-deployed systems.
• High-fidelity simulation and digital twins for development, integration, testing, and mission rehearsal.
• Long-duration autonomy and adaptive learning in unstructured, dynamic, or high-latency environments.
• Autonomous surface operations, including science-driven exploration, sample collection, and real-time decision-making under resource constraints.
• Spacecraft swarms and distributed robotic systems, including satellite formation flying, multi-agent planning, and inter-agent communication.
• Space logistics, infrastructure deployment, and robotic construction, supporting scalable off-world operations.
• System integration, testing, and field validation of space robotic platforms in analog or operational environments.
• Mission concepts, technology demonstrations, and commercial initiatives accelerating the adoption of space robotics.
• Trust, verification, and validation frameworks to ensure robust, explainable, and resilient autonomous behavior.

• Full papers can be up to 10 pages, not including references. Paper templates are available here:IEEE Templates.
• Submissions must be made through theEasyChair portal. Please select the "Space Robotics Workshop" track.
• Authors may choose between two submission options:
  • Archival Track (IEEE Proceedings): Papers will be included in the official IEEE conference proceedings (indexed in IEEE Xplore).
  • Non-Archival Track: For authors who wish to present without publication, preserving eligibility for future archival venues.
• Papers selected for IEEE publication must be presented in person to comply with IEEE's "Podium and Publish" policy.
• Authors who opt out of IEEE publication may still present at the workshop and are encouraged to contribute to discussions and community-building.
• All submissions will be peer reviewed for quality and relevance.
• At least one author of each accepted paper must register for IEEE SMC-IT/SCC with an in-person registration and attend the workshop.
• All accepted papers will be presented as posters during the workshop. A select number of top submissions will be invited for spotlight presentations, based on reviewer feedback and program needs.
• Selected papers may be invited to appear in a special issue of a journal. More details will be shared later.

Congratulations to all the authors whose work was selected! Thank you to everyone who submitted, and to our reviewers for their valuable feedback and dedication to maintaining the quality of the workshop.

The 2nd Space Robotics Workshop is a volunteer led effort by researchers and practitioners in the field of robotics, autonomy, and AI from multiple organizations. We are grateful to be supported by a Scientific Committee composed of leading experts across academia, industry, and government, who help ensure the quality, relevance, and impact of the program.

Ignacio G. López-Francos
NASA Ames

Alex Sowell
NASA JSC

Brian Coltin
NASA Ames

Kuldeep Rambhai
Redwire

Maggie Wang
Stanford University

Marcel Kaufmann
NASA JPL

Ricard Marsal I Castan
University of Luxembourg

Rob Royce
NASA JPL

Roshan Kalghatgi
NASA Ames

Alison Lowndes
NVIDIA

Andy Hock
Cerebras

Animesh Garg
Georgia Tech, NVIDIA, Apptronik

Edward Balaban
NASA ARC

Giuseppe Cataldo
NASA GSFC

Hiro Ono
NASA JPL

Jean-Pierre de la Croix
NASA JPL

Jennifer Blank
Blue Marble Space Institute of Science

Jennifer Heldmann
NASA ARC

Jonathan Knowles
Former Autodesk, Apple, Adobe

Jonathan Stock
NASA ARC

Katherine Scott
Intrinsic, Open Robotics

Keerthana Gopalakrishnan
Google DeepMind

Kentaro Uno
Tohoku University

Luis Merino
Universidad Pablo de Olavide

Luis Sentis
University of Texas at Austin, Apptronik

Pyojin Kim
Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)

Roberto Lampariello
DLR (German Aerospace Center)

Rodrigo Ventura
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon

Trey Smith
NASA ARC

The Space Robotics 2025 Workshop is sponsored by the following organizations: