Latest News

  • The workshop will be held on Monday morning, October 20, 2025 in Hangzhou, China!
  • Room number: 401. Time: 9:00-13:00. Zoom link
  • Abstract acceptance decisions were announced on October 8, 2025.
  • We welcome submission of extended abstracts by September 20 27, 2025! See Call For Abstracts for details.

Scope and Objectives

Imagine homes where intelligent robotic assistants effortlessly manage daily tasks—ranging from organizing laundry to disposing of waste—allowing busy families to reclaim valuable time and providing essential support to elderly individuals with limited mobility. However, realizing this vision presents a fundamental challenge: most household objects that robots must interact with, such as clothing, food, and disposable items, are deformable in nature. The key to unlocking truly helpful domestic robots lies in developing systems capable of intelligently manipulating these non-rigid materials while adapting to human needs and intentions. This workshop focuses on the dynamic relationship between perception, decision-making, and execution in the robotic manipulation of deformable objects. We plan to invite experts from fields such as perception, robotics, and machine learning to discuss and share innovative solutions, driving the advancement of deformable object manipulation technologies for real-world applications.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to

  • Foundation models and multi-modal learning in deformable object manipulation
  • Learning from demonstration and teleoperation
  • Sim2real transfer and generalization to novel deformable objects
  • Physics-based and data-driven modeling of deformable objects
  • Physical simulation of deformable objects
  • Model-based planning and control for deformable object manipulation
  • Human-robot interaction with deformable objects
  • Assistive and healthcare applications of deformable object manipulation

Links to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions of the workshop:

📎 ROMADO (2020) 📎 ROMADO-RA (2021) 📎 ROMADO-SI (2022) 📎 ROMADO-TA (2024)

Invited Speakers

Yiannis Demiris
Yiannis Demiris
Imperial College London, UK
Human-Centred Deformable Object Manipulation
Yan Wu
Yan Wu
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
Tactile-Guided Physical Intelligence on Soft Object Manipulation
Florian Pokorny
Florian Pokorny
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Caging-inspired approaches to deformable object manipulation
Bin Fang
Bin Fang
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
Soft Contact Simulation and Manipulation Learning of Deformable Objects
Fan Zhang
Fan Zhang
Honda Research Institute EU, Germany
General Manipulation for Assistive Robotics
Lijun Han
Lijun Han
Shanghai Jiaotong University, China
Modeling and Control for Deformable Object Manipulation in Diverse Tasks

Program

Local Time
(UTC+8)
Other Timezones Activity
09:00 - 09:05 CET: 03:00 - 03:05
EST: 21:00 - 21:05 (prev)
Welcome and foreword
Session 1: Invited Talks (20-min talk + 5-min Q&A)
09:05 - 09:30 CET: 03:05 - 03:30
EST: 21:05 - 21:30 (prev)
Yiannis Demiris: Human-Centred Deformable Object Manipulation
09:30 - 09:55 CET: 03:30 - 03:55
EST: 21:30 - 21:55 (prev)
Fan Zhang: General Manipulation for Assistive Robotics
09:55 - 10:20 CET: 03:55 - 04:20
EST: 21:55 - 22:20 (prev)
Yan Wu: Tactile-Guided Physical Intelligence for Soft Object Manipulation
Session 2: Poster Session
10:20 - 10:50 CET: 04:20 - 04:50
EST: 22:20 - 22:50 (prev)
Poster session & Coffee break
Session 3: Invited Talks (20-min talk + 5-min Q&A)
10:50 - 11:15 CET: 04:50 - 05:15
EST: 22:50 - 23:15 (prev)
Bin Fang: Soft Contact Simulation and Manipulation Learning of Deformable Objects
11:15 - 11:40 CET: 05:15 - 05:40
EST: 23:15 - 23:40 (prev)
Florian Pokorny: Caging-Inspired Approaches to Deformable Object Manipulation
11:40 - 12:05 CET: 05:40 - 06:05
EST: 23:40 - 00:05
Lijun Han: Modeling and Control for Deformable Object Manipulation in Diverse Tasks
Session 4: Panel Discussion
12:05 - 12:50 CET: 06:05 - 06:50
EST: 00:05 - 00:50
General panel discussion

Call for Abstracts

We invite submissions to the upcoming edition of the ROMADO Workshop, which focuses on the challenges and progress in deformable object manipulation. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers working across robotics, perception, simulation, and machine learning to foster interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration.

We solicit extended abstracts up to 3 pages (excluding references and supplementary material). Submissions can include original research, dataset or benchmark design, and applications that bridge the research areas pertinent to this workshop. All submissions will undergo external peer review by two experts, and will be evaluated based on their technical merit and potential contribution to the workshop discussion.

Submissions are managed via OpenReview . All accepted contributions will be presented during the interactive poster sessions.

Submission Information:

  • Submission Deadline: September 27, 2025 (September 20, 2025)
  • Notification of Acceptance: October 08, 2025 (September 30, 2025)
  • Workshop Date: October 20, 2025

Accepted Abstracts

A total of 16 abstracts were accepted for presentation. Among them, 7 abstracts were selected as Best Poster Finalists, and 9 abstracts were accepted as regular poster presentations. We received a large number of high-quality submissions to this workshop. Due to the limited number of poster slots provided by IROS, we regret that not all submissions could be accommodated in the final program.

All accepted abstracts are available through OpenReview. They will be presented during the poster sessions at the workshop. Owing to space constraints, the 9 regular posters will be displayed on the wall rather than on individual poster boards. We thank all authors for their valuable contributions and look forward to stimulating discussions during IROS 2025.

Organizers

Yixing Gao
Yixing Gao
Jilin University, China
Mingrui Yu
Mingrui Yu
Tsinghua University, China
Jihong Zhu
Jihong Zhu
University of York, UK
Zackory Erickson
Zackory Erickson
Carnegie Mellon University, US
Júlia Borràs Sol
Júlia Borràs Sol
Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, Spain
Andrej Gams
Andrej Gams
Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Claire Dune
Claire Dune
University of Toulon, France
Mohammad Alkhatib
Mohammad Alkhatib
CNRS, Clermont Auvergne INP, Institut Pascal, Université Clermont Auvergne, France
Youcef Mezouar
Youcef Mezouar
CNRS, Clermont Auvergne INP, Institut Pascal, Université Clermont Auvergne, France

Contact

For any inquiries regarding the workshop, please feel free to reach out to the corresponding organizers: