Call for Papers

Accepted papers will be presented as posters during the poster sessions. Selected works will also be highlighted as contributed talks.


Topics

We invite submissions related (but not limited) to the following topics:

  • Exploration vs. exploitation dilemma
  • Exploration in reinforcement learning, search algorithms, and autonomous robotics
  • Safe exploration and exploration for Sim2Real
  • Large language model–guided exploration
  • Artificial curiosity and intrinsic motivation
  • Exploration in hierarchical and abstract worlds
  • Active learning and proactive querying
  • Evolutionary algorithms for exploration
  • Reward shaping, hacking, and diversity measures
  • Attention and pruning mechanisms
  • Exploration in human–robot interaction
  • Tactile exploration
  • Continual and reset-free learning
  • Horizon-aware exploration and planning for exploration
  • Meta-learning and learning-to-explore
  • Open-ended, open-world exploration
  • Visual question answering for exploration

Important Dates

All deadlines are Anywhere on Earth (AoE).

  • Submission Deadline: April 20 April 27, 2026 (23:59 AoE)
  • Camera Ready Submission: May 20, 2026 (23:59 AoE)
  • Workshop Day: June 5, 2026

Submission Details

Tracks & Format

We plan to accept two kinds of submissions:

  1. Traditional submissions presenting preliminary results of ongoing research (long papers), including negative results and open problems (extended abstracts).
  2. Submissions linked to already published papers, including:
    • Journal papers that have not been discussed at a conference.
    • Conference papers from other Robotics and Machine Learning/AI venues where a focused community discussion would add value.

Length & Style:

  • Paper (long): up to 6 pages (excluding references).
  • Extended abstract: up to 2 pages (excluding references).
  • Use the IEEE conference style: .

Review:

  • Single-blind review process.

Multimedia:

  • Authors are encouraged to include videos illustrating their work.

Submit Your Work

Authors can submit their work via OpenReview:

Submit on OpenReview →

Note: Submission requires an OpenReview account. Accounts registered without an educational or institutional email address may take up to two weeks to be approved — please plan accordingly.

Questions

If you have any questions, please contact us at
xploreworkshop@gmail.com.