-Madrid will become the worldwide centre of robotics and intelligent systems for a week, congregating over 3500 attendees. -More than 1200 speakers from 60 countries will present the latest scientific and technological advances in robotics and related technologies.

11th of September 2018. Madrid will host the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2018), the largest robotics event in the world, which will take place from 1 to 5 October. Throughout the week, more than 3500 attendees from 60 countries will be brought together. IROS 2018 will also hold a robotics fair in which over 150 exhibitors will present latest advances in intelligent robots, humanoids, autonomous vehicles, service robots in medicine, assistance, agriculture, infrastructure maintenance and inspection, rescue, as well as aerial, terrestrial and submarine robotics.

The event includes over 1200 lectures, 3 plenary presentations and 20 key talks from the leading investigators in robotics, including Professor Marc Raibert, CEO and founder of Boston Dynamics. Additionally, IROS 2018 will organise 48 workshops and 8 tutorials, as well as 10 international robotics competitions, including autonomous cars and domestic robot contests.

This editions motto, ‘Towards a Robotic Society, reflects the advances of robotic technology for a new technological society. To this effect, new advances in robot and human coexistence will be presented, in addition to the technical conferences. These advances will include assistance to people with functional diversity and the elderly, human-robot interaction, integration of automated learning systems, intelligent robots, cognitive systems, etc. Professor Carlos Balaguer of the Carlos III University and president of IROS 2018 believes "we will start using robots for everyday tasks sooner than we think. This interaction, although strange at first, will become increasingly fruitful."

IROS 2018 will serve as a discussion forum on the highest level for the most pressing problems in robotics. The IROS 2018 programme committee coordinator, professor Cecilia Laschi, reveals that "interdisciplinarity and work on the frontier of current knowledge is fundamental for modern robotics organised nowadays in multidisciplinary teams of engineers, physicists, sociologists, doctors". In that sense, the congress will be the meeting and discussion point on the future of robotics for the main world leaders of R&D politics, scientists, businesspeople, sociologists, psychologists, economists and legal experts who will debate on employment, robo-ethics, social costs, education and the social change that will come from this new robotic society.

IROS is sponsored by the two most important robotic science societies in the world: the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) of the USA and the Japan Robotics Society (JRS). Its also supported by the European Union through DG CONNECT, the Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. Additionally, it is sponsored by the main companies in the field.