Agenda | Tokyo 2026
Day 1
May 28
8:00 AM: Registration and Networking Breakfast
8:30 AM: Welcome and Opening Remarks
Speaker: Modar Alaoui, General Partner at ALM Ventures and Founder & Chair at Humanoids Summit.
8:40 AM: Event Overview
Speaker: Brittany Arthur, MC at Humanoids Summit Tokyo.
8:45 AM: Opening Keynote
”Humanoids, Interaction, and Real-World Deployment”.
Speaker: Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories at Osaka University.
9:15 AM: Presentation
“Humanoid Robots: Crossing the Chasm from Concept to Commercial Reality”.
Speaker: Ani Kelkar, Partner at McKinsey & Company.
9:35 AM: Presentation
“Insights Into Disney’s Robotic Character Platform”.
Speaker: Moritz Baecher, Director, Zurich Lab at Disney Research.
9:55 AM: Presentation
”Dexterity: The Final Frontier for Physical AI”.
Speaker: James Wells, CEO at Sanctuary AI.
10:15 AM: Networking Break
10:30 AM: Presentation
“Year One of Humanoids — Japan's Deployment Frontline”.
Speaker: Tomohiro Uchida, CEO at GMO AI & Robotics Corporation.
10:50 AM: Presentation
“General-Purpose Robot Brains: A New Era of Industrial AI”.
Speaker: Ali Agha, Founder and CEO at FieldAI.
11:10 AM: Presentation
“Toward the Future of Humanoid Robotics at Toyota”.
Speaker: Tomohiro Nomi, Head of Humanoid Robotics Research Unit at Toyota.
11:30 AM: Presentation
“Building the Global Physical AI Ecosystem: From Silicon Valley to International Collaboration”.
Speaker: Terence Bennett, Executive Director, Bay Area Robotics Association (BARA).
12:00 PM: Lunch Break
1:00 PM: Afternoon Keynote
“AI Robotics Policy in Japan”.
Speaker: Toshikazu Okuya, Deputy Director General, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, METI.
1:20 PM: Presentation
"Honda’s New Multi-Fingered Hand”.
Speaker: Takahide Yoshiike, Executive Chief Engineer at Honda R&D Frontier Robotics.
1:40 PM: Presentation
”Physical Superintelligence: When Everything Becomes a Robot”.
Speaker: Ivan Poupyrev, Founder and CEO at Archetype AI.
2:00 PM: Presentation
"Democratizing Humanoids: Mini Pi Plus, an Affordable and Easy-to-Set-Up Full-Stack Ecosystem”.
Speaker: Hanya Huang, Operation Partner at High Torque Robotics.
2:20 PM: Presentation
”Accelerating Humanoids with Simulation-Centric Data Engine”.
Speaker: Steve Xie, Founder and CEO at Lightwheel.
2:40 PM: Presentation
”Benchmarking Humanoid Robots for Industrial Applications”.
Speaker: Werner Kraus, Head of Robotics at Fraunhofer.
3:00 PM: Networking Break
3:15 PM: Presentation
”Safety as a Competitive Advantage: 100 Years of Lessons for the Humanoid Boom”.
Speakers: Eileen Leman, OSHA Robotics Attorney at Cooley LLP; Ryan Vann, Partner at Cooley LLP.
3:35 PM: Startup Presentations
5-minute presentations, fast-paced and focused, featuring 10 startups from across the humanoid and physical AI ecosystem presenting exciting new technologies and key insights.
Speakers:
”Haptica Robotics: Giving Robots a Sense of Touch”.
Paola Peraza Calderon, Co-Founder at Haptica Robotics.
”AI Agents for Industrial Robotics: Bridging AI and Real-World Deployment”.
Xavier Chi, Co-Founder at Mbodi AI.
”Combining Humanoid Form with High Engineering Performance”.
Lesya Hendrix, Founder and CEO at Spacer Robotics.
”The Dexterity Deadlocks”.
Robin Zuo, Founding Robotics Engineer at Origami Robotics.
”Why Humanoids Need a New Operating System”.
Guillaume Binet, Founder at Copper Robotics.
”Multi-Force Ergonomic Haptics: Human-in-the-Loop Teleoperation”.
Will Mason, Head of Physical Intelligence at Contact CI.
“Amplifying Human Work: Why the Future of Labor Is Telepresence, Not Replacement”.
Theo Nash, Co-Founder and CEO at mundane.
”Closing the Deployment Gap with an Adaptive Control Layer”.
Viktor Luthman, Co-Founder and CEO at IntuiCell.
”Relational Risk in Humanoid Robotics: The Missing Layer in Human-Robot Design”.
Sara Filipcic, Founder and Director at Institute for Humane Robotics.
”Physical AI for moving things in the real world”.
Nick Hafner, Co-Founder and CEO at Refined Robotics.
4:35 PM: Panel Discussion
“Investing in Humanoids and Physical AI: Where Capital Is Flowing Next”.
Moderator: Tracy Qu, Tech Reporter at the Wall Street Journal.
Speakers: Dennis Clark, Managing Partner at Zeon Ventures; Paulina Szyzdek, Investment Principal at E12 Ventures; Chiamin Lai, General Partner at FIRSTLIGHT Capital.
5:00 PM: Closing Remarks
Speaker: Brittany Arthur, MC at Humanoids Summit Tokyo.
6:00 - 8:30 PM: VIP Reception
For VIP ticket holders. An exclusive gathering with live music, chef-prepared hors d’oeuvres, and roaming humanoids.
Location: Takanawa Convention Center, B1 Floor.
Day 2
May 29
8:00 AM: Breakfast and Networking
8:30 AM: Opening Keynote
”From Language to Motion: How Gemini Powers the Next Generation of Robots”.
Speaker: Carolina Parada, Head of Robotics at Google DeepMind.
9:00 AM: Presentation
”Toward a National Robotics Strategy: How Government Can Drive the Success of the Humanoid Industry”.
Speaker: Brendan Schulman, Vice President of Policy at Boston Dynamics.
9:20 AM: Presentation
”From Simulation to Reality: Building Practical AI for Humanoids”.
Speaker: Lior Wolf, Co-Founder and CEO at Mentee Robotics.
9:40 AM: Presentation
”Unitree Robotics: Scaling Agile and Intelligent Robots”.
Speaker: Xiaoli Chen, Director APEC at Unitree Robotics.
10:00 AM: Presentation
”Humanoids & Physical AI: The Next Frontier for Japan’s Manufacturing Competitiveness”.
Speaker: Kei Wajima, Founder and CEO at TRON K.K.
10:20 AM: Networking Break
10:35 AM: Fireside Chat
”Humanoid Robots: Safety Considerations from Design to Deployment”.
Moderator: Shery Ahn, Anchor and Editor-at-Large at Bloomberg Television.
Speaker: Elliot Kaye, Partner at Cooley LLP & Former Chairman of the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.
11:00 AM: Presentation
”Solving Five-Finger Dexterity: RLDX’s Approach to Industry-Level Manipulation”.
Speaker: Junghee Ryu, Founder and CEO at RLWRLD.
11:20 AM: Presentation
”Robotics’ Next Bottleneck Isn’t AI — It’s Sensors”.
Speaker: Leopold Beer, Vice President of Sensors at Renesas.
11:40 AM: Presentation
“How a Humanoid Appears Matters!”.
Speaker: Mehrdad Farimani, Founder at MERPHI.
12:00 PM: Lunch Break
1:00 PM: Afternoon Keynote
”Japan’s Robotics Strategy and the Future of AI Robotics”.
Speaker: Tetsuya Ogata, Chairman at AIRoA – AI Robot Association.
1:20 PM: Presentation
“The Future of Physical AI is Built on Chips”.
Speaker: Dirk Geiger, Senior Director Application Marketing for Humanoid Robotics at Infineon Technologies AG.
1:40 PM: Presentation
“LimX Dynamics: Cross the Limits”.
Speaker: Xiaowei Liu, Head of International Business at LimX Dynamics.
1:45 PM: Presentation
“Beyond Electronic Skin: Protected Ultrasound Tactile Intelligence for Humanoid Hands”.
Speaker: Mo Maghsoudnia, Founder and CEO at UltraSense Systems.
2:00 PM: Presentation
“Advanced Bionic Hands for Humans and Robots”.
Speaker: Aadeel Akhtar, Founder and CEO at Psyonic.
2:20 PM: Presentation
“Technically Ready, Socially Broken: What Really Blocks Humanoid Deployment”.
Speaker: Rikiya Yamamoto, Representative Director at BAAO, and CEO at Yamariki Edge.
2:40 PM: Presentation
“Unlocking Your Place in the Humanoid Value Chain”.
Speaker: Dr. Hagen Wegner, Director at FEV Consulting.
3:00 PM: Networking Break
3:15 PM: Panel Discussion
“Spatial AI and World Models: Toward General Physical Intelligence”.
Moderator: Katie Forster, APAC Tech Reporter at AFP.
Speakers: Kei Kase, Solution Architect, Robotics at Nvidia Japan; Udaya Rongala, Founder and Director of Research at IntuiCell; Ali Agha, Founder and CEO at FieldAI; Ivan Poupyrev, Founder and CEO at Archetype AI.
3:45 PM: Presentation
“Beyond Degrees of Freedom: Rethinking Dexterous Hands for Real-World Deployment and UMI”.
Speaker: Letian Wang, VP of Product at ROBOTERA.
4:05 PM: Presentation
“Seizing the AI Advantage Through Physical Humanoid Robotics”.
Speaker: Takehiro Kojima, Vice President of Customer Experience at Cambridge Consultants.
4:25 PM: Presentation
”Out of the Cage: : Advanced Functional Safety for Humanoids”.
Speaker: Chencheng Tang, CTO at Synapticon.
4:45 PM: Presentation
“Uniting Developers to Drive Productivity Evolution”.
Speaker: Chaoyi Li, Head of Globalization at Booster Robotics.
5:00 PM: Closing Remarks
Speaker: Brittany Arthur, MC at Humanoids Summit Tokyo.
The schedule, speakers, and topics are subject to change. Please check back for updates.