Agenda | Tokyo 2026
Day 1
May 28
8:00 AM: Registration and Networking Breakfast
8:30 AM: Opening Remarks
Speaker: Modar Alaoui, General Partner at ALM Ventures and Founder & Chair at Humanoids Summit.
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
“Beyond the Assembly Lines: AI-Powered Humanoid Robots from U.S. Innovation to Global Manufacturing”.
Speaker: Jeff Cardenas, Co-founder and CEO at Apptronik.
9:55 AM: Presentation
“Insights Into Disney’s Robotic Character Platform”.
Moderator: Moritz Baecher, Director, Zurich Lab at Disney Research.
10:15 AM: Networking Break
10:30 AM: Presentation
“General-Purpose Robot Brains: A New Era of Industrial AI”.
Speaker: Ali Agha, Founder and CEO at FieldAI.
10:50 AM: Presentation
“Toward the Future of Humanoid Robotics at Toyota”.
Speaker: Tomohiro Nomi, Head of Humanoid Robotics Research Unit at Toyota.
11:10 AM: Presentation
”General-Purpose Humanoids Solving Labor Shortages”.
Speaker: James Wells, CEO at Sanctuary AI.
11:30 AM: Fireside Chat
“The Humanoid Economy: Building and Scaling the Ecosystem from First Principles”.
Moderator: Bloomberg Tech Reporter.
Speaker: Modar Alaoui, General Partner at ALM Ventures and Founder & Chair at Humanoids Summit.
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
”Humanoid Real-World Deployment Challenges”.
Speaker: Behrad Toghi, Head of AI Robotics Engineering at General Motors.
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
”Humanoid Robots: Legal and Regulatory Considerations”.
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 12 carefully handpicked startups from the humanoid ecosystem presenting new technologies, bold inventions, and deployment-ready systems for public reveal.
Speakers:
”Modular Humanoids Made in Japan”.
Stian Jakobsen, Co-Founder and CEO, O-ID; Simon Gormuzov, Co-Founder and CTO at O-ID.
”Haptica Robotics: Giving Robots a Sense of Touch”.
Paola Peraza Calderon, Co-Founder at Haptica Robotics.
”The Kinetic Age: How Motion Enables Shared Understanding Between Humans and Machines”.
Andrew Carr, Founder and Chief Scientist at Cartwheel.
”Combining Humanoid Form with High Engineering Performance”.
Lesya Hendrix, Founder and CEO at Spacer Robotics.
”Multi-Force Ergonomic Haptics: Human-in-the-Loop Teleoperation”.
Craig Douglass, CEO and Co-founder at Contact CI.
”Why Humanoids Need a New Operating System”.
Guillaume Binet, Founder at Copper Robotics.
”Accelerating Robotics Deployment with Teleoperation”.
James Naylor, Founder and CEO at Adamo.
”Bipedal Robots for Last-Mile and Postal Services”.
Nick Hafner, Founder and CEO at Refined Robotics.
”Relational Risk in Humanoid Robotics: The Missing Layer in Human-Robot Design”.
Sara Filipcic, Founder and Director at Institute for Humane Robotics.
4:35 PM: Panel Discussion
“Investing in Humanoids and Physical AI: Where Capital Is Flowing Next”.
Moderator: Stephen Witt, Tech Journalist at The New Yorker.
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.
5:30 - 8:00 PM: VIP Reception(register here).
For VIP ticket holders. An exclusive gathering with live music, chef-prepared hors d’oeuvres, and roaming humanoids.
Location: Takanawa Convention Center, 2nd 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
"From prototype to product: the road to humanoid robot commercialization”.
Speaker: Jochen Rudat, Chief Growth & Revenue Officer at Humanoid.
9:20 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.
9:40 AM: Presentation
”Unitree Robotics: Scaling Agile and Intelligent Robots”.
Speaker: Xiaoli Chen, Director APEC at Unitree Robotics.
10:00 AM: Presentation
”Robust Robot Foundation Models for Real-World Manipulation”.
Speaker: Jason Ma, Co-founder at Dyna Robotics.
10:20 AM: Networking Break
10:35 AM: Panel Discussion
”Humanoid Robots: Safety Considerations from Design to Deployment”.
Moderator: Nikkei Tech Reporter.
Speakers: Elliot Kaye, Partner at Cooley LLP & Former Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission;
11:00 AM: Presentation
”Humanoids & Physical AI: The Next Frontier for Japan’s Manufacturing Competitiveness”.
Speaker: Kei Wajima, Founder and CEO at TRON K.K.
11:20 AM: Presentation
”Solving Five-Finger Dexterity: RLDX’s Approach to Industry-Level Manipulation”.
Speaker: Junghee Ryu, Founder and CEO at RLWRLD.
11:40 AM: Presentation
”Robotics’ Next Bottleneck Isn’t AI — It’s Sensors”.
Speaker: Leopold Beer, Vice President of Sensors at Renesas.
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 Japan – AI Robot Association.
1:20 PM: Presentation
“Unlocking the Era of Humanoid Robotics: The Critical Role of Semiconductors in Enabling Deployment-Ready Systems”.
Speaker: Dirk Geiger, Senior Director Application Marketing for Humanoid Robotics at Infineon Technologies AG.
1:40 PM: Presentation
“How a Humanoid Appears Matters!”.
Speaker: Mehrdad Farimani, Founder at MERPHI.
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. Dominik Boemer, Manager at FEV Consulting.
3:00 PM: Networking Break
3:15 PM: Panel Discussion
“Spatial AI and World Models: Toward General Physical Intelligence”.
Moderator: Forbes Tech Reporter.
3:45 PM: Presentation
“Booster Robotics — Uniting Developers to Drive Productivity Evolution”.
Speaker: Chaoyi Li, Head of Globalization at Booster Robotics.
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
“Humanoids: From Capability to Commercial Value”.
4:45 PM: Presentation
“The Next 12–24 Months of Humanoid Deployment”.
5:00 PM: Closing Remarks.
The schedule, speakers, and topics are subject to change. Please check back for updates.