SAB 2026

Program Overview

 

In this page you can find a full overview of our program.
The program is also available as a PDF download.

19 October, Monday

DAY 1 – Workshop Day

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Venue 1
TU Berlin
Marchstraße 23
10587 Berlin

8:15 am -
9:00 am

Registration

Location: MAR 2nd floor, lobby area near the elevators / stairwell

9:00 am -
12:00 pm

Workshop 1 (1/2)

One Idea, Many Names? Internal Models of the World in Natural and Artificial Systems

Location: MAR 2.057 (2nd floor)

Organizer: Patrick Lowin (TU Berlin), Adrian Pfisterer (TU Berlin), Vito Mengers (TU Berlin), Pu Xu (TU Berlin), Alexander Koenig (TU Berlin), Eduardo Sebastián (University of Cambridge), Oliver Brock (TU Berlin)

12:00 pm -
1:30 pm

Lunch

Self-catered
9:00 am -
1:30 pm

Workshop 2 (1/1)

Tutorial on using Genetic Programming to design Complex Adaptive Systems

Location: MAR 5.013 (5th floor)

Organizer: Siddharth Chaturvedi (Radboud University), Sigur de Vries (Radboud University), Marcel van Gerven (Radboud University)

1:30 pm -
6:30 pm

Workshop 1 (2/2)

One Idea, Many Names? Internal Models of the World in Natural and Artificial Systems

Location: MAR 2.057 (2nd floor)

Organizer: Patrick Lowin (TU Berlin), Adrian Pfisterer (TU Berlin), Vito Mengers (TU Berlin), Pu Xu (TU Berlin), Eduardo Sebastián (University of Cambridge), Oliver Brock (TU Berlin)

1:30 pm -
2:30 pm

Registration

Location: MAR, 2nd floor, lobby area near the elevators / stairwell

2:30 pm -
6:30 pm

Workshop 3 (1/1)

Wanting what is needed: From Homeostatic Control to Adaptive Behavior

Location: MAR 5.006 (5th floor)

Organizer: Naoto Yoshida (Kyoto University), Ismael T. Freire (Sorbonne University), Louis L’Haridon (CY Cergy Paris University), Henning Sprekeler (TU Berlin), Lola Cañamero (CY Cergy Paris University), Mehdi Khamassi (Sorbonne University), Boris Gutkin (École Normale Supérieure Paris)

6:30 pm -
8:00 pm

Registration

Welcome Reception with Drinks and Snacks

Location: MAR Foyer (Ground Floor)

Chair: Oliver Brock (TU Berlin)

20 October, Tuesday

DAY 2 – Conference Day

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Venue 2
UDK
Einsteinufer 43
10587 Berlin

8:15 am -
9:00 am

Registration

Location: GNS Lobby Area

9:00 am -
11:00 am

Session (15 min + 5 min Q&A)

Modeling Collective Intelligence from Biology - Chair: Pawel Romanczuk
9:00 am - 9:20 am
Bimodal Synchronization Performance: Why Noise and Sparse Connectivity Can Improve Collective Timing

Paper
T. Aust, T. Zhang, A. Reina, H. Hamann
9:20 am - 9:40 am
Tuning Agent-Based Predator-Prey Models Toward Lotka-Volterra Dynamics

Paper
S. Chaturvedi, C. Mandl, M. van Gerven
9:40 am - 10:00 am
A Data-Driven State Machine for Collective Behaviour in C. Elegans

Paper
N. Antonic, A. Vellinger, E. Tuci
10:00 am - 10:20 am
A Mechanistic Model for Collective Motion from Sensorimotor Regularities

Paper
V. Mengers, B. D. Cao, O. Brock
10:20 am - 10:40 am
SYNCOFLY: An Interactive Platform for Collective Rhythm Synchronization

Paper
Y.-N. Wu, G. Hickok, J. Krichmar
10:40 am - 10:50 am
Moderated Panel with Session Speakers
10:50 am - 11:00 am
General Discussion
11:00 am -
12:30 pm

Lunch

Self-Catered
12:30 pm -
2:30 pm

Session (15 min + 5 min Q&A)

Engineering Collective Intelligence - Chair: Heiko Hamann
12:30 pm - 12:50 pm
Scalable, Distributed Control of a Manipulation Surface with Emergent Properties

Paper
K. Stoy, P. Ingle, J. Lambertsen, A. Faina
12:50 pm - 1:10 pm
Speed-Weighted Flocking for Sailing Swarms under Dynamic Environmental Forcing

Paper
P. Kedia, A. Gan, H. J. Williams, A. Reina, H. Hamann
1:10 pm - 1:30 pm
Density-Driven Emergent Division of Labor in Evolutionary Multi-Robot Systems

Paper
P. Leopardi, H. Hamann, J. Kuckling, T. K. Kaiser
1:30 pm - 1:50 pm
Stochastic Filtering for Quorum Sensing in Robot Swarms under Anonymous Communication

Paper
F. Oddi, A. Reina, V. Trianni
1:50 pm - 2:10 pm
From Susceptibility to Controllability: Empowerment Characterisation of Criticality in Drone Swarms

Paper
D. Trendafilov, M. Verdoucq, C. Sire, R. Escobedo, G. Theraulaz, G. Hattenberger
2:10 pm - 2:20 pm
Moderated Panel with Session Speakers
2:20 pm - 2:30 pm
General Discussion
2:30 pm -
3:00 pm

Group Photo + Coffee Break

Location: GNS Lobby Area

3:00 pm -
5:00 pm

Session (15 min + 5 min Q&A)

Modeling Biological Behavior - Chair: Andreagiovanni Reina
3:00 pm - 3:20 pm
Animeta: An Explainable Human-in-the-Loop Approach to Modeling Animat Behavior via Simulation-Based Optimization

Paper
C. A. R. Babatounde, B. Poggi, E. Vittori, T. Antoine-Santoni, A. Aiello
3:20 pm - 3:40 pm
No Plan, Yet Human: A Reactive Robotics Model Predicts Human Planning Failures on a Clinical Task

Paper
M. Migacev, V. Mengers, A. Köngeter, O. Brock
3:40 pm - 4:00 pm
Delayed Gratification in a Robotic Model of Cuttlefish Behavior

Paper
Q. Y. Wong, J. Krichmar, K. Zheng, S. Chao, V. Chhabra, N. Hai, A. Yuan, Y. Zhou, H. Espino
4:00 pm - 4:20 pm
The World is Spatially and Temporally Complex; How Do Foragers Manage?

Paper
S. Chidambaram, V. Nachev, Y. Winter, A. Kacelnik
4:20 pm - 4:30 pm
Moderated Panel with Session Speakers
4:30 pm - 4:40 pm
General Discussion
4:40 pm - 5:00 pm
ISAB Meeting - Chair: Myra S. Wilson

Venue 1
TU Berlin
Marchstraße 23
10587 Berlin

5:00 pm -
7:00 pm

Poster Session with Drinks and Snacks

Location: MAR Foyer (Ground Floor)

21 October, Wednesday

DAY 3 – Conference Day

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Venue 2
UDK
Einsteinufer 43
10587 Berlin

8:15 am -
9:00 am

Registration

Location: GNS Lobby Area

9:00 am -
11:10 am

Session (15 min + 5 min Q&A)

Learning and Skill Acquisition - Chair: Olaf Hellwich
9:00 am - 9:20 am
Emergence of Hierarchical Utility Spaces through Contextual Knowledge Reuse in Lifelong Open-Ended Learning

Paper
J. A. Becerra, A. Romero, F. Bellas, R. J. Duro
9:20 am - 9:40 am
Neural Representations in Sequential \& Interleaved Training

Paper
G. Detorakis, A. Papoutsi
9:40 am - 10:00 am
Guiding Autonomous Skill Acquisition Toward Useful Sub-goals in Hierarchical Domains

Paper
A. Morelli, V. Santucci
10:00 am - 10:20 am
BEACON: Belief-Enabled Adaptive CONtrol for Imitation Learning under Uncertainty

Paper
M. Lee, S. Bhattacharya, G. Kantor, O. Kroemer
10:20 am - 10:40 am
POSITION PAPER: From Optimal Policies to Individual Differences: Rethinking Reinforcement Learning for Biology

Paper
P. Govoni, P. Bartashevich, C. Bergerot, V. Chirkov, V. Lecheval, P. Romanczuk
10:40 am - 10:50 am
Dedicated Discussion of the Position Paper
10:50 am - 11:00 am
Moderated Panel with Session Speakers
11:00 am - 11:10 am
General Discussion
11:10 am -
12:40 pm

Lunch

Self-catered
12:40 pm -
2:40 pm

Session (15 min + 5 min Q&A)

Artificial Perception, Navigation, and Manipulation - Chair: Martin Rolfs
12:40 pm - 1:00 pm
EMAPF: Emotionally Modulated Local Navigation with Artificial Potential Fields

Paper
Z. Betta, J. Hykin, A. Sgorbissa, R. Murphy
1:00 pm - 1:20 pm
Probing an Embodied LLM: When Higher Observation Fidelity Hurts Problem Solving

Paper
O. Zenkri, O. Brock
1:20 pm - 1:40 pm
Target-Anchored Fovea-Periphery Vision Improves Reinforcement Learning in Robotic Manipulation

Paper
G. Cioccolini, E. Cartoni, G. Baldassarre
1:40 pm - 2:00 pm
SoftPINCH: EMG-Driven Soft Exoskeleton Assistance for Finger Flexion and Grasping

Paper
N. Grønvall, M. Nielsen, X. Xiong, S. P. Murali Babu
2:00 pm - 2:20 pm
Tactile Discrimination in a Soft Octopus-Inspired Robot

Paper
E. Kirshner, A. Yuan, J. Spurgiasz, H. Espino, J. Krichmar
2:20 pm - 2:30 pm
Moderated Panel with Session Speakers
2:30 pm - 2:40 pm
General Discussion
2:40 pm -
3:10 pm

Coffee Break

Location: GNS Lobby Area

3:10 pm -
5:10 pm

Session (15 min + 5 min Q&A)

The Effects of Physical and Social Constraints on Behavior - Chair: Verena Hafner
3:10 pm - 3:30 pm
When Does the Body Matter? A Dynamical Signature of Coupling Dependence in Evolved Neural Controllers

Paper
C. Lucken
3:30 pm - 3:50 pm
A Robot-LLM Integration Framework for Social Learning Interactions

Paper
A. Lange, H. Ackermann, R. Lazarides, V. V. Hafner
3:50 pm - 4:10 pm
Interoceptive Attention as Dynamic Homeostatic Prioritization in a Foraging Agent

Paper
St John Grimbly, N. Kuske, E. Boonstra, B. Basset, C. van Hoof, R. Hodson, B. Rosman, R. Smith, M. Solms, J. Shock
4:10 pm - 4:30 pm
Body-Grounded Perspective Formation and Conative Attunement in Artificial Agents

Paper
H. Pae
4:30 pm - 4:50 pm
The Social Buffering Hypothesis as an Adaptive Mechanism to Regulate Stress in Artificial Agents

Paper
L. Aloe
4:50 pm - 5:00 pm
Moderated Panel with Session Speakers
5:00 pm - 5:10 pm
General Discussion
5:10 pm -
5:20 pm

Wrap-Up

22 October, Thursday

DAY 4 – Symposium Day

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Venue 2
UDK
Einsteinufer 43
10587 Berlin

8:15 am -
9:00 am

Registration

Location: GNS Lobby Area

9:00 am -
12:15 pm

Cross-Kingdom Intelligence: Invited Speaker Symposium

9:00 am - 9:15 am
Introduction to the Symposium
Oliver Brock (TU Berlin)
9:15 am - 10:00 am
Intelligence in Animals and Humans
Jens Krause (IGB Berlin)
10:00 am - 10:45 am
Intelligence in Plants
Paco Calvo (Universidad de Murcia)
10:45 am - 11:30 am
Intelligence in Fungi
Vera Meyer (TU Berlin)
11:30 am - 12:15 pm
Artificial Intelligence
Ute Schmid (Universität Bamberg)
12:15 pm -
1:45 pm

Lunch

Self-catered
1:45 pm -
3:00 pm

Panel Discussion and Open Forum

3:00 pm -
3:45 pm

Coffee Break

Location: GNS Lobby Area

3:45 pm -
4:30 pm

ISAB Meeting

4:30 pm -
5:00 pm

General Wrap-Up

5:00 pm -
8:00 pm

Farewell Reception with Snacks and Drinks

Location: GNS Lobby Area

Registration

Would you like to attend the SAB 2026 Conference?