Humanoid Robots: The Event Calendar Through End of 2027, and Why Switzerland Is Missing From It

The schedule for 2027 is largely set. Beijing has already published the date of its World Robotics Conference, August 18–22, 2027, eleven months in advance and expecting 300,000 visitors. Munich will host two dedicated humanoid conferences, in January and April. The European Robotics Forum runs March 2–4 in Birmingham, the RoboCup with its Humanoid League June 17–21 in Nuremberg.

For anyone working in Switzerland who wants to see humanoids in more than video, travel is necessary. Between Geneva and St. Gallen, not a single event on the calendar through the end of 2027 focuses on humanoids. The Swiss Robotics Day on November 13 in Zurich and SINDEX at the end of August 2027 in Bern are automation events, which is something different.

Let's start at home anyway, because the two Swiss dates offer more value for purchasing than any humanoid showcase. The Swiss Robotics Day takes place on November 13, 2026, at StageOne in Zurich, organized by RobotX at ETH Zurich together with the Swiss Robotics Association. Seventy-five exhibitors and seventeen speakers are announced; the event has been running for seventeen years and is the densest venue of the year for meeting Swiss robotics firms, university groups, and investors in a single day. Humanoids aren't on the program, but the people are who know what a robot actually costs in a Swiss factory. SINDEX in Bern follows August 31 – September 2, 2027, every two years, the leading trade show for industrial automation. If you're looking for an integrator or safety engineer, you'll find them there, not in Beijing.

The first mandatory appointment of the new year is then in Munich. The Advanced Humanoid Forum on January 20–21, 2027, is deliberately small, two stages covering around 2,500 square meters, and thematically exactly where it matters for businesses: commissioning, validation, safety certification. So not whether a robot can do a backflip, but how to get it approved. From Zurich it's a four-hour train ride. In April, the same city hosts the second EMEA Humanoid Robot Summit, April 13–14, 2027, broader in scope, with manufacturers from the Asian region. Two humanoid events in Munich within three months tells you something about where Europe sets its priorities.

The European Robotics Forum March 2–4, 2027, at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham is the more political event. Over a thousand participants from research, industry, and government, organized by euRobotics together with the Manufacturing Technology Centre and the University of Birmingham. This is where standards are discussed that everyone will later complain about. For Swiss firms this is more relevant than it might sound, because the EU Machinery Regulation takes effect January 2027 and no one has yet cleanly answered how a bipedal robot gets certified under it. Early bird pricing closes December 1, 2026.

Two weeks later, April 5–8, the Hannover Messe opens with Spain as partner country, and in June Germany brings together in one place what elsewhere runs separately. The RoboCup June 17–21, 2027, at Nuremberg Exhibition Center is the only event in Europe where you see humanoid robots fail over several days without a script, which teaches more than any demo. Immediately after, June 22–25, automatica runs in Munich, Europe's major robotics trade show. Anyone who can sacrifice a week of vacation covers with this combination almost everything Europe has to offer in 2027. The academic finale is IROS September 26 – October 1, 2027, at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, under the theme Human-Centric Robots for Sustainable Life.

Meanwhile, China has solidified something that doesn't exist in Europe: a fixed humanoid calendar. The World Robot Conference takes place August 18–22, 2027, at the Beiren Yichuang International Exhibition Center in Beijing, 52,000 square meters, around 774 expected exhibitors, and roughly fifty humanoid manufacturers in one place. The fact that this date was locked in as early as summer 2026 is a statement in itself. Add to that the World Humanoid Robot Games, with its third edition announced for August 2027. The exact date hasn't been set yet, and the city wasn't officially named either, though it appears to be Beijing from surrounding context. The second edition ran August 22–26, 2026, with 666 teams and 2,056 robots competing in 51 disciplines, and a Tiangong Ultra ran the 100 meters in 8.86 seconds. Anyone dismissing this as games misses the scoring rule: fully autonomous robots get full points, remotely controlled ones only half.

For the two major Chinese technology shows, 2027 dates are still missing. The World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai ran July 17–20, 2026, and will very likely happen in July again, but nothing is published. The China International Industrial Fair runs October 12–16, 2026, at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai; the 2027 edition is also open. Both bear watching, but can't be planned at the moment.

In the United States, the most important things are happening in the next few weeks. The Humanoids Summit takes place December 1–2, 2026, at the San Mateo County Event Center, right in the heart of Silicon Valley, followed immediately by the IEEE-RAS Humanoids December 7–9 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, the 25th year of the leading scientific conference on the topic. Both within a week, both less than an hour's drive apart. For 2027, neither event has published a date yet, which means: this December or wait a year.

The rest of the American year is calculable. CES in Las Vegas runs January 6–9, 2027, and as always will produce more announcements than substance, but remains the place where manufacturers make their yearly promises. Nvidia's GTC March 15–18, 2027, in San Jose is now the event that decides which software half the industry works on in the following year. And Automate moves May 10–13, 2027, to Las Vegas for the first time, after the 2026 edition in Chicago broke its own record with over 50,000 registrations and 1,230 exhibitors. If you can visit only one industrial trade show in America, take this one.

That leaves the question of what you really need. For someone in Switzerland deciding whether a humanoid fits their operation, there are three dates: the Advanced Humanoid Forum in January for the certification question, RoboCup in June for an unvarnished look at the state of the art, and the Swiss Robotics Day in November, because the people who do the actual installation are there. Everything else is deepening. But if you want to know where the industry as a whole is heading, you can't avoid a trip to Beijing in August, and you should be clear that visa questions need three months' notice.

Finally, an uncomfortable observation. Of the fifteen dates with firm schedules, two are in Switzerland, and at neither do humanoids appear in the program. This isn't a criticism of the organizers; the production volumes simply don't justify a dedicated event here. It only means that the Swiss debate on humanoid robots is currently conducted almost entirely secondhand, through videos, press releases, and forecasts. Half a day beside a machine that fails to accomplish something mundane under time pressure corrects more expectations than ten read studies.