The Eighth International Workshop on Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems will be a two-day peer-reviewed international workshop that brings together researchers working on a range of techniques for the formal verification of autonomous systems, to present recent work in the area, discuss key challenges, and stimulate collaboration between autonomous systems and formal methods researchers. Previous editions are listed on DBLP: https://dblp.dagstuhl.de/db/conf/fmas/index.html.

Scope

Autonomous systems present unique challenges for formal methods. They are often embodied in robotic systems that can interact with the real world, and they make independent decisions. Amongst other categories, they can be viewed as safety-critical, cyber-physical, hybrid, and real-time systems.

Key challenges for applying formal methods to autonomous systems include:

  • the system’s dynamic deployment environment;
  • verifying the system’s decision making capabilities – including planning, ethical, and reconfiguration choices; and
  • using formal methods results as evidence given to certification or regulatory organisations.

FMAS welcomes submissions that use formal methods to specify, model, or verify autonomous systems; in whole or in part. We are especially interested in work using integrated formal methods, where multiple (formal or non-formal) methods are combined during the software engineering process. We encourage submissions that are advancing the applicability of formal methods for autonomous systems, for example improving integration or explainability, automation or knowledge transfer of these technique; a wider discussion of these principles can be found in ‘A Manifesto for Applicable Formal Methods’.

Autonomous systems are often embedded in robotic or cyber-physical systems, and they share many features (and verification challenges) with automated systems. FMAS welcomes submissions with applications to:

  • automated systems,
  • semi-autonomous systems, or
  • fully-autonomous systems.

Topics

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • Applicable, tool-supported Formal Methods that are suited to Autonomous Systems
  • Runtime Verification or other formal approaches to deal with the reality gap (the gap between models/simulations and the real world),
  • Verification against safety assurance arguments or standards documents,
  • Formal specification, modelling and requirements engineering approaches for autonomous systems,
  • Case Studies that identify challenges when applying formal methods to autonomous systems,
  • Experience Reports that provide guidance for tackling challenges with formal methods or tools, or
  • Discussions of the future directions of the field.

For inspiration, please see the Mural boards (virtual white boards) that capture our previous discussion sessions. There is one from FMAS 2024 and one from FMAS2025. You can also see the papers in our Special Issue of the Science of Computer Programming journal, Advances in Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems.

Special Topic: Neurosymbolic AI

In addition to the topics above, we would like to invite work on formal methods for intersymbolic AI. Intersybolic AI refers to the combination of symbolic AI (logic, knowledge graphs, etc.) and subsymbolic AI (neural networks, reinforcement learning, etc.).

Papers intended for this special topic could include (but are not limited to):

  • Hybrid architectures (e.g., neuro‑symbolic networks, differentiable reasoning)
  • Symbolic knowledge integration in large language models
  • Learning to generate and manipulate logical formulas with neural networks
  • Explainable AI using symbolic post‑hoc analysis
  • Benchmarking tools for intersymbolic systems
  • Application areas could include: mobility, healthcare, finance

Papers submitted for this special topic should be within the usual scope of FMAS.

Submission and Publication

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following paper categories are welcome. All submissions will be considered for both oral presentations and poster sessions.

  • Short Papers 6 pages (excluding references)
    • Vision papers describe directions for research into Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems;
    • Research previews describe well-defined research ideas that are in their early stages, and may not be fully developed yet. Work from PhD students is particularly welcome;
  • Long Papers 15 pages (excluding references)
    • Experience report papers report on practical experiences in applying Formal Methods to Autonomous Systems, focusing on the experience and lessons to be learnt;
    • Regular papers describe completed applications of Formal Methods to an Autonomous System, new or improved approaches, evaluations of existing approaches, and so on.

These categories are intended to help you show your intent for your paper, and to allow a fairer comparison of papers. For example, a Research Preview won’t be judged as not developed enough for acceptance, purely because it is compared to a Standard Paper. The category descriptions are not exhaustive and should be interpreted broadly. If you are unsure if your paper clearly fits into one of these categories, please feel free to email us (details below) to discuss it.

AI Usage and Disclosure:

Content generated using AI (including but not limited to text, images, and code), and the AI system that was used, must be explicitly disclosed in a section titled “AI Usage”. The use of AI systems for editing and grammar enhancements is allowed, but the authors need to disclose it. All the references should contain either a DOI or a URL.

Submission Details

We intend to publish with EPTCS; Submissions must be prepared using the EPTCS LaTeX style.

Please submit your paper via EasyChair https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=fmas2026.

Best Paper

FMAS 2026 will honor the best paper selected with respect to reviews, program committee discussions, and conference presentations with an award.

Special Issue

We will organise a journal special issue to collect extensions of papers accepted in FMAS 2026. Look out for more details as we announce them.

Important Dates

Submission dates are in the (AOE) timezone.

  • Abstract Deadline: 14th of August 2026 (Anywhere on Earth)
  • Submission Deadline: 17th of August 2026 (Anywhere on Earth)
  • Notification: 6th of October 2026
  • Final Version due: 17th of October 2026 (Anywhere on Earth)
  • Workshop: 17th and 18th of November 2026

Venue and Registration

FMAS 2026 will be held on the 17th and 18th of November 2026, co-located with the 27th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods (ICFEM) ICFEM, hosted this year by the Leonardo Royal Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton (87 West Quay Road, SO15 1AG, United Kingdom).

We accept participation in-person and remotely:

  • At least one author per paper must register and pay for on-site attendance at FMAS, even if the paper will be presented remotely – this is to ensure we cover the costs of running FMAS as a satellite workshop at ICFEM.

  • Presenting or participating online will be free!


Programme Information

Schedule

To Be Announced.

Invited Talks

To Be Announced

Invited Tutorials

To Be Announced

Accepted Papers

To Be Announced

Programme Committee

To Be Announced

Organising Committee