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Call for Papers

Conference Scope

Since its inception in 1998, ANTS has been a highly selective, single-track meeting that provided a forum for discussing advances in the field of swarm intelligence. It solicits submissions presenting significant, original research from researchers and practitioners of any area related to swarm intelligence.

Swarm intelligence is an interdisciplinary and rapidly evolving field, rooted in the study of self-organizing processes in both natural and artificial systems. Researchers from disciplines ranging from ethology to statistical physics have developed models that explain collective phenomena, such as decision-making in social insect colonies and collective movements in human crowds. Swarm-inspired algorithms and methods have proven effective in solving complex optimization problems and creating multi-robot and networked systems of unparalleled resilience, adaptability and scalability. Applications of swarm intelligence continue to grow and become increasingly critical for addressing societal challenges such as environmental sustainability, food security, health, and global conflicts.

The 2026 edition’s theme is "reaching beyond - swarm intelligence across systems, disciplines, and communities". The meeting seeks to encourage new perspectives, help bridge traditional boundaries and enable open debate on what could be ambitious, exploratory, and groundbreaking endeavors to embark on.

Relevant Research Areas

Papers are solicited in all areas of swarm intelligence, including, but not limited to:
  • Theoretical foundations of swarm intelligence and collective phenomena
  • Modeling and analysis of self-organizing systems in nature, including many-particle systems, cellular systems, insect colonies, bird flocks, and human crowds
  • Decision making in large groups e.g. consensus dynamics, mean-field games, social choice theory
  • Swarm robotics, including colloidal systems, micro-robots, drones, and other autonomous vehicles
  • Swarm optimization algorithms, including ACO, PSO, ABC
  • LLMs and GenAI-in-the-loop systems in combination with swarm intelligence
  • Large-scale distributed networks, such as smart dust, smart cities, or social networks
  • Robotic materials and modular robots capable of self-repair, self-assembly or shape-shifting
  • Distributed learning, coordination, and control in many-agent systems
  • Human-centered swarm intelligence and human-swarm interaction
  • Sustainable technologies for artificial and bio-hybrid swarms
  • Creative and expressive uses of swarm principles in art, design and education
  • Benchmarking and reproducibility in swarm intelligence research
  • Ethical and societal implications of applications of swarm intelligence research
  • Applications of swarm intelligence to real-world challenges

Important Dates

  • Submission deadline: November 10, 2025
  • Notification of acceptance: January 30, 2026
  • Camera ready copy: February 13, 2026
  • Conference: June 8-10, 2026

The Proceedings are published by Springer-Nature in their Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS series.

The journal Swarm Intelligence will publish a special issue dedicated to ANTS 2026 that will contain extended versions of selected research works presented at the conference.

Location

Welcome to Darmstadt!

For the first time, the ANTS conference series will take place in Darmstadt, Germany. ANTS 2026 will be hosted by the Technical University of Darmstadt at the darmstadtium - Science and Congress Center, located in the heart of the city. The venue is walking distance to the UNESCO World Heritage site Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, offering attendees a unique opportunity to experience both ground-breaking research and the rich cultural heritage of the city.

Venue Address

darmstadtium - Science and Congress Center
Schlossgraben 1
64283 Darmstadt, Germany

Contacts

Prof. Roderich Gross
Fachgebiet Resilient Cyber Physical Systems
Technical University of Darmstadt
Mornewegstr. 32
64293 Darmstadt, Germany
email: ants2026@rcps.tu-darmstadt.de
TBD
TBD

Conference Information

Sharon Glotzer, University of Michigan, USA
Tamás Vicsek, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
more to come!
Thomas Watteyne, Analog Devices, USA
more to come!

Monday, June 8, 2026

TBD

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

TBD

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

TBD

Registration will open in January 2026.

Organizers

Organizing Committee

General chair
Roderich Gross, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Honorary chair
Marco Dorigo, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Technical program chairs
Aaron T. Becker, University of Houston, USA
Gianni Di Caro, Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar
Bahar Haghighat, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
M. Ani Hsieh, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Publicity chair
Razanne Abu-Aisheh, University of Bristol, UK
Publication chair
Mohamed Salah Talamali, The University of Sheffield, UK
Local organisation committee
Usama Ali, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Uta Drews, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Ecem Isildar, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Jenny von Trzebiatowski, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
Paper submission chair
Julian Rau, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany

Steering Committee

Marco Dorigo, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Andries Engelbrecht, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Heiko Hamann, University of Konstanz, Germany
Alcherio Martinoli, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Radhika Nagpal, Princeton University, USA
Thomas Stützle, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Guy Theraulaz, CNRS CRCA, France

Program Committee

    To be announced by July 2025

Instructions

Initial submission instructions (main track)

Submissions may be a maximum of 11 pages, excluding references, when typeset in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) LaTeX template. Submissions should be a minimum of 7 full pages.

This strict page limit includes figures, tables, and all supplementary sections (e.g., Acknowledgements). The only exclusion from the page limit is the reference list, which should be of any length suitable to adequately position the paper with respect to the state of the art.

Papers should be prepared in English, in the Springer LNCS LaTeX style, using the default font and font size. Authors should consult Springer’s authors’ guidelines and use their proceedings template for LaTeX, for the preparation of their papers. Please download the Proceedings (LNCS) LaTex template package (zip, 318 kB) and authors' guidelines (pdf, 244 kB) directly from the Springer website.

Submissions that do not respect these guidelines will not be considered.

Note: Authors may find it convenient that Springer LNCS LaTex templates are available in Overleaf.

The initial submission must be in PDF format.

Please note that in the camera-ready phase, authors of accepted papers will need to submit both a compiled PDF and all source files (including LaTeX files and figures).

The camera-ready phase will have more detailed formatting requirements than the initial submission phase.

Submission process

Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance, and clarity. If a submission is not accepted as a full length paper, it may still be accepted either as a short paper or as an extended abstract. In such cases, authors will be asked to reduce the length of the submission accordingly. Authors of all accepted papers will be asked to execute revisions, based on the reviewers’ comments.

Use of large language models

(adapted from here) We welcome authors to use any tool that is suitable for preparing high-quality papers and research. However, we ask authors to keep in mind two important criteria. First, we expect authors to document their methodology clearly for upholding scientific rigorousness and transparency standards. The use of LLMs in implementing the method should be described in the experimental setup section (or equivalent) if it is an important, original, or non-standard component of the approach. The use of spell checkers and grammar suggestions, programming aid for editing purposes does not need to be documented. Second, authors are responsible for the entire content of the paper, including all text, figures, and references. Therefore, while authors are welcome to use any tool they wish for preparing and writing the paper, they must ensure that all content is correct and original. All authors should take full responsibility to understand the advantages and limitations of using any tools and resources when preparing their scientific publications. Some (including free) tools may retain input data for further model training purposes, so authors should exercise caution to account for individual privacy considerations. High-level instructions could potentially result in hallucinations when generating plots, risking scientific integrity. It is the author’s responsibility to verify the tools are used in a scientifically responsible manner.

The Proceedings are published by Springer-Nature in their Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.

The journal Swarm Intelligence will publish a special issue dedicated to ANTS 2026 that will contain extended versions of selected research works presented at the conference.

Bronze Sponsors

Springer Nature Technical University of Darmstadt
Interested in becoming a sponsor of ANTS 2026? Contact us at ants2026@rcps.tu-darmstadt.de.
Last modified: 30 May 2025