At RSS 2025, we’re excited to be running a dynamic panel on the “Past, Present, and Future of Robotics Research” with a stellar list of leading robotics researchers, thinkers, and presenters. Panellists will discuss key past breakthroughs but also missed opportunities, and whether we can learn from the past to inform future robotics research. We’ll tackle where we stand today—what are our biggest successes in and frustrations with current research trends, debate whether are we on the right track, and identify what we might be missing? Finally, we’ll look into our collective crystal balls, reaching out 10, 20 or 30 years into the future: what fundamental changes will we see, what will no longer be a research field, and where will it seem like nothing has really changed at all?