Call for Papers
ISTVS 2026 | October 11-14, 2026 | Pretoria, South Africa
ISTVS 2026, the 56th Conference of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems welcomes original and previously unpublished research and review papers describing results of research which are relevant to the conference topics and to terrain-vehicle systems.
Interested authors are invited to submit an abstract between 16 February and 15 March, 2026.
Abstracts must be under 1800 characters and must emphasize the objectives and results.
Authors may choose between the following two types of submissions: full paper or abstract-only.
For either type of submission, authors can choose to do an oral presentation at the conference or submit a poster for the conference poster session. At least one of the authors must attend the conference for either.
Abstract review
All abstracts will be reviewed by the conference Editorial Committee. The corresponding author will be notified of abstract acceptance by 13 April, 2026.
Full paper submissions
After abstract acceptance, authors submitting a full paper must make their submission by 15 May, 2026. Each full paper will be subject to peer review by the conference Scientific Committee. Each paper will be either accepted, accepted with revisions or rejected; authors will be notified by 1 July, 2026. If a revision is requested, the revised paper must be submitted by 2 August, 2026.
All accepted submissions of either abstract-only or full-paper type will be included in the conference program and will be published in the conference proceedings, on the condition that at least one author attend the conference to present the work. Only full papers will be assigned a DOI and will have a permanent individual page on the conference website.
Key dates
Key dates are listed here.
Technical tracks
The conference includes the following thematic tracks:
Innovative concepts in tires, wheels, tracks, and other ground contact elements
Propulsion systems and vehicle electrification
Creative terrain mechanical characterization and deformation modeling
Advances in off-road mobility modeling
Off-road autonomy, robotics and navigation
Planetary terramechanics
New instrumentation and analysis methods in terramechanics testing
Climate impacts on terrain, terramechanics, and off-road vehicles
Off-road vehicle dynamics and control, including advanced driver assist and collision prevention systems
International collaborations
Submission platform
As in previous years, the conference submission platform is EasyChair. If you’ve participated in a recent ISTVS conference or have used EasyChair in the past, you will be able to log in with your existing account. If you’re new to ISTVS conferences, use the Create an account link on the login page below to get started.
Access the ISTVS 2026 EasyChair site here: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=istvs2026
Submission guidelines
Make sure that the authors you list in the EasyChair form are the same as in your full paper and/or poster, and in the same order.
Ensure the authors’ affiliations match across all submissions and forms.
If at any time you need to make changes to the list of authors, please promptly notify the conference organizers.
If the same authors appear in multiple submissions, please write the authors' names and affiliations in the same way, for all submissions (both in EasyChair and in the papers/posters).
If the Latin alphabet is not your native alphabet, please make sure that you use the same transliteration for your name across all submissions.
If at any time you wish to change your submission type (abstract-only vs full paper) or change your presentation type (oral presentation vs poster session), please promptly notify the conference organizers.
Templates for submissions
Abstract
No template is required to submit your abstract. Submission is done directly on the EasyChair submission platform.
Full paper
Full paper templates and submission instructions will be updated as they become available.
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