Info & Bios for 2025 Edition
Dr. Arash Ajoudani
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
TITLE: Physical AI for Human-Robot Interaction and Contact-Rich Autonomy
ABSTRACT:
TBD
BIO:
Arash Ajoudani is the director of the Human-Robot Interfaces and Interaction (HRI²) laboratory at IIT. He is a recipient of the European Research Council (ERC) grants Real-Move (ERC POC 2023) and Ergo-Lean (ERC STG 2019), the coordinator of the Horizon-2020 project SOPHIA, the co-coordinator of the Horizon-2020 project CONCERT, and a principal investigator of the Horizon Europe project Tornado, HORIZON-MSCA project RAICAM, and the national projects LABORIUS, COROMAN, and ReFinger. He is a recipient of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Early Career Award 2021, and winner of the MECSPE Robotics and AI Awards 2025, SmartCup Liguria award 2023, Amazon Research Awards 2019, of the Solution Award 2019 (MECSPE2019), of the KUKA Innovation Award 2018, of the WeRob best poster award 2018, and of the best student paper award at ROBIO 2013. His PhD thesis was a finalist for the Georges Giralt PhD award 2015 - best European PhD thesis in robotics. He was also a finalist for the best paper award on human-robot interaction at ICRA2024, the best paper award mobile manipulation at IROS 2022, the best paper award at Humanoids 2022 (oral category), the Solution Award 2020 (MECSPE2020), the best conference paper award at Humanoids 2018, the best interactive paper award at Humanoids 2016, the best oral presentation award at Automatica (SIDRA) 2014, and for the best manipulation paper award at ICRA 2012. He is the IIT principal investigator of s the Robotics for Manufacturing (R4M) joint lab of the Leonardo labs, and of the IIT-Intellimech JOiiNT lab. He is the author of the book "Transferring Human Impedance Regulation Skills to Robots" in the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR), and several publications in journals, international conferences, and book chapters. He is currently serving as an elected IEEE RAS AdCom member (2022-2024), and as chair and representative of the IEEE-RAS Young Professionals Committee, and as a Senior Editor of the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR). He has been serving as a member of scientific advisory committee and as an associate editor for several international journals and conferences such as IEEE RAL, ICRA, IROS, ICORR, etc. He is a scholar of the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS). His main research interests are in physical human-robot interaction, mobile manipulation, robust and adaptive control, assistive robotics, and tele-robotics.
Dr. Dominik Belter
Poznan University of Technology, Poland
TITLE: Neural Network-Driven Perception, Mapping, and Motion Planning for Real-World Robotic Autonomy
ABSTRACT:
Industrial robots work in factories where the environment is determined and prepared in advance. If we'd like the robots of the future to work in the real world and help humans in daily activities, they should operate in a real environment. It means that the robots should be able to precisely measure the shape of the objects using of-the-shelves RGB-D sensors and neural-based algorithms. With an efficient map and motion constraints model the robot will be capable of efficiently planning its motion and interaction with the environment. This presentation explores how artificial intelligence methods enhance the autonomy of mobile and manipulator robots, with a focus on perception and scene reconstruction, motion constraints modeling with neural networks, trainable scene models, and motion planning with Euclidean Distance Fields.
BIO:
Dominik Belter, PhD, DSc., graduated from the Poznan University of Technology (2007). He received a Ph.D. degree in robotics from the same University in 2012. Since 2012, he has been an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Control and Information Engineering of the Poznan University of Technology. He has been an Associate Professor at the Poznan University of Technology since 2021. He received a DSc. degree in robotics from the same University in 2020. He spent a year working as a postdoc in the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at the University of Birmingham in the years 2013-2016. Dominik Belter has been taking part as an investigator in 3 EC and 6 national projects. He has just finished the NCBR project entitled New Localization, Mapping and Motion Planning Methods with RGB-D Sensing for Industrial Flexible Manufacturing System (budget: 1 198 705 PLN, 01.01.2018-30.06.2021). Currently, he leads a project related to deep learning for robot perception (Sonata NCN, Enhanced Robotic Perception with Deep Neural Networks, 02.10.2020-01.10.2023, budget: 467 400 PLN). He serves as a member of the scientific board of the CLAWAR and EMCR conferences. He is the author or co-author of over 90 technical papers in the fields of robotics and computer science. His research interests include walking robots, machine learning, vision, robot manipulation, and soft computing. He has been involved in Erasmus+ and IAESTE internships and supervised students from multiple countries. He was also a scientific advisor in the project "Adaptive Informative Path Planning in Autonomous Data Collection in Dynamic Unstructured Environments" at Czech Technical University in Prague. Dominik Belter is currently the supervisor of two PhD students at the Doctoral School of PUT, Both students are beneficiaries of the “Implementation Doctorate” programme. Since 2023, he has been a member of the Committee on Automatic Control and Robotics Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 2024, he also serves as a Vice Chair of the Polish Chapter of IEEE Robotics & Automation Society (PC-IEEE-RAS).
Prof. Giovanni Berselli
Università di Genova, Italy
TITLE: An OptimizationFramework for Designing Compliant Robotic End-Effectors
ABSTRACT: A strong integration between different design tools is desirable to improve the work of robotics engineers,possiblyreducing the number of errors and surely speeding up the design process. In this scenario, we present an optimization frameworkwhich leverages on a strong integration between 3Dcomputer-aided design models and multidomain simulations. Thetooldeveloped within the Project –IntelliMAN -AI-Powered Manipulation System for Advanced Robotic Service, Manufacturing and Prosthetics-is employed to optimizecompliant, tendon-driven, robotic hands/grippers.Two case studies are provided: i)a four-fingered reconfigurable gripper comprising highly deformable components; ii) a compliant anthropomorphic hand/wrist system for possible usage in humanoid robotics.
BIO: Giovanni Berselli is Chair of Design Methods for Industrial Engineering at the University of Genova, Italy, where he coordinates the PhD Degree in Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the past Chair of the ASME Technical Committee on Modeling, Dynamics, and Control of Adaptive Systems. He has been Visiting & Affiliated Scientist at Harvard Medical School, German Aerospace Agency (DLR),Technical University of Munich, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, University of Twente,Monash University,University of Navarra, and University of Limerick. Prof. Berselli's scientific activity is focused on the design, modelling and experimental evaluation of: i) compliant mechanisms and soft actuators for safe human-robot interaction; ii) robot hands and grippers;iii) energy-aware industrial robotics.
Prof. Antonio Bicchi
Università di Pisa, Italy and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
TITLE: From Human-Robot Interaction to Human-Robot Integration
ABSTRACT:
TBD
BIO:
Antonio Bicchi is Professor of Robotics at the University of Pisa, and Senior Scientist at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa. He graduated from the University of Bologna in 1988 and was a postdoc scholar at M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence lab. He teaches Robotics and Control Systems in the Department of Information Engineering (DII) of the University of Pisa. He leads the Robotics Group at the Research Center "E. Piaggio'' of the University of Pisa since 1990. He is the head of the SoftRobotics Lab for Human Cooperation and Rehabilitation at IIT in Genoa. Since 2013 he serves ad Adjunct Professor at the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering of Arizona State University.
From January, 2023, he is the Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Robotics Reserach (IJRR), the first scientific journal in Robotics. He has been the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (2015-2019), which rapidly became the top Robotics journal by number of submissions. He has organized the first WorldHaptics Conference (2005), today the premier conference in the field. He is a co-founder and President of the Italian Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines (I-RIM). His main research interests are in Robotics, Haptics, and Control Systems. He has published more than 500 papers on international journals, books, and refereed conferences. His research on human and robot hands has been generoously supported by the European Research Council with an Advanced Grant in 2012, a Synergy Grant in 2019, and three Proof-of-Concept grants. He is the scientific coordinator of the JOiiNT Lab, an advanced tech transfer lab with leading-edge industries in Bergamo, Italy.
In 2025, IEEE conferred him the Pioneer in Robotics and Automation Award, the most prestigious award given by the Robotics and Automation Society (formed by around 20,000 members). Among his Ph.D. students, seven (G. Tomietti, M. Catalano, A. Ajoudani, C. Della Santina, G. Averta, A. Palleschi, and M. Pierallini) were finalists of the ``G. Giralt Award'' for Best Ph.D. thesis in Robotics. The award went to Manuel G. Catalano in 2013, to Cosimo Della Santina in 2019, and to Giuseppe B. Averta in 2020. Alessandro Altobelli and Federica Barontini won the EuroHaptics Best Ph.D. Thesis award in 2015 and 2023, respectively. The prestigious IEEE RAS Early Career Award was awarded to Arash Ajoudani in 2021 and to and Cosimo Della Santina in 2023.
Prof. Andrea Cherubini
Ecole Centrale Nantes/LS2N, France
TITLE Robot perception for interacting with humans and for manipulating soft objects
ABSTRACT
A fundamental requisite for deploying robots in the real world is real-time perception of the surrounding humans and objects.
In this talk, I will present our recent research in exploiting diverse senses (vision, force, tact) within robot feedback controllers, to guarantee safe physical interaction with humans, and to shape soft objects.
BIO
Andrea Cherubini received a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rome « La Sapienza », a second MSc in Control Systems from the University of Sheffield, U.K., and a PhD from « La Sapienza ». He was then post-doc at INRIA Rennes, before becoming Associate Professor (2011), then Full Professor (2021) at Université de Montpellier/LIRMM. Since 2024, he is Full Professor at Centrale Nantes / LS2N.
Andrea's research focuses on multimodal human-robot interaction, and has been supported by several ANR and EU funded projects, which he manages or has managed as Principal Investigator. During his career, he coauthored approximately 100 papers in International peer-reviewed conferences and journals. Andrea is Associate Editor for IEEE TRO and IJRR journals, and has acted as Associate Editor for numerous IROS and ICRA Conferences.
Prof. Strahinja Dosen
Aalborg Universty, Denmark
TITLE: Non-invasive biomimetic artificial sensory feedback for upper limb prostheses
ABSTRACT:
The control methods for robotic prosthetic limbs have significantly advanced and matured, and commercial prostheses can be intuitively controlled using machine learning. However, the restoration of sensory feedback is lagging behind, even though it is well-established that sensory input is crucial for human movement planning and execution. In this lecture, we will start by exploring the reasons behind the gap between the many promising studies in the literature and their lack of clinical translation. We will then present our approach to designing an effective feedback interface. Our main assumption is that developing a successful feedback solution requires a deep understanding of human motor control, particularly in the context of prosthesis use. We will demonstrate how this knowledge can be translated into a compact technical implementation integrated into a prosthesis socket and tested both in the lab and at home over an extended period. The results of these clinical and home-based assessments will be presented, and the lecture will conclude with a look toward future developments.
BIO:
Strahinja Dosen received the Diploma of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and the M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2000 and 2004, respectively, from the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction, Aalborg University, Denmark, in 2009. From 2011 to 2017, he worked as a Research Scientist at the Institute for Neurorehabilitation Systems, University Medical Center Gottingen, Germany, and then as an Associate Professor at the Department of Health Science and Technology (HST), Aalborg University (AAU). Currently, he is a Full Professor in the same Department and leads a research group on Neurorehabilitation Systems. Prof. Dosen was a principal investigator for AAU and HST in several EU (Tactility, Wearplex, Sixthsense, and SimBionics) and nationally funded (Robin, Remap, Climb, NeuroMate) projects. He published more than 120 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, and his main research interest is the closed-loop control of assistive robotic systems.
Prof. Daniele Fontanelli
Università di Trento, Italy
TITLE:
Dealing with Uncertainties in Robotics
ABSTRACT:
Measurement uncertainty represent the doubt and the extent of the doubt for any empirical data collection gathered from real applications. The main consequence of the presence of the unavoidable measurement uncertainties is largely not explicitly considered in robotic applications, despite the possibly large negative impact they may have. This phenomenon is exacerbated when nonlinear dynamics come into play. In this talk, we will analyse the effect of measurement uncertainties for mobile robots applications, considering the analysis of the structural properties of the systems, such as observability and constructibility, which are preconditions to build an effective robotic solution. We will then focus on the localisation and control problems and we will show how uncertainties can be dominated by a wise analysis of their effects for the specific problem at hand. We will also show that, the uncertainty analysis can guide the design of planning algorithms. We finally introduce the distributed aspects of such problems and the robotics problems that can be efficiently solved.
BIO:
Daniele Fontanelli (IEEE M’09, SM'19, F'25) received the M.S. degree in Information Engineering in 2001, and the Ph.D. degree in Automation, Robotics and Bioengineering in 2006, both from the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. He was a Visiting Scientist with the Vision Lab of the University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, US, from 2006 to 2007. The he moved to the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Trento, Trento, Italy, where he is now a Full Professor in the field of Measurement and Robotics. He has authored and co-authored more than 250 scientific papers in peer-reviewed top journals and conference proceedings. He is currently an IEEE Fellow Member, a Senior Area Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, an Associate Editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and he is a member of the IMEKO TC17 - Measurement in Robotics. He is the co-founder of Polytec Intralogistics Srl (https://www.polytecintralogistics.com/en/) and of the IDRA Labs (https://idra-lab.github.io/). His research interests include wheeled mobile robots, human-robot interaction and estimation, distributed and real-time estimation and control, localisation algorithms, synchrophasor estimation, clock synchronisation algorithms, and resource aware control.
Prof. Stanisa Raspopovic
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland
TITLE:
Interfacing men and machines for health benefits
ABSTRACT:
Advances in nervous system interfacing present a promising venue for rehabilitation of individuals with different neurological disabilities. Subjects with SCI, pain or diabetes have reduced independence, which can induce a sedentary lifestyle promoting disease development and hindering reinsertion into society, while the neuropathic pain is common and poorly managed with current medications. Despite a wide range of possibilities for human-machine interfacing, the nature of the optimal human-machine interaction remains poorly understood. Knowledge gained from in-silico modelling of targeted neural structures can inform an optimized design of such interfacing, therefore we develop the exact models of different nerves, enabling for AI-based personalized treatments. We have pioneered a human-machine systems that translates artificial sensors’ read-outs into “language” understandable by the nervous system. The “smart orthosis” for diabetics “speaks” to their residual healthy nerves while diminishing pain. Combination of neuro-stimulating sleeve and exoskeleton restores the independence to highly disabled SCI and stroke patients. Their effects at the brain level were evaluated, observing important benefits.
BIO:
Stanisa Raspopovic has been a Full Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and Comprehensive Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, MedUni Vienna, Austria, since 2024. He was previously an Assistant Professor of Neuroengineering at ETH Zurich and a Senior Scientist at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. His research interest is focused on the development of innovative methods for treatment of neurologically disabled persons. In particular, he develops mechatronic systems directly interfacing the environment with the residual nervous system. Stanisa achieved the groundbreaking translational research results in the field of neural stimulation in patients with amputations, diabetes and pain. He has substantial international experience in research in neural engineering culminating with the award of the Science & PINS Prize in Neuromodulation 2021 and ETH Latsis Prize 2021. He won multiple prestigious Euriopean grants such as ERC Starting Grant in 2018 and ERC Consolidator and Proof-of-concepts Grants in 2023.
Dr. Maximo Roa
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany
TITLE:
Compliant Robotic Manipulation for Space Applications
ABSTRACT:
DLR has made pioneering work in torque-controlled robotic systems for ground and space manipulation, including compliant control strategies that have set new standards in force-sensitive manipulation and safe human-robot interaction. This talk will highlight applications of such technologies for orbital robotic manipulation. In this domain, DLR has explored a range of autonomous robotic solutions for In-Space Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM), including the construction of large-scale space infrastructure and robotic servicing to extend the operational life of satellites. Through several examples, the presentation will show how a holistic robotic manipulation approach—integrating compliant control, force-aware manipulation, and advanced teleoperation—is shaping the future of intelligent, sustainable, and scalable robotic operations in space.
BIO:
Maximo A. Roa is a Senior Scientific Researcher at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics in the German Aerospace Center - DLR. He leads the group of Robotic Planning and Manipulation, focused on development and implementation of locomotion and manipulation skills at different levels for industrial, service, humanoid and space robots. He received his PhD in 2009 from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, and also holds the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification since 2016. Dr. Roa is an IEEE Senior Member, and served as co-chair of the IEEE-RAS Technical Committee on Mobile Manipulation from 2013 until 2019. He is also member of ASME, IAU, and PMI.
Prof. Matteo Saveriano
Università di Trento, Italy
TITLE: Robot Learning-Control: The Quest for Safety
ABSTRACT:
Robotic manipulation demands sophisticated control policies, and accurate management of the forces exchanged with the environment. While learning-based controllers have shown great potential in learning complex policies, formal guarantees like safety and passivity during the learning and execution phases are still missing. In this talk, I will present recent results on stable continual learning and passivity-based learning control, and their application to robotic manipulation.
BIO:
Matteo Saveriano is an Associate Professor of Control Engineering at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento, Italy. He received his B.Sc and M.Sc from the University of Naples "Federico II" in 2008 and 2011, respectively, and a Ph.D. from the Technical University of Munich in 2017. After his Ph.D., he was a post-doctoral researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and a tenure-track assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science and at the Digital Science Center of the University of Innsbruck. His research is at the intersection between learning and control and attempts to integrate cognitive robots into smart factories and social Environments through the embodiment of AI solutions inspired by human behavior into robotic devices. He has (co-)authored more than 70 scientific papers in international journals and conferences. He serves regularly as Associate Editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, the IEEE Transactions on Robotics, and for The International Journal of Robotics Research. He is the coordinator of the HE EU project INVERSE (GA 101136067).
Dr. Nikos Tsagarakis
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
TITLE: The CONCERT Modular and Reconfigurable robot
ABSTRACT: The EU-funded CONCERT project envisions the development of a modular and reconfigurable robotic system. At the heart of the CONCERT approach is a standardized, interoperable architecture that supports the reconfiguration of robotic modules, facilitating task versatility and scalability.
The platform has been designed to streamline the deployment and integration of a fully reconfigurable robotic system across a wide range of industrial applications, with a strong emphasis on the needs of the construction sector. The talk will introduce the CONCERT robotic platform, highlighting its modular mechatronics concept and the reconfiguration process that enables adaptation to the specific requirements of diverse construction tasks. The presentation will also discuss practical use cases demonstrating how CONCERT promotes modularity and flexibility, setting the foundation for a truly interoperable robotic ecosystem for the construction sector
BIO:
Prof. Bram Vanderborght
Vrije Universiteit Brussel & imec, Belgium
TITLE: Sustainable robotics
ABSTRACT: Robotics has progressed beyond industrial automation, driven by advancements in core robotic technologies from actuation, materials to sensing and control. In addition, the convergence of robotics with AI has led to embodied AI, where robots interact with complex human environments. This next generation of robots will be adaptive, capable of learning from humans and their surroundings, and able to safely operate in unstructured environments.
Next to the technical progress, also the societal and environmental impact of robotics is becoming increasingly important. Europe is at the forefront of these transitions with pioneering legislation linked to the goals set out in the European Green Deal, European industrial strategy, the AI act.
At Brubotics, we aim to bring the three pillars of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, being economy, society and environment together in a humanity-centered robotics context, where ideally, these transitions reinforce each other. The digital transition is typically spearheaded by the private sector due to its large economic potential. To harness its benefits for greening and to limit its harmful social and environmental effects, state and civil society engagement are key. Therefor we work in strong multidisciplinary teams not only spanning the technical fields, but also social, medical and human sciences.
Apart from supporting existing companies, we are also developing several spinoffs by gradually climbing the technology readiness ladder from scientific breakthroughs to exploitation of the results especially in applications in health and manufacturing.
BIO: Prof. dr. ir. Bram Vanderborght obtained his PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2007. He performed research at JRL lab in AIST, Tsukuba (Japan) and did his post-doc researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology. Since 2009 he is professor at the VUB. He had an ERC starting grant and is currently coordinating three EU projects on smart and self healing materials for soft robots. His research interests are human-robot collaboration for applications for health and manufacturing like exoskeletons, prostheses, social robots, drones and cobots. He is affiliated to imec, Belgium, as scientific collaborator. He is current vice president IEEE Robotics & Automation Society.