Dr Sylvain Calinon,
Idiap Research Institute,
Centre du Parc, Rue Marconi 19,
CH-1920 Martigny, Switzerland

+41 27 721 77 61
sylvain.calinonidiap.ch

Born in 1980 at Yverdon, Switzerland.
Marital status: Single.   Citizenships: Swiss and French.

Short bio

I am a Senior Research Scientist at the Idiap Research Institute, with research interests covering robot learning, human-robot collaboration, optimal control and model-based optimization. I am also a Lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

From 2009 to 2014, I was a Team Leader at the Department of Advanced Robotics, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). From 2007 to 2009, I was a Postdoc at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory, EPFL. I hold a PhD from EPFL (2007), awarded by the Robotdalen Scientific Award, ABB Award and EPFL-Press Distinction. Other recognitions include Best Paper Award in the journal of Intelligent Service Robotics (ISR, 2017), Best Paper Award at IEEE Ro-Man'2007, Best Poster Award at ICRA'2021 Workshop, Best Presentation Award at CoRL'2019, and Best Paper Award Finalist at RSS'2024, IEEE-RAS Humanoids'2009, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2013, ICIRA'2015 and IEEE ICRA'2016. I served as Associate Editor in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO) and IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), and I currently serve as TC Chair on Model-based optimization for robotics for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).

The collaborative projects I am or have been involved in include PHYGIBOT, ARMS, HORACE, REHABOT, KREATIV, SMART-DISPENSING, INTELLIMAN, SESTOSENSO, SWITCH, CODIMAN, COB'HOOK, LEARN-REAL, HEAP, NATAI, COLLABORATE, MEMMO, ROSALIS, DEXROV, I-DRESS, TACT-HAND, PLATFORM-MMD, STIFF-FLOP, PANDORA, SMART-E, SAPHARI, AMARSI, ROBOT@CWE, FEELIX GROWING and COGNIRON, supported by the European Commission, by the Swiss National Science Foundation, by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, and by the Swiss Innovation Agency.

You can download my research statement as a PDF file.

Research Experience

Jan 2018-curr.
Senior Research Scientist
Head of the Robot Learning and Interaction Group, Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland.
2014-curr.
Lecturer
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).
2014-2017
Research Scientist
Head of the Robot Learning and Interaction Group, Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland.
2014-2018
External Collaborator
Department of Advanced Robotics (Prof. Darwin Caldwell), Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy.
2009-2014
Team Leader
Head of the Learning and Interaction Lab, Department of Advanced Robotics, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy.
2007-2009
Postdoctoral Researcher
Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (Prof. Aude Billard), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
Mar 2008
Visiting Researcher
CNRS-AIST Joint Japanese-French Robotics Laboratory (JRL) (Prof. Abderrahmane Kheddar), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan.
Apr 2005
Visiting Researcher
Adaptive Systems Research Group (Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn and Prof. Chrystopher Nehaniv), University of Hertfordshire (UH), Hatfield, UK.
Sep 2003
Visiting Researcher
Humanoid Robotics and Computational Neuroscience department (HRCN) (Prof. Gordon Cheng), Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute (ATR), Kyoto, Japan.
Oct 2002
Visiting Researcher
Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab (CLMC) (Prof. Stefan Schaal), University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, USA.

Education

2003-2007
PhD Robotics
Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Thesis: 'Continuous Extraction of Task Constraints in a Robot Programming by Demonstration Framework'
Advisor:
Prof. Aude Billard, EPFL, Switzerland.
Committee:
Prof. Hannes Bleuler, EPFL, Switzerland,
Prof. Hervé Bourlard, Director of Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland,
Dr Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College London (ICL), UK,
Prof. Stefan Schaal, University of Southern California (USC), USA.
Awards:
Robotdalen Scientific Award,   ABB Award,   EPFL-Press distinction.
Defense:
May 1st, 2007. Public presentation: July 6th, 2007.
2001-2003
MSc Microeng.
Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL), EPFL, Switzerland. Thesis: 'PDA Interface for Humanoid Robots using Speech and Vision Processing'
Advisor:
Prof. Aude Billard, EPFL, Switzerland.
Committee:
Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud, DIDEL S.A.
Defense:
March 1st, 2003.
1998-2001
BSc Microeng.
EPFL, Switzerland.

Awards

Group prizes

2025
Second Prize for Best Paper, R:SS 2025 Workshop on Navigating Contact Dynamics in Robotics, paper presented by Ante Marić.
2024
Outstanding Paper Award Finalist, Robotics: Science and Systems 2024. Paper: Configuration Space Distance Fields for Manipulation Planning by Y. Li, X. Chi, A. Razmjoo and S Calinon.
2024
Best Paper Award (two tied-up winners) from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Technical Committee on Model-based Optimization for Robotics, for articles accepted/published in 2023. Paper: Tensor Train for Global Optimization Problems in Robotics, by S. Shetty, T. Lembono, T. Löw and S. Calinon.
2023
Winner of the NeurIPS 2023 Robot Air Hockey Challenge (AiRLIHockey Team, with Julius Jankowski and Ante Marić).
2022
12 Stars of Europe Award by the French Research Minister for the H2020 MEMMO European project coordinated by LAAS.
2022
ICC Award, International Create Challenge, with Gennady Plyushchev and Daniel Berio.
2022
IEEE RAS TC Award, IEEE RAS Most Active Technical Committee Award with Adrien Escande, Yue Hu, and Patrick Wensing.
2009
PROSE Awards as co-author of a chapter in the Handbook of Robotics (Springer) distinguished by two PROSE Awards.
2008
First prize in the Grand Challenge on Human-Robot Interaction at the IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2008), LASA-EPFL Team.

Prizes awarded to PhD/Msc Students in my group

2024
Faulhaber Award, Alice Guntli, EPFL Master thesis.
2023
Best Paper Award, Tobias Löw, Idiap Award.
2022
Student Award, Teguh Lembono, Idiap Award.
2021
Best Paper Award, Suhan Shetty, Idiap Award.
2021
Best Poster Award, ICRA workshop "Towards Curious Robots: Modern Approaches for Intrinsically-Motivated Intelligent Behavior", for the paper "Intrinsically-Motivated Robot Learning of Bayesian Probabilistic Movement Primitives" presented by Thibaut Kulak.
2019
Best Presentation Award, Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL'2019), for the paper "Bayesian Optimization Meets Riemannian Manifolds in Robot Learning" presented by Noémie Jaquier.
2019
Student Award, Noémie Jaquier, Idiap Award.
2016
Best Paper Award Finalist, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Paper on "Learning Robot Manipulation Tasks with Task-Parameterized Semi-Tied Hidden Semi-Markov Model".
2015
Best Paper Award Finalist, Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA). Paper on "Learning the stiffness of a continuous soft manipulator from multiple demonstrations".

Personal prizes

2017
Best Paper Award, Intelligent Service Robotics (ISR) journal for the article "A Tutorial on Task-Parameterized Movement Learning and Retrieval".
2013
Excellence in Reviewing, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (Elsevier).
  In recognition of an outstanding contribution to the quality of the journal
2013
Best Paper Award Finalist, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2013). Paper "On improving the extrapolation capability of task-parameterized movement models".
2009
Best Paper Award Finalist, IEEE-RAS Intl Conf. on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids'2009). Paper "Handling of multiple constraints and motion alternatives in a robot programming by demonstration framework".
2008
Robotdalen Scientific Award for Best 2007 PhD Thesis.
  The jury was impressed by the practical and economic importance of the problem, the systematic analysis and innovative layered approach of its implementation, the completeness of the solution, and the open release of source code, demonstrating confidence in the solution independence from specifics of any particular robot hardware or manipulation task.
2008
ABB Award for Best 2007 PhD Thesis.
  For the thorough and exemplary work in his Ph.D. thesis and important scientific contributions resolving two major issues in robot programming by demonstration.
2008
EPFL-Press distinction for Best 2007 PhD Thesis.
2007
Best Paper Award of the IEEE Intl Symp. on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN'2007). Paper on "Active Teaching in Robot Programming by Demonstration".

Bibliometry

h-index: 61,   15'000+ citations*.

The complete list of my publications can be found in the publications section.

Publications highlights

* Source: Google Scholar, 2024.

Invited Talks

Nov 2025
Focus Period on Robot Learning, Lund University, Sweden.
Oct 2025
The Art of Robustness: Surviving Failures in Robotics Workshop, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China.
Jun 2025
Gaussian Representations for Robot Autonomy: Challenges and Opportunities, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Los Angeles, USA.
Jun 2025
Workshop on Human-Robot Contact and Manipulation, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Los Angeles, USA.
Jun 2025
Supervised Autonomy: How to Shape Human–Robot Interaction, Capri Island, Italy.
Jun 2025
Plenary talk, 22nd Conf. of the International Graphonomics Society, Montréal, Canada.
May 2025
Beyond the Lab: Robust Planning and Control in Real World Scenarios, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Atlanta, USA.
May 2025
Workshop on Language and Semantics of Task and Motion Planning, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Atlanta, USA.
May 2025
Artificial intelligence in the creative and cultural industries, Monthey, Switzerland.
Feb 2025
International Humanoid Forum, Switzerland Innovation Park, Biel, Switzerland.
Feb 2025
Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art Symposium, Berlin, Germany.
Feb 2025
Amazon Robotics, Berlin, Germany.
Dec 2024
Seminar at University of Bologna, Italy.
Dec 2024
Mini-symposium at TU Delft, Netherlands.
Nov 2024
Designing Humanoids: How Much Should We Learn from Humans? Workshop, IEEE-RAS Intl Conf. on Humanoid Robots, Nancy, France.
Nov 2024
Selected Topics in Robot Learning seminar, TU Berlin, Science of Intelligence Cluster (SCIoI), Germany.
Nov 2024
National Robotics Research Days, Paris, France.
Sep 2024
International Workshop on Open-Ended Learning by Interactive Robots, Sorbonne University, Paris, France.
Aug 2024
Empowering Human-Robot Collaboration Workshop, co-organized by the Innovation Booster Robotics, the Innovation Booster Artificial Intelligence, and the Swiss Cobotics Competence Center, Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne (SIPBB).
Jul 2024
Workshop on Mechanisms for Mapping Human Input to Robots: From Robot Learning to Shared Control/Autonomy, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Delft, Netherlands.
May 2024
Franka Research Community Highlights Webinar.
May 2024
ProxyTouch: Whole-body Proxy-Tactile Architectures for Industrial and Service Applications Workshop, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yokohama, Japan.
May 2024
Kinematic Aspects of Robotics Workshop, Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (RICAM), Linz, Austria.
Apr 2024
AI Valais/Wallis Workshop on Human-AI Teaming, Swiss Digital Center, Sierre, Switzerland.
Apr 2024
Seminar at Department of Mechanical Engineering, IISc, Bangalore, India.
Apr 2024
Workshop on Emerging Technologies and challenges for Exoskeleton, Bangalore, India.
Mar 2024
Towards Efficient and Portable Robot Learning for Real-World Settings Workshop, European Robotics Forum, Rimini, Italy.
Feb 2024
Seminar at the Institute for Cognitive Systems, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany.
Feb 2024
Online lecture on Industrial Robotics and Cobotics, course on Cognitive Ergonomics and Neuroergonomics in HRI, IIT Gandhinagar.



Dec 2023
Swiss Digital Conference, Sierre, Switzerland.
Nov 2023
Colloquium at the Department of Mathematics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Nov 2023
Workshop on AI for Robotics, Naver Labs Europe, Grenoble, France.
Nov 2023
3-minute pitch at TEDx Martigny, Switzerland.
Oct 2023
ReconCycle Summer School, Mallorca, Spain.
Oct 2023
Mathematics Colloquium at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Oct 2023
6th Workshop on Ergonomic Physical Human-Robot Collaboration: Harnessing Advancements in Robot Learning, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Detroit, USA.
Sep 2023
6th International Workshop on Intrinsically Motivated Open-ended Learning (IMOL), Paris, France.
Aug 2023
AI Olympics With RealAIGym: Is AI Ready for Athletic Intelligence in the Real World? workshop and competition, 32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2023, Macao.
Jul 2023
Mechanical and Mechatronics Department Research Seminar, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Jul 2023
AI for Good Global Summit, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
Jul 2023
Workshop on Accelerating sustainable manufacturing with AI, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
Jul 2023
Geriatronics Summit, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Jun 2023
Keynote speaker at the 32nd Intl Conf. on Robotics in the Alpe-Adria-Danube Region (RAAD), Bled, Slovenia.
Nov 2022
Seminar at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Nov 2022
Invited pitch at Prix Suisse 2022 organized by Initiative Switzerland, Bern.
Nov 2022
Invited presentation for Talking Robotics. Link to the recorded talk.
Jun 2022
Seminar series, Department of Computer Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Jun 2022
First International Symposium on Geriatronics, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, TUM.
May 2022
Musée de la Main UNIL/CHUV.
Jan 2022
Seminar series organized by the Hong Kong Center for Logistics Robotics and by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Dec 2021
Workshop on Design, Learning, and Control for Safe Human-Robot Collaboration, ICAR'2021, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Sep 2021
Workshop on Variable Impedance Robotics skills: Challenges and Opportunities, IROS'2021, Prague, Czech Republic.
Sep 2021
Workshop on Object Recognition and Manipulation, Intl Conf. on Computer Vision Systems (ICVS).
Sep 2021
50th anniversary of Dalle Molle Foundation & 30th anniversary of Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland.
Sep 2021
Science Valais "Carnotzet Scientifique", Martigny, Switzerland.
Jun 2021
Workshop on Unlocking the potential of human-robot collaboration for industrial applications, ICRA, Xi'an, China.
May 2021
Robotics Seminar, University of Leeds, UK
May 2021
Wisconsin Robotics Seminar Series (NASA University Leadership program), University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Apr 2021
Robotics Colloquium, University of Washington, USA.
Oct 2020
Intl Workshop on Human-Friendly Robotics, Innsbruck, Austria.
Jul 2020
Autonomous Learning Robots Lab, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
Jun 2020
Naver Labs Europe, Grenoble, France.
Mar 2020
Workshop on Human-Robot Collaboration & AI for industrial applications, European Robotics Forum (ERF), Malaga, Spain.
Nov 2019
Intelligence Artificielle - Le Robot et Moi, Delémont, Switzerland.
Nov 2019
Workshop Factory of the Future - Intelligent Robots in Digitally Driven Production, IROS'2019, Macau, China.
May 2019
Workshop on Continuous management and scheduling of multiple simultaneous prioritized tasks for redundant robots, ICRA, Montreal, Canada.
May 2019
Interpreting Machine Learning, Valais/Wallis Workshop on Artificial Intelligence, Martigny, Switzerland.
Feb 2019
Research Seminar Series on Frontiers of Robotics Research, University of Lincoln, UK.
Nov 2018
The Cyborg Days, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Nov 2018
SolvAxis ProConcept UserDay, Bern, Switzerland.
Nov 2018
11th International Workshop on Human Friendly Robotics (HFR), Shenzhen, China.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Human-Robot Cooperation and Collaboration in Manipulation: Advancements and Challenge, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Haptic-enabled shared control of robotic systems: a compromise between teleoperation and autonomy, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Closing the loop on Human Robot Symbiosis: Human/Robot in-the-loop Machine Learning, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Oct 2018
Workshop on Variable Impedance Robot Skills: Control & Learning, IROS'2018, Madrid, Spain.
Aug 2018
Idiap Innovation Day, Martigny, Switzerland.
Jul 2018
Workshop on Human-Machine Collaboration in Movement-based Practices, IRCAM, Paris, France.
Jun 2018
Workshop on Learning Applications for Intelligent Autonomous Robots, 15th Intl Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS), Baden Baden, Germany.
Jun 2018
Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon.
May 2018
Workshop on Robots in Human Environments, Gipsa Lab, INP Grenoble & Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, France.
Feb 2018
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.
Dec 2017
Intl workshop on representation, analysis and recognition of shape and motion from image data, Aussois, France.
Nov 2017
Small data: challenges and opportunities, Valais/Wallis Workshop on Artificial Intelligence, Martigny, Switzerland.
Oct 2017
Intrinsically Motivated Open-ended Learning Workshop, Rome, Italy.
Oct 2017
Delft Workshop on Robot Learning, TU Delft, The Netherlands.
Sep 2017
Workshop on Synergies Between Learning and Interaction, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2017, Vancouver, Canada.
Sep 2017
Workshop on Human in-the-loop robotic manipulation: on the influence of the human role, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2017, Vancouver, Canada.
Sep 2017
Workshop on Learning for Collaborative Robotics: Enabling flexible, re-deployable and agile industrial applications, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2017, Vancouver, Canada.
Aug 2017
Tai Mountain Robotics Forum, Tai'An, China.
Aug 2017
Intl Conf. on Gesture and Speech in Interaction (INTERSPEECH'2017 satellite event), Poznań, Poland.
Jun 2017
Intelligent Autonomous Systems lab, TU Darmstadt.
Jun 2017
Gesture & Artificial Intelligence in Industry & Arts Think-Tank, Thessaloniki, Greece.
May 2017
Numerical Analysis Seminar, Mathematics Dept, University of Geneva.
Apr 2017
Autonomous Motion Department, Max Planck Inst. for Intelligent Systems, Tuebingen, Germany.
Apr 2017
Inst. of Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling, Germany.
Dec 2016
Neurorobotics Workshop, 30th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS'2016), Barcelona, Spain.
Nov 2016
"AI and Robotics: from technology to the arts" seminar, Mines-ParisTech, France.
Oct 2016
Workshop on Human-Robot Collaboration: Towards Co-Adaptive Learning Through Semi-Autonomy and Shared Control, IEEE/RSJ IROS'2016, Daejeon, Korea.
Jun 2016
Workshop on Planning, Scheduling and Dependability in Safe Human-Robot Interactions, IEEE ICAPS'2016, London, UK.
Jun 2016
Curzon-Goldsmiths Cinema, Goldsmiths University of London, UK.
Feb 2016
Conference Cerveau & Robot, Sion, Switzerland.
Aug 2015
Workshop on Learning for Human-Robot Collaboration, Ro-Man'2015, Kobe, Japan.
May 2015
Agile and Dexterous Robotics Lab, ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland.
Feb 2015
CITIA Roadmap for Conversational Interaction Technologies Conference, Brussels, Belgium.
Feb 2015
Robotics and Computer Vision Group, ENSTA-ParisTech, France.
Jan 2015
GIPSA-lab, CNRS/University of Grenoble, France.
Nov 2014
Intl Conf. on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Nov 2014
PI Symposium (Posthuman and Digital Art), Monthey, Switzerland.
Oct 2014
Nipconf'2014, SwissTech Convention Center, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Sep 2014
Workshop on Compliant Manipulation: Challenges in Learning and Control, Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2014), Chicago, USA.
Jun 2014
iCub and friends: a workshop on open source robotics to celebrate the iCub 10th birthday, IEEE ICRA'2014, Hong Kong, China.
Jun 2014
Workshop on Soft and Stiffness-Controllable Robots for Minimally Invasive Surgery, IEEE ICRA'2014, Hong Kong, China.
Mar 2014
DIBRIS, University of Genova, Italy.
Mar 2014
LIRMM HRP-4 Inaugural Workshop, Montpellier, France.
Jan 2014
RoSEC Winter School, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
Nov 2013
Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland.
Nov 2013
NII Shonan Meeting on Cognitive Social Robotics: intelligence based on embodied experience and social interaction, Shonan Village Center, Japan.
Oct 2013
Workshop "Benchmarking of State-of-the-Art algorithms in Generating Human-Like Robot Reaching Motions", IEEE-RAS HUMANOIDS, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Oct 2013
Workshop "From Safety to Comfort in the Humanoid Coworker and Assistant", IEEE-RAS HUMANOIDS, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Aug 2013
Biorobotics Lab, TU Delft, Netherlands.
Jun 2013
Workshop on Robot Learning, ICML'2013, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
May 2013
Workshop on Semantics, Identification, and Control of Robot-Human-Environment, IEEE ICRA'2013, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Apr 2013
Workshop on haptic collaboration in shared control tasks, IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC’2013), Daejeon, Korea.
Mar 2013
Workshop on Collaborative Robotics in Industry, European Robotics Forum (ERF’2013), Lyon, France.
Jan 2013
RoSEC Winter School, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
Sep 2012
12th International UJI Robotics School on Perceptual Robotics for Humanoids, Benicassim, Spain.
Jun 2012
German-French Workshop: Perspectives on Cognitive Interaction and Technology, CITEC, Bielefeld, Germany.
Jun 2012
iCub Facility kick‐off meeting, IIT, Genova, Italy.
Apr 2012
LCCC Symp. on Robotic Skill Learning and Cognition, Lund, Sweden.
Jan 2012
Intl Workshop on Cognition, Control and Learning, CHIC, KIST, Seoul, Korea.
Jan 2012
RoSEC Winter School, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
Dec 2011
Intl Conf. of the European SKILLS Project, Montpellier, France.
Oct 2011
Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab, University of Southern California (USC), USA.
Aug 2011
Learning from Demonstration Challenge, Twenty-Fifth Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI'11), Boston, USA.
Jul 2010
Campus Party, Science and Arts City Museum, Valencia, Spain.
(Technology festival since 1997 with renowned invited speakers such as Stephen Hawking, Al Gore, Neil Amstrong, Steve Wozniak, Vint Cerf or Tim Berners-Lee)
Oct 2009
Automatic Control Dept, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
2008
Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics - CoR-Lab, CITEC, Bielefeld, Germany.
2008
HONDA Research Institute Europe, Offenbach, Germany.
2008
Nakamura Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Japan.
2008
Workshop on Grasp and Task Learning by Imitation, IEEE/RSJ IROS)'2008, Nice, France.
2008
Workshop on Interactive Robot Learning, Robotics: Science and Systems (R:SS), Zurich, Switzerland.
2008
RobotX Industrial forum on robotics, Yverdon, Switzerland.
2008
Workshop on Social Interaction with Intelligent Indoor Robots, IEEE ICRA'2008, Pasadena, CA, USA.
2008
Swedish robotics initiative Robotdalen annual event, Volvo Group, Eskilstuna, Sweden.
2007
Workshop on Concept Learning for Embodied Agents, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Roma, Italia.
2006

Workshop on Collaborative Human-Robot Teamwork, IEEE ICRA'2006, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Public outreach and robot demonstrations

2024
Demonstrations of a robot teleoperation system and a portrait drawing robot at the Swiss Robotics Day, Basel, Switzerland.
2023
Demonstrations of drozBot, the portraitist robot at TEDx Martigny, Switzerland.
2023
Demonstrations of drozBot, the portraitist robot at the AI for Good Global Summit, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
2022-2023
Exhibition of drozBot, the portraitist robot at the UNIL-CHUV Museum of the Hand in Lausanne.
2022
Demonstrations of drozBot, the portraitist robot at the Prix Suisse 2022 organized by Initiative Switzerland in Bern.
2021
Demonstrations of FondueBot at the Embassy of Switzerland in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2020
Demonstrations of Roboclette at CES, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
2019
Demonstrations of Roboclette at Foire du Valais, Martigny, Switzerland.
2016
Demonstrations of learning by interaction applications with the Baxter robot, Conference Cerveau & Robot, Sion, Switzerland.
2014
Demonstrations of learning by interaction applications with the Baxter robot, TEDx Martigny.
2010
Futura Campus Party, demonstrations of a chief cook learning robot at the Science & Arts City Museum, Valencia, Spain.
2009
Futura Campus Party, demonstrations of a chief cook learning robot at the Corferias International Exhibition Center, Bogota, Columbia.
2008
Google Zeitgeist Partner Forum, Mountain View, CA, USA, demonstrations of a portraitist humanoid robot.

Projects and Grants

Project Coordinator
2025-2029
HORACE (Human-robot collaborative manipulation by considering geometry and uncertainty)
(MINT/Weave grant, SNSF)
2019-2023
LEARN-REAL (Learning Physical Manipulation Skills with Simulators using Realistic Variations)
(CHIST-ERA Collaborative Project, SNSF)
Project Leader for Idiap
2025-2026
PHYGIBOT (Phygital Robotics Education Platform for Industrial Upskilling)
(Innovation Booster Robotics)
2024-2026
KREATIV (Installation at Phänomena: The roles of AI and robotics for creative and artistic applications in both digital and physical worlds)
(Agora grant, SNSF)
2023-2024
AI-powered directional light unit for intelligent dentist chairs
(Innovation Booster Robotics)
2023-2024
Force-based Assembly with Autonomous Learning
(Swiss Cobotics Competence Center)
2023-2026
SMART-DISPENSING (Programming of a complex deposit task through learning from demonstration)
(Innosuisse)
2022-2026
INTELLIMAN (AI-Powered Manipulation System for Advanced Robotic Service, Manufacturing and Prosthetics)
(HORIZON-CL4-Digital-Emerging Grant 101070136, Horizon Europe, SERI)
2022-2025
SESTOSENSO (Physical Cognition for Intelligent Control and Safe Human-Robot Interaction)
(HORIZON-CL4-Digital-Emerging Grant 101070310, Horizon Europe, SERI)
2021-2024
SWITCH (Learning by Switching Roles in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration)
(Lead Agency programme, SNSF)
2020-2024
CODIMAN (Cobotics, digital skills and the re-humanization of the workplace)
(National Research Programme "Digital Transformation", SNSF)
2019
Roboclette (robots learning to serve raclette cheese)
(State of Valais)
2019-2021
COB'HOOK (Dexterous manipulation for electroplating jig loading in the watchmaking industry)
(Innosuisse)
2018-2022
COLLABORATE (Co-production CeLL performing Human-Robot Collaborative AssEmbly)
(H2020-DT-FoF Grant 820767)
2018-2022
MEMMO (Memory of Motion)
(H2020-ICT Grant 780684)
2016-2020
TACT-HAND (Improving control of prosthetic hands using tactile sensors and realistic machine learning)
(D-A-CH Collaborative Project, SNSF)
2015-2018
DexROV (Effective Dexterous ROV Operations in Presence of Communications Latencies)
(H2020-BG Grant 635491, SERI)
2015-2018
I-DRESS (Assistive Interactive Robotic System for Support in Dressing)
(CHIST-ERA Collaborative Project, SNSF)

Project Co-Leader for Idiap
2025-2029
OKA (Oka theory, CR-geometry, D-bar-problem and applications)
(SNSF)
2025-2026
ARMS (Automatic Robotized human-Mimicking Solid sampling system)
(Innosuisse)
2025-2028
REHABOT (Specification and correction of physical human-robot behaviors for flexible rehabilitation robots)
(SNSF)
2020-2023
NATAI (The Nature of Artificial Intelligence)
(Agora grant, SNSF)
2019-2022
HEAP (Human-Guided Learning and Benchmarking of Robotic Heap Sorting)
(CHIST-ERA Collaborative Project, SNSF)
2018-2022
ROSALIS (robot skills acquisition through active learning and social interaction strategies)
(SNSF)
2016-2017
PLATFORM-MMD (Platform for Reproducible Acquisition, Processing, and Sharing of Dynamic, Multi-Modal Data)
(R'Equip grant, SNSF)

Project Leader for IIT
2012-2015
STIFF-FLOP (STIFFness controllable Flexible and Learn-able Manipulator for surgical OPerations)
(IP FP7-ICT-287728)

Project Co-Leader for IIT
2012-2014
PANDORA (Persistent Autonomy through learNing, aDaptation, Observation and Re-plAnning)
(STREP FP7-ICT-288273)

Project Participant
2026-2029
Confronting the Paradox of Human Motor Control: Leveraging Subtractive and Generative Models
(Ambizione SNSF grant awarded to Dr James Hermus, project hosted in my group)
2013-2017
SMART-E (Sustainable Manufacturing through Advanced Robotics Training)
(ITN FP7/2007-2013/ Marie Curie REA 608022, affiliated with IIT)
2011-2015
SAPHARI (Safe and Autonomous Physical Human-Aware Robot Interaction)
(IP FP7-ICT-287513, affiliated with IIT)
2010-2014
AMARSI (Adaptive Modular Architectures for Rich Motor Skills)
(IP FP7-ICT-248311, affiliated with IIT)
2007-2009
ROBOT@CWE (Advanced robotic systems in future collaborative working environments)
(STREP FP6-34002, affiliated with EPFL)
2006-2010
FEELIX GROWING (Feel, interact, express: a global approach to development with interdisciplinary grounding)
(IP FP6-IST-045169, affiliated with EPFL)
2004-2007
COGNIRON (The Cognitive Robot Companion)
(IP FP6-IST-002020, affiliated with EPFL)

Technology Transfer
2022
Cob'Hook-II (Dexterous manipulation for electroplating jig loading in the watchmaking industry)
(Richemont group)
2015
Baxter, What Else? (Incremental learning of movements for service robots)
(IdeArk, TheArk)
2011
Commissioned service of technology for the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan
(development of a portraitist robot software for interactive showcase of industrial robots)

Teaching

2024
Tutorial on Ergodic Control, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2024).
2015-2023
EPFL course EE613 - Machine Learning for Engineers.
2019-2023
Engineering Master program on Applied Artificial Intelligence, in partnership with Swiss Distance University Institute. Responsible for the course on Robotics.
2018-2023
Post-Master program AI Move (Artificial Intelligence and Movement in Industries and Creation) at Mines-ParisTech. In charge of the courses on Statistical, Geometrical and Dynamical Representations of Movement (Module 2: Motion Capture, Modeling and Gesture Recognition) and on Human-Robot Interaction and Collaborative Robotics (Module 4: Humans, Machines and Connected Objects).
Nov 2022
"Optimization and optimal control" and "Robot learning from demonstration" lectures for the course on Autonomous and Mobile Robotics at the University of Bologna.
Jan 2021
"Robot Learning from Demonstration" lecture for Gesture & AI course at Mines-ParisTech.
Jan 2019
"Memory of Motion" Winter School, Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland. Lectures on movement primitives.
Oct 2018
Tutorial "From Least Squares Regression to High-dimensional Motion Primitives", IROS'2018.

Committees / Editorships

2024-2025
Scientific Committee
Focus Period on Robot Learning, Lund University, Sweden.
2023-2024
Program Chair
33rd IEEE Intl Conf. on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN'2024).
2021-now
Technical Committee Chair
Model-based optimization for robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).
2023
Awards Committee
32nd Intl Conf. on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region (RAAD'2023).
2015-2016
Publication Chair
IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2016).
2011-2012
Steering Committee
ACM/IEEE Intl conferences on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).
2012
Financial Chair
ACM/IEEE Intl Conf. on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Boston, MA, USA.
2011
Financial Chair
ACM/IEEE Intl Conf. on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Associate Editor
2017-2020
Associate Editor
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO).
2015-2020
Associate Editor
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).
2015-2020
Associate Editor
Intelligent Service Robotics (Springer).
2015-2019
Associate Editor
Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
2013-2017
Associate Editor
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems.
2012-2016
Associate Editor
IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
2012-2016
Associate Editor
IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
2013
Associate Editor
IEEE Intl Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man'2013).
Guest Editor
2019
Guest Editor
Special Issue on Skill Transfer Learning for Autonomous Robots and Human-Robot Cooperation, Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
2017
Guest Editor
Special issue on Learning and Control for Autonomous Manipulation Systems: the Role of Dimensionality Reduction, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).
2017
Guest Editor
Special issue on Learning for Human-Robot Collaboration, Autonomous Robots (Springer).
Organizing Committees
2025
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Bimanual Manipulation: Advancing Human-Humanoid Interaction and Collaboration, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China.
2024
Organizing Committee
Tutorial on Ergodic Control, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2024), Yokohama, Japan.
2024
Organizing Committee
Workshop Bi-manual Manipulation: on Kitchen Challenge, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2024), Yokohama, Japan.
2023
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Geriatronics: AI and Robotics for Health and Well-Being in Older Age, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2023), Detroit, USA.
2023
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Geometric Representations: The Roles of Modern Screw Theory, Lie algebra, and Geometric Algebra in Robotics, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2023), London, UK.
2022
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Bimanual Manipulation: Addressing Real-World Challenges (second edition), IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2022), Philadelphia, USA.
2021
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Bimanual Manipulation: Learning, Planning and Control, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2021), Xi'an, China.
2020
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Interactive Robot Learning, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2020), Paris, France.
2020
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Robustness in robot manipulation: how do we scale to 99.xxx%?, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2020), Paris, France.
2019
Organizing Committee
Minisymposium on Algebraic Geometry for Kinematics and Dynamics in Robotics at the SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry 2019, Bern, Switzerland.
2019
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning for Industry 4.0: Feasibility and Challenges, IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2019), Montreal, Canada.
2018
Organizing Committee
Workshop on AI for rehabilitation and prosthetics, HES-SO, Sierre, Switzerland.
2018
Organizing Committee
Tutorial From Least Squares Regression to High-dimensional Motion Primitives, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2018), Madrid, Spain.
2018
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Robots for Assisted Living, IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2018).
2017
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Micro-Data: the new frontier of robot learning? at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2017).
2017
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning for Collaborative Robotics: Enabling Flexible, Redeployable and Agile Industrial Applications at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2017).
2017
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning and control for autonomous manipulation systems: the role of dimensionality reduction at the IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2017).
2016
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Artistically Skilled Robots at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2016).
2015
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Physical Human-Robot Collaboration: Control, Learning, Safety and Applications at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2015).
2015
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning for Human-Robot Collaboration at the IEEE Intl Symp. on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man'2015).
2015
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Compliant and Versatile Robot Control in Human Environments at the IEEE Intl Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'2015).
2012-2013
Organizing Committee
IEEE Intl Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man'2013).
2012
Organizing Committee
Workshop on Learning and Interaction in Haptic Robots at the IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'2012).
Program Committees
2015-2016
Program Committee
HRI Pioneers Workshop.
2015
Program Committee
Workshop on Machine Learning for Interactive Systems (MLIS) at the Intl Conf. on Machine Learning (ICML).
2015
Program Committee
Intl Symp. on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (AISB'2015).
2014
Program Committee
Intl Symp. on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (AISB'2014).
2014
Program Committee
AAAI Symp. on Knowledge, Skill, and Behavior Transfer in Autonomous Robots.
2013
Program Committee
Robotics Track, Twenty-Seventh AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
2013
Program Committee
Intl Workshop on Cognitive Robotics Systems: Replicating Human Actions and Activities.
2012
Program Committee
IEEE Intl Conference on Development and Learning / EpiRob 2012.
2012
Program Committee
AAAI 2012 Symposium on Robots Learning Interactively from Human Teachers.
2011-2012
Program Committee
Robotics: Science and Systems Conferences (RSS).
2009
Program Committee
IEEE Intl Symp. on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA), Daejeon, Korea.
2009-2010
Program Committee

Intl Symposiums on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction.

2010
Coordinator

Robotics Area for Campus Party Europe, represented by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, Madrid, Spain.

Examiner
2025
Examiner
Donatien Delehelle's PhD Thesis, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy.
2025
Examiner
Maxime Sabbah's PhD Thesis, LAAS-CNRS, France.
2025
Examiner
Giovanni Braglia's PhD Thesis, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.
2024
Examiner
Max Spahn's PhD Thesis, TU Delft, Netherlands.
2024
Examiner
Carlo Rizzardo's PhD Thesis, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy.
2024
Examiner
Eleftherios Triantafyllidis's PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
2023
Examiner
Yoann Fleytoux's PhD Thesis, Inria, France.
2023
Examiner
Quantao Yang's PhD Thesis, Örebro University, Sweden.
2023
Examiner
Davide Carminati's PhD Thesis, Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy.
2023
Examiner
Mihael Simonič's PhD Thesis, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2023
Examiner
Kelly Merckaert's PhD Thesis, VUB, Brussels, Belgium.
2023
Examiner
Marios Kiatos's PhD Thesis, Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki, Greece.
2022
Examiner
Jason Chemin's PhD Thesis, LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France.
2021
Examiner
Vladimir Joukov's PhD Thesis, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
2021
Examiner
Amaury Depierre's PhD Thesis, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France.
2019
Examiner
Omar Mohammed's PhD Thesis, CNRS, Grenoble-Alps Univ. & INP Grenoble, France.
2019
Examiner
Amor Ben Tanfous's PhD Thesis, CRIStAL UMR - CNRS & IMT Lille-Douai, France.
2018
Examiner
Philipp Schlehuber-Caissier's PhD Thesis, UPMC, Paris, France.
2018
Examiner
Hang Yin's PhD Thesis, IST (Portugal) and EPFL (Switzerland).
2017
Examiner
Yiming Yang's PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, UK.
2017
Examiner
Adrià Colomé's PhD Thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
2017
Examiner
Alexandros Paraschos' PhD Thesis, TU Darmstadt, Germany.
2017
Examiner
Gennaro Raiola's PhD Thesis, ENSTA-ParisTech, France.
2016
Examiner
Eva Coupeté's PhD Thesis, Mines-ParisTech, France.
2014
Examiner
Miguel González-Fierro Palacios' PhD Thesis, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain.
2013
Examiner
Leonel Rozo's PhD Thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
2009
Examiner
Diego Pardo's PhD Thesis, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.

Supervision

Postdoctoral Researchers
2025-now
Dr Tobias Löw, Idiap Research Institute.
2024-now
Dr James Hermus, Idiap Research Institute.
2020-2022
Dr Mattia Racca, Idiap Research Institute, co-supervised with Jean-Marc Odobez. (next: Research Scientist at NAVER LABS Europe)
2019-2022
Dr Marco Ewerton, Idiap Research Institute, co-supervised with Jean-Marc Odobez. (next: Robotics Research Engineer at Ocado Technology)
2019-2022
Dr João Silvério, Idiap Research Institute. (next: Group Leader of the Interactive Skill Learning group at the German Aerospace Center (DLR))
2018-2019
Dr Antonio Paolillo, Idiap Research Institute. (next: Researcher at IDSIA)
2017-2018
Dr Andras Kupcsik, Idiap Research Institute (next: Research Scientist at Bosch Center for AI)
2015-2017
Dr Ioannis Havoutis, Idiap Research Institute (next: Lecturer at the University of Oxford).
2012-2015
Dr Leonel Rozo, IIT (next: Research Scientist at Bosch Center for AI)
2012-2015
Dr Danilo Bruno, IIT (next: Software Analyst at CAMELOT biomedical systems S.r.l.).
2009-2011

Dr Petar Kormushev, IIT (next: Lecturer at Imperial College London).

PhD Students
2025-now
Martin Schonger, PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2023-now
Ante Marić, "Constrained and guided learning of manipulation skills". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2022-now
Yan Zhang, "Learning Dual-arm Manipulation Primitives for Long-horizon Contact-rich Manipulation Tasks". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2022-now
Yiming Li, "Implicit Representations for Robot Motion Planning and Manipulation". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2022-now
Cem Bilaloglu, "Constrained Exploration for Active Learning of Robot Manipulation Behaviors". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2021-now
Teng Xue, "Demonstration-guided optimal control for contact-aware manipulation". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2021-now
Amirreza Razmjoo, "Robot learning and optimal control for physical assistance of humans in sit-to-stand tasks". PhD Thesis proposal, Idiap/EPFL.
2021-2025
Tobias Löw, "Robot Manipulation with Geometric Algebra: A Unified Geometric Framework for Control and Optimization". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Postdoc in my group)
2020-2024
Julius Jankowski, "A Stochastic Approach to Contact-rich Manipulation". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Postdoctoral Scientist, Amazon, Berlin, Germany)
2019-2024
Suhan Shetty, "Robot Learning using Tensor Networks". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Robotics Engineer, Hexagon AB, Zürich, Switzerland)
2018-2023
Hakan Girgin, "Learning and Optimization of Anticipatory Feedback Controllers for Robot Manipulation". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Innovation Manager, Swiss Cobotics Competence Center (S3C), Biel, Switzerland)
2018-2022
Teguh Lembono, "Building Memory of Motion to Warm-start Trajectory Optimization". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Applied Scientist in Robotics AI, Amazon, Berlin, Germany)
2017-2021
Thibaut Kulak, "Robot skills acquisition through active learning and social interaction strategies". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Machine Learning Researcher at NEOINSTINCT, Lausanne, Switzerland)
2016-2020
Emmanuel Pignat, "Product of Experts for Robot Learning from Demonstration". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Founder of ARventure startup)
2016-2020
Noémie Jaquier, "Robot skills learning with Riemannian manifolds: Leveraging geometry-awareness in robot learning, optimization and control". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Postdoc at KIT, Germany)
2015-2018
Ajay Kumar Tanwani, "Probabilistic learning models for skill acquisition in teleoperated robots". PhD Thesis, Idiap/EPFL.
(next: Postdoc at UC Berkeley, USA)
2014-2018
Martijn Zeestraten, "Programming by demonstration on Riemannian manifolds". PhD Thesis, IIT/UniGenova.
(next: R&D Engineer in Madern Group)
2014-2017
João Silvério, "Human-robot collaborative manipulation and coordination in bimanual tasks". PhD Thesis, IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Postdoc at IIT, Genova, Italy)
2012-2015
Milad Malekzadeh, "Machine Learning for a Soft Robotic Arm Assisting in Minimally Invasive Surgery". PhD Thesis, IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Postdoc at CoR-Lab, University of Bielefeld)
2011-2014
Tohid Alizadeh, "Modulation and Statistical Modeling of Human Movements Through Demonstrations". PhD Thesis, IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Lecturer at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan)
2011-2014
Davide De Tommaso, "Active Vision and Projections as User Interface in Robot Learning from Demonstration". PhD Thesis, IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Software Engineer at IIT, Genova, Italy)
2010-2013
Antonio Pistillo, "Approaches To Open And Closed-Loop Probabilistic Model Learning In Programming By Demonstration". PhD Thesis, IIT/UniGenova.
(next: Data Scientist at Accenture)
Research and Development Engineers
2024
Maximilien Dufau, R&D Research Assistant.
2024-now
Olivier Canévet, Research and Development group at Idiap, supervised by Olivier Bornet.
2019-now
Jérémy Maceiras, Research and Development group at Idiap, supervised by Olivier Bornet.
2019-now
Guillaume Clivaz, Research and Development group at Idiap, supervised by Olivier Bornet.
2018-now
Philip Abbet, Research and Development group at Idiap, supervised by Olivier Bornet.
Visiting Researchers
2024
Pragna Das, Keonn Technologies S.L., Barcelona, Spain.
2023
Riccardo Zanella, University of Bologna.
Visiting PhD Students
2025
Saray Bakker, TU Delft, supervised by Prof. Javier Alonso-Mora.
2025
Luca Beber, University of Trento, supervised by Prof. Matteo Saveriano and Prof. Luigi Palopoli.
2024
Luka Lanča, University of Rijeka, supervised by Prof. Stefan Ivić.
2024
Karlo Jakac, University of Rijeka, supervised by Prof. Stefan Ivić.
2023
Giovanni Braglia, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, supervised by Prof. Luigi Biagiotti.
2022-2024
Xuemin Chi, Zhejiang University, supervised by Prof. Zhitao Liu and Prof. Hongye Su.
2022-2023
Zhenwei Niu, Khalifa University, supervised by Prof. Irfan Hussain.
2022
Mehrdad Tavassoli, University of Pisa and Italian Institute of Technology, supervised by Prof. Domenico Prattichizzo.
2021-2022
Davide Carminati, Polytechnic University of Turin, supervised by Prof. Elisa Capello.
2021-2022
Boyang Ti, Harbin Institute of Technology, supervised by Prof. Yongsheng Gao and Prof. Jie Zhao.
2019-2020
Xiao Gao, Wuhan University, supervised by Prof. Miao Li.
2019
Jarosław Łokietko, Goldsmiths University of London, supervised by Prof. Frederic Fol Leymarie.
2018
Markku Suomalainen, Aalto University, supervised by Prof. Ville Kyrki.
2015
Daniel Berio, Goldsmiths University of London, supervised by Prof. Frederic Fol Leymarie.
2011
Leonel Rozo, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, supervised by Prof. Carme Torras.
Internships
2025
Nael Darwiche, Research Intern at Idiap.
2024
Martin Schonger, Research Intern at Idiap, co-supervised with Emmanuel Senft.
2024
Timothé Schlüssel, Research Intern at Idiap.
2024
Jiacheng Qiu, Research Intern at Idiap.
2022
Xiaowen Jiang, Research Intern at Idiap.
2022
Yifei Dong, Research Intern at Idiap.
2022
Stephen Monnet, Research Intern at Idiap.
2021-2022
Louis Gevers, Research Intern at Idiap, co-supervised with Jean-Marc Odobez.
2021
Nadia Hadjmbarek, Research Intern at Idiap.
2021
Lara Brudermüller, Research Intern at Idiap.
2021
Mahdi Nobar, Research Intern at Idiap.
2021
Yong-Joon Thoo, Research Intern at Idiap.
2019-2020
Clément Vaes, MSc Student at Université Catholique de Louvain, supervised by Estelle Massart and Prof. Pierre-Antoine Absil, co-supervised by Noémie Jaquier at Idiap.
2018
Hakan Girgin, MSc Student at Bogazici University, supervised by Prof. Emre Ugur.
2017
Olivier Baseggio, "Case studies for the application of robot learning techniques in industrial applications". Internship, Idiap.
MSc Theses
2025
Hana Catic, "Robot control by converting movement primitives into flow fields". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2025
Onur Beker, "Methods for Differentiable Simulation and Optimization for Contact-Rich Robotic Manipulation". MSc Thesis, University of Tübingen.
2025
Ekansh Sharma, "Model-based Optimal Estimation of Articulated Object Configuration Using Proprioceptive Interaction". MSc Thesis, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.
2025
Alessandra Chappuis, "Learning from demonstration". MSc Thesis, EPFL and Campus Genevois de Haute Horlogerie (Richemont group).
2024-2025
Mehdi Sellami, "Real-Time Adaptive Continuous Self-Collision Detection". MSc Thesis, EPFL and Hexagon AG.
2023-2024
Alice Guntli, "Planning with optimal control: Application to robot manipulation with a mobile bimanual platform". MSc Thesis, EPFL and ABB.
2023
Jean Lesur, "Trajectory optimization for a painting robot by using vision feedback". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2023
Tobias Michel, "An active perception approach for automated robotic bin picking". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2023
Victor Dramé, "Active perception for localization and manipulation of fruits in bulk". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2022
Cédric Mariéthoz, "Robot skills acquisition with tensor train decomposition". MSc Thesis, UniDistance.
2022
Mickael Gindroz, "Tensor-variate dictionary learning of movement primitives". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2021
Adi Niederberger, "Robot learning from human demonstrations". Master in Artificial Intelligence, UniDistance.
2021
Valentin Honorez, "Multilinear Models for the Manipulation of Objects by Robots". Faculté Polytechnique de Mons (UMONS), Belgium.
2019-2020
Jérémy Maceiras, "Planning of robot manipulation tasks". Master in Artificial Intelligence, UniDistance.
2017
Yanick Bertrand, "Synthesis of exaggerated movements to facilitate robot skill acquisition". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2016-2017
Fabien Crépon, "Robot-Assisted Learning for Object Recognition". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2016
Noémie Jaquier, "Robot drawing skills acquisition with vision feedback". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2015-2016
Emmanuel Pignat, "Online learning of task-parameterized models". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2012-2013
Martijn Zeestraten, "Robot Learning using Tree-Based Policy Representation". MSc Thesis magna cum laude, IIT/Delft University.
2012
Sunniva van Ipenburg, "Learning of a table skittle game with reinforcement learning and parametric Gaussian mixture model". MSc Thesis, IIT/Delft University.
2012
Affan Pervez, "Movement skill acquisition with imitation and reinforcement learning". MSc Thesis, IIT/KTH (Erasmus exchange program).
2008
Florent D'halluin, "Robust learning and reproduction of gestures from human demonstrations". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2007
Murielle Richard, "Implementation of a learning-by-imitation algorithm on the Katana robot". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2005
Frederic Magnard, "Object tracking for a camera designed to be worn by children". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2004
Adrien Brossard, "Control of the humanoid robot HOAP-2". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2004
Andre Maurer, "Artificial Neural Network (ANN) - Hidden Markov Model (HMM) Comparison for a gesture recognition application". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
2003
Marc Kunze, "Person recognition for the humanoid robot Robota". MSc Thesis, EPFL.
MSc/BSc Projects
2025
Mengze Tian, "Spline Diffusion for Manipulation Planning". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2024
Chiara Evangelisti, "Ergodic control for robot exploration". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2024
Antony Picard, "Text flourishing for a robot writer: a learning and optimization approach". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2024
Theo Maetz, "Manipulation with a torque-controlled quadruped robot". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2024
Jehan Piaget, "A robot manipulator writing texts using a pen". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2024
Vincent Flattot, "A robot manipulator writing texts using a pen". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2023-2024
Bastien Marconato, "Multi-resolution Encoding with Basis Functions for Applications in Robotics". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.



2022
Francesco Nonis, "Motion optimization with a legibility perspective". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2022
Vincent Nguyen, "Smartphone interface for a portraitist robot". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2022
Filipe Ferreira Lopes, "Exploitation of a small 6D force-torque sensor in dexterous robot manipulation skills". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2022
Maxime Pillet, "6D object pose estimation for robot manipulation applications". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2022
Alice Guntli, "Orientation and force control of a robot holding a paint brush". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2022
Léane Donzé, "Path planning for a mobile robot using a handheld augmented reality interface". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2021
Nadia Hadjmbarek, "Control primitives learning for the torque-controlled SOLO quadruped robot". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2021
Johnny Borkhoche, "Learning of non-photorealistic renderings for a caricaturist robot". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2021
Cédric Fontaine, "Subspace learning for robot control applications". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2021
Jean Lesur, "GrowbotHub: harvesting and pollination with 7-axis robot manipulator". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2021
Alexandre Marguet, "GrowbotHub: harvesting and pollination with 7-axis robot manipulator". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2021
Constantin Decaux, "Smartphone interface using augmented reality". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2021
Samuel Bétrisey, "Smartphone interface using augmented reality". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2020-2021
Luis Carvalho, "GUI for robot visual simulation". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2020
Philipp Schuler, "ROS interfacing on Kuka SunriseOS". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2020
Thibault Niederhauser, "Visual perception for autonomous harvesting of root vegetables growing in aeroponics". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2020
Victoria Letertre, "Pick-and-place for the Carousel System". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2020
Jules Pochon, "Hand Detection and Tracking". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2020
Lucas Surmely, "Robot movements interface using augmented reality". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2019
Gauthier Mueller, "Convolutional Neural Networks and Tensor Methods". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2019
Hedi Fendri, "Dictionary learning of movement primitives". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2019
Christine Whiteley, "Interactive visualization of trajectories on a smartphone for a robot learning from demonstration application". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-2018
Dylan Bourgeois, "Pose sketching interface to control a humanoid robot". MSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-2018
Laila El Hamamsy, "Streamline extraction from images for a robotic light painting application". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-2018
Frederick Gusset, "Body-aware assistance for the execution of human-robot collaborative tasks". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017-2018
Florian Standaert, "Mobile interface for the generation of movements with variations in robots". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017
Robin Wütschert, "Smartphone interface for the Baxter robot". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2017
Yuxiang Li, "Robot experiential learning of movement primitives". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2016
Yuxiang Li, "Extracting low-level motion primitives and high-level macro actions". BSc Project, Idiap/EPFL.
2016
Nikol Guljelmovic, "Incremental learning of movement with Trajectory-HMM". Internship, Delft University.
2015-2016
Christian Abbet, "Surface extraction and interactive anamorphic image rendering for a robotized projector". Internship, Idiap/EPFL.
2015-2016
Dominique Tao, "Robot drawing skills acquisition". Internship, Idiap/EPFL.
2008
Adrian Bodenmann, "Hierarchical learning of a movement through Hidden Markov Model". BSc Project, EPFL.
2008
Florent D'halluin, "Incremental learning of gestures through the support of a human teacher". BSc Project, EPFL.
2007
Caroline Nadeau, "Vocal analysis to teach a humanoid robot manipulation skills". BSc Project, EPFL.
2007
Manon Pulvin, "Imitation of legs motion by a humanoid robot through the use of motion sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
2006
Adrien Hitz, "Locomotion control module for the HOAP3 robot". BSc Project, EPFL.
2005
Julien Epiney, "A Humanoid Robot that can paint". BSc Project, EPFL.
2005
Patrick Schoeneich, "Gaze direction detection using inertial sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
2004
Jean-Joel Borter, "Motion data representation using motion sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
2004
Christophe Dubach, "Recognition of trajectories using a stereoscopic vision system". BSc Project, EPFL.
2004
Vincent Hentsch, "Gestures analysis using gyroscopic sensors". BSc Project, EPFL.
2003
Andre Noth, "Development of an auditory systems running on a Pocket-PC". BSc Project, EPFL.
2003
Yves Linder, "Robust visual arms and head tracking running on a Pocket-PC". BSc Project, EPFL.
2003
Cecile Grivaz, "Interactive game of a pair of mini-humanoid robot Robota". BSc Project, EPFL.

Other skills

Languages
French (native),   English (fluent),   German (good command),   Italian (basic communication).
Robots
Franka (Franka Robotics), Baxter (Rethink Robotics), WAM (Barrett Technology Inc.),   LightWeight Arm (Kuka, DLR),   COMAN humanoid robot (IIT),   iCub humanoid robot (IIT),   HOAP-2, HOAP-3 (Fujitsu),   Katana (Neuronics),   DB (Sarcos),   HRP-2 (Kawada Ind., General Robotix),   Robota (Didel).
Programming

I maintain Robotics codes from scratch (RCFS), a collection of source codes to study and test learning and optimization problems in robotics through interactive examples, and PbDlib, a collection of source codes for robot programming by demonstration including various functionalities at the crossroad of statistical learning, dynamical systems, optimal control and Riemannian geometry.