Research

In our vision of people-oriented and personalized robotics, robots should be increasingly deployed in the wild with inexperienced users. To make this happen, we focus our research efforts on social perception and intuitive control, and deploy our systems in specific scenarios like assistive and educational robotics.

Socially Aware Robotics

We develop lightweight perception algorithms, built on machine-learning-based sensor fusion, that let robots understand where people are and whether they want to interact with the robot.

Key publications

• Self-Supervised Prediction of the Intention to Interact with a Service Robot
• Sixth-Sense: Self-Supervised Learning of Spatial Awareness of Humans from a Planar Lidar

Funding

• SOCIALROB-AWARE — Eurostars (2026–2029)
• SERMAS — Horizon EU (2022–2025)

Assistive Robotics

We design autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, such as hand exoskeletons and powered wheelchairs, that support people with mobility needs in real-world environments.

Key publications

• A mirror therapy system using virtual reality and an actuated exoskeleton for the recovery of hand motor impairments: a study of acceptability, usability, and embodiment
• Towards Real-World Applications with an Autonomous Powered Wheelchair

Funding

• GennyZero+ — Innosuisse (2026–2028)
• VRHEM — Innosuisse (2020–2022)

Intuitive Robot Control

We study how robots can be easily deployed by everyone, favoring intuitive, efficient, and safe interactions.

Key publications

• Imitation Learning-based Direct Visual Servoing using the Large Projection Formulation
• Enhanced Kinematic Control of Robots Via Large Projection-Based Task Prioritization

Child-Robot Interaction

We investigate how robots can engage, support, and be trusted by children in real educational settings, where robots must handle improvised interactions.

Key publications

• A Wizard for Kids: A Platform for Improvised Child–Robot Interactions
• Cuteness Under the Skin: Exploring Child-Robot Interaction in Classrooms

Funding

• COHRI — Hasler Foundation (2026–2027)