I am a Ph.D. student at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in the Autonomous Robotics and Human Machine Systems group guided by Dr. Antonio Franchi and co-supervised by Dr. Paolo Robuffo Giordano.

My research revolves around the concept of multi-robot systems, i.e., how multiple robotic agents can be efficiently used to improve their perception of the environment, to perform complex actions and to accomplish tasks that would otherwise be not feasible. Moreover, I am interested in studying from a control point of view different paradigms of interaction and coordination among the robots, and also between the team of robots and one or more human operators. More informations on our group's research on this topic be found here.

I am also involved in the research on the CyberMotion Simulator, an anthropomorphic robotic manipulator used as a motion simulator. In comparison to other ad hoc structures, this solution offers a good tradeoff between developing/maintenance costs and motion capabilities. My research on this project is mainly focused development of ad hoc control and motion cueing algorithms to exploit the capabilities of the simulator More informations on the CyberMotion Simulator can be found here.

For other informations, please visit our group webpage. Check also the youtube channel with our videos.

CyberMotion Simulator and WABS

The CyberMotion Simulator represents a novel approach to motion simulation, based on an anthropomorphic industrial manipulator. This platform offers a larger workspace in comparison to classical hexapod structures (Stewart platforms) while keeping costs limited. The complete motion simulation framework developed for the CyberMotion simulator includes:

1. ad hoc motion cueing algorithm, that translates the motion primitives of a simulated vehicle in a trajectory for the robot;
2. inverse kinematics solution to provide the commands to the robot.

In order to futher extend the motion capabilities of the simulator and increase the immersion in the virtual environment, a novel actuated cabin was developed. This new cabin is endowed with a multiple kinematic behavior, and can produce rotation, translations and a combination of the two.
With the WABS project, the aim is to integrate this framework with human motion perception models, thus producing a perception-based motion simulation.

Mobile Robots and Human Interaction

In the Human/Mobile-Robots Interaction project we consider the problem of interfacing multi-robots systems and human operators. The goal, is to combine humans superior cognitive and decisional skills with the advantages of multi-robot systems, e.g., higher performance in simultaneous spatial coverage, robustness against single point failures and capability to achieve complex tasks through the cooperation of many agents. However, as the system to be controlled grows and become more complex, it becomes harder for a human operator to intrerface with it.
We consider the scenario in which the robots possess some autonomy, e.g. they are able to take on a desired formation, while a human operator is allowed to command some collective behavior of the swarm. A bilateral teleoperation approach is used to provide haptic feedback to the user and increase his/her awareness of the system.

Within this scenario, we developed a bilateral teleoperation approach for multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The UAVs autonomously realize and keep a desired formation using bearing information only, which can be retrieved by using onboard cameras. On the other hand, the human operator an control some collective charachteristic of the formation, e.g. the position of its center of mass or the size of the formation. Force feedbacks depending on the trnslational and shrinking/expanding errors are also fed back to the user to increase his/her situational awareness

Education