Contents
1. Introduction
Our research is inspired by how humans build intelligence through physical interaction. We are guided by neuroscientific concepts like the peripersonal space and body schema representations, which evidence shows are central for humans to learn by experiencing the world through their bodies.
Despite incredible advancements in vision-language-action systems, robots today still lack the ability to truly generalize to complex environments.
We believe that true generalization requires grounding in sensorimotor experience, where contact is treated not as failure but as a structured source of information, and where body morphology guides the selection of robust, adaptable strategies for interacting with the environment.
2. Publications
2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation [ICRA]
Atlanta, Georgia, USA, May 19-23
GenTact Toolbox: A Computational Design Pipeline to Procedurally Generate Context-Driven 3D Printed Whole-Body Artificial Skins [PDF] [BIB]
Carson Kohlbrenner, Caleb Escobedo, S. Sandra Bae, Alexander Dickhans, Alessandro Roncone
2024 2nd NeurIPS Workshop on Touch Processing: From Data to Knowledge
Vancouver, Canada, December 15
A Machine Learning Approach to Contact Localization in Variable Density Three-Dimensional Tactile Artificial Skin [PDF] [BIB]
Carson Kohlbrenner, Mitchell Murray, Yutong Zhang, Caleb Escobedo, Thomas Dunnington, Nolan Stevenson, Nikolaus Correll, Alessandro Roncone
2024 IEEE Transactions on Robotics [T-RO]
HARMONIOUS – Human-Like Reactive Motion Control and Multimodal Perception for Humanoid Robots [PDF] [BIB]
Jakub Rozlivek, Alessandro Roncone, Ugo Pattacini, and Matej Hoffmann
2024 40th Anniversary of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation [ICRA@40]
Rotterdam, Netherlands, September 23-26
Towards Super-Nominal Payload Handling: Inverse Dynamics Analysis for Multi-Skill Robotic Manipulation [PDF] [BIB]
Anuj Pasricha and Alessandro Roncone
2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 14-18
Exploring How Non-Prehensile Manipulation Expands Capability in Robots Experiencing Multi-Joint Failure [PDF] [BIB]
Gilberto Briscoe-Martinez, Anuj Pasricha, Ava Abderezaei, Santosh Chaganti, Sarath Chandra Vajrala, Sri Kanth Popuri, and Alessandro Roncone
2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 14-18
Clutter-Aware Spill-Free Liquid Transport via Learned Dynamics [PDF] [BIB]
Ava Abderezaei, Anuj Pasricha, Alex Klausenstock, Alessandro Roncone
2024 American Control Conference [ACC]
Toronto, Canada, July 10-12
ROMA-iQSS: An Objective Alignment Approach via State-Based Value Learning and ROund-Robin Multi-Agent Scheduling [PDF] [BIB]
Chi-Hui Lin, Joewie J. Koh, Alessandro Roncone, Lijun Chen
Oral presentation
2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation [ICRA]
Yokohama, Japan, May 13-17
The Virtues of Laziness: Multi-Query Kinodynamic Motion Planning with Lazy Methods [PDF] [BIB]
Anuj Pasricha, Alessandro Roncone
2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Detroit, MI, USA, Oct 1-5
CAT-RRT: Motion Planning that Admits Contact One Linke at a Time [PDF] [BIB]
Nataliya Nechyporenko, Caleb Escobedo, Shreyas Kadekodi, Alessandro Roncone
2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Kyoto, Japan, October 23-27
A Framework for the Systematic Evaluation of Obstacle Avoidance and Object-Aware Controllers [PDF] [BIB]
Caleb Escobedo, Nataliya Nechyporenko, Shreyas Kadekodi, Alessandro Roncone
2022 IEEE Robotics Automation and Letters [RA-L] + ICRA
Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A., May 23-27
PokeRRT: Poking as a Skill and Failure Recovery Tactic for Planar Non-Prehensile Manipulation [PDF] [BIB]
Anuj Pasricha, Yi-Shiuan Tung, Bradley Hayes, Alessandro Roncone
2022 MIT Press
Introduction to Autonomous Robots: Mechanisms, Sensors, Actuators, and Algorithms
Nikolaus Correll, Bradley Hayes, Christoffer Heckman and Alessandro Roncone
2022 Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
Elsevier
Real-Time Motion Control of Robotic Manipulators for Safe Human-Robot Coexistence [PDF] [BIB]
Kelly Merckaert, Bryan Convens, Chi-ju Wu, Alessandro Roncone, Marco M Nicotra, and Bram Vanderborght
2021 IROS 2021 Workshop on Impact-Aware Robotics
Prague, Czech Republic, October 1
PokeRRT: A Kinodynamic Planning Approach for Poking Manipulation [PDF] [BIB]
Anuj Pasricha, Yi-Shiuan Tung, Bradley Hayes, Alessandro Roncone
2021 Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
Online and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, November 2021
The World of an Octopus: How Reporting Bias Influences a Language Model’s Perception of Color [PDF] [BIB]
Cory Paik, Stéphane Aroca-Ouellette, Alessandro Roncone, Katharina Kann
2021 4th Workshop on Proximity Perception in Robotics at IROS 2021
Prague, Czech Republic, September 27
Volumetric Data Fusion of External Depth and Onboard Proximity Data For Occluded Space Reduction [PDF] [BIB]
Matthew Strong, Caleb Escobedo, Alessandro Roncone
2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Prague, Czech Republic, September 27-October 1
Contact Anticipation for Physical Human-Robot Interaction with Robotic Manipulators using Onboard Proximity Sensors [PDF] [BIB]
Caleb Escobedo, Matthew Strong, Mary West, Ander Aramburu, Alessandro Roncone
2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Prague, Czech Republic, September 27-October 1
Self-Contained Kinematic Calibration of a Novel Whole-Body Artificial Skin for Human-Robot Collaboration [PDF] [BIB]
Kandai Watanabe, Matthew Strong, Mary West, Caleb Escobedo, Ander Aramburu, Krishna Chaitanya Kodur, Alessandro Roncone
2021 Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics
Online, August 1-6
PROST: Physical Reasoning of Objects through Space and Time [PDF] [BIB]
Stéphane Aroca-Ouellette, Cory Paik, Alessandro Roncone, and Katharina Kann
2021 University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, CO, U.S.A.
Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning as Applied to Autonomous Systems
Guohui Ding
PhD dissertation
2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A., October 25-29
Cooperative Control of Mobile Robots with Stackelberg Learning [PDF] [BIB]
Joewie J. Koh*, Guohui Ding*, Christoffer Heckman, Lijun Chen, Alessandro Roncone
2020 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems [AAMAS]
Auckland, New Zealand, May 9-13
Distributed Reinforcement Learning for Cooperative Multi-Robot Object Manipulation [PDF] [BIB]
Guohui Ding*, Joewie J. Koh*, Kelly Merckaert, Bram Vanderborght, Marco M. Nicotra, Christoffer Heckman, Alessandro Roncone, Lijun Chen
Extended abstract
2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction [HRI]
Chicago, IL, U.S.A., March 5-8
Compact Real-time avoidance on a Humanoid Robot for Human-Robot interaction [PDF] [BIB]
Dong Hai Phuong Nguyen, Matej Hoffmann, Alessandro Roncone, Ugo Pattacini, and Giorgio Metta
2017 AAAI Matters
Learning Peripersonal Space Representation in a Humanoid Robot with Artificial Skin [PDF] [BIB]
Alessandro Roncone
2016 PLOS ONE
Peripersonal Space and Margin of Safety around the Body: Learning Visuo-tactile Associations in a Humanoid Robot with Artificial Skin [PDF] [BIB]
Alessandro Roncone, Matej Hoffmann, Ugo Pattacini, Luciano Fadiga, and Giorgio Metta
2016 Robotics: Science and Systems [RSS]
Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A., June 18-22
A Cartesian 6-DoF Gaze Controller for Humanoid Robots [PDF] [BIB]
Alessandro Roncone, Ugo Pattacini, Giorgio Metta, and Lorenzo Natale
2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]
Hamburg, Germany, September 28-October 2
Learning peripersonal space representation through artificial skin for avoidance and reaching with whole body surface [PDF] [BIB]
Alessandro Roncone, Matej Hoffmann, Ugo Pattacini, and Giorgio Metta
2015 Ph.D. Thesis
University of Genoa and Italian Institute of Technology
Expanding Sensorimotor capabilities of Humanoid Robots through Multisensory Integration - a study on the implementation of Peripersonal Space on the iCub [PDF] [BIB]
Alessandro Roncone
2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots
Madrid, Spain, November 18-20
Gaze Stabilization for Humanoid Robots: A Comprehensive Framework [PDF] [BIB]
Alessandro Roncone, Ugo Pattacini, Giorgio Metta, and Lorenzo Natale
2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots
Madrid, Spain, November 18-20
3D Stereo Estimation and Fully Automated Learning of Eye-Hand Coordination in Humanoid Robots [PDF] [BIB]
Sean Ryan Fanello, Ugo Pattacini, Ilaria Gori, Vadim Tikhanoff, Marco Randazzo, Alessandro Roncone, Francesca Odone, and Giorgio Metta
2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation [ICRA]
Hong Kong, China, May 31-June 7