About me

I am a director of research (directeur de recherche) in the Inria Center of the University of Lorraine (formerly Inria Nancy Grand-Est) and Loria, working in the project-team LARSEN. My research is currently focused on robots collaborating with humans. I am interested in combining machine learning with control to improve the prediction, adaptation, and interaction skills of robots. I strongly believe in user evaluation, i.e., making potential end-user evaluate our technologies, to improve usability, trust, and acceptance.

Before joining Inria, I was a postdoc in the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab of TU Darmstadt (Germany), with Jan Peters, and in the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR) in Paris (France), with Olivier Sigaud and Vincent Padois. I obtained my PhD at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa (Italy) with Francesco Nori and Giorgio Metta in 2011. I defended my French Habilitation to Direct Research (HDR) in November 2022.

I have been serving as Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Social Robotics (2021-..). I have served as Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (2017-2021), for which I received the IEEE RA-L Distinguished Service Award as Outstanding Associate Editor. I was the Program Chair of IEEE-RAS Humanoids 2019 and  IEEE ARSO 2023. I am the General Chair of IEEE-RAS HUMANOIDS 2024.

I served the GDR Robotique (the French Robotics Society) as co-lead of the GT7 Humanoid Robotics (2021-2023); I have been serving IEEE RAS as co-chair of the ICRA Steering Committee (2022-2023) and since 2022 I am Associate Vice-President of the IEEE RAS MAB.

I obtained the Suzanne Zivi Award 2020 for excellence in research and was nominated by Robohub and Women in Robotics in the list of “50 Women in Robotics you need to know about” in 2021. I was one of the Judges of the ANA Avatar Xprize competition where robots were teleoperated to be avatars!

I am currently involved in the following projects:

Past projects:

  • HEAP (EU, CHIST-ERA, PI): machine learning techniques and human-in-the-loop  approach to grasp irregular objects in a heap
  • C-Shift (FR, LUE, PI): to investigate adaptation with cobots and exoskeletons
  • The_Flying_Coworker (FR, ANR): collaboration between humans and flying robots with manipulators for objects handover
  • ASMOA (FR, DGA): prediction and anticipatory control for exoskeletons
  • AnDy (EU, H2020, PI): collaboration between humans and humanoids, exoskeletons and cobots
  • TELEMOVTOP (FR, AMI Numerique Grand Est, PI): to apply our knowledge in teleoperation to robots for asbestos removal
  • EXOTURN (FR, Inria-COVID19, PI): to provide exoskeletons for doctors engaged in the COVID-19 fight in the ICU
  • CoDyCo (EU, FP7, PI): learning and control for physical human-robot interaction

Upcoming events:

Past events: