I am a director of research (directeur de recherche) in 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 Habilitation (HDR) on 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 Program Chair of IEEE-RAS Humanoids 2019 and am Program Chair of 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 served IEEE RAS as co-chair of co-chair of the ICRA Steering Committee (2022-2023) and since 2022 I am Associate Vice-President of 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:
- PEPR O2R “Robotique Organique” – Action Structurante AS3 “Decision, Learning and Social Interaction” (FR, ANR, coord.)
- EuROBIN (EU, Horizon, PI): network of excellence in robotics and AI – leading the Inria robotics team in the Personal Robotics challenge
- EXOSIM (FR, LUE, PI): to investigate active exoskeletons to support the hospital staff, collaboration with CHRU Nancy
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:
- IROS 2023 – Keynote!
- Wearacon 2023
- Humanoids 2023
Past events:
- Invited talk at ICRA 2020 Workshop on Human-Robot Handovers
- Invited talk at RSS 2020 Workshop on Closing the academia to real-world gap in service robotics
- Invited talk at IROS 2020 Workshop on Ergonomic Physical Human-Robot Collaboration
- Invited talk at Journée GT5 Perception et interaction homme-robot 2020
- Panelist at the HRI Pioneers Workshop 2021 – Academic Panel
- Invited seminar at Queen Mary University (UK)
- Panelist at Cercle Entreprise et Santé – 6eme UX Forum Exosquelettes
- Speaking at European Robotics Forum 2021
- Speaker at the IEEE Women In Engineering International Leadership Conference
- Invited lecture at University of Naples Federico II
- Invited seminar at GV lab at University of Tokyo
- Invited talk at ICRA 2021 Workshop on Bridging the Gap between Data-driven and Analytical Physics-based Grasping and Manipulation II
- Plenary lecture at Journée FéDéV 2021 – Université Paris Saclay
- Invited talk at HUMANOIDS 202o Workshop Towards Physical-social human-robot interaction
- Invited talk at HUMANOIDS 202o Workshop on Talos
- Invited talk at IROS 2021 Workshop on Human-like Behavior and Cognition in Robots
- Invited talk at Workshop HRI@Montpellier “AI for improving machine interactions with humans and the environment” at LIRMM
- Speaker at FUTUROBOT 2021 (Percez les secrets de la robotique – Discover the secrets of robotics) at Centre Prouvé – Nancy
- Invited talk at ICRA 2022 Workshop on Legged Robots
- I have been appointed as co-chair of the ICRA Steering Committee
- I will be Area Chair for CORL 2022
- Invited talk at the RSS 2022 Workshop on “Toward Robot Avatars: Perspectives on the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Competition”
- Journées Scientifiques Inria 2023 (JSI 2023)
- ICRA 2023 Workshop Toward Robot Avatars