About me

I am a tenured research scientist (chargé de recherche – CR) in INRIA Nancy Grand-Est and LORIA since 2014, working in the project-team LARSEN, directed by Francois Charpillet. 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.

My research is currently focused on robots collaborating with humans. I am interested into 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, acceptance.

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.

Since 2021 I am co-leading the GT7 Humanoid Robotics of GDR Robotique (the French Robotics society).

Since 2022 I am Associate Vice-President of IEEE RAS MAB (Robotics & Automation Society Member Activities Board) and co-chair of the ICRA Steering Committee. I also joined the steering committee of Robotics for Infectious Diseases.

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 am one of the Judges of the ANA Avatar Xprize competition where robots are teleoperated to be avatars!

I am currently involved in the following 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
  • EuRobin (EU, Horizon, PI): network of excellence in robotics and AI — leading the Inria robotics team in the Personal Robotics challenge

Past projects:

  • 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

Recent / Upcoming events: