Research Themes

Caption: Inverse Kinematics learning with TD-learning, Copyright: Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero.
Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning is one of the key frameworks to enable open-ended learning, and it is the prime technique for decision making, optimal control and autonomous systems. Reinforcement learning techniques are at the core of systems such as AlphaGo and other board games and eSports bots developed by OpenAI and Deepmind. However, what it is often forgotten is that current reinforcement learning algorithms are particularly slow and computationally expensive to train and mostly unsuitable for online learning in embodied autonomous and assistive systems. Thus, we investigate how to make these algorithms faster and more efficient to a point in which they could be deployed in real autonomous intelligent systems and assistive systems.

Caption: Visuo-Haptic Object Recognition systems. Copyright Sibel Toprak
Bio-Inspired Perceptual Systems

Perception systems are crucial for the application of any learning algorithm to autonomous systems and automation. For the application of robot reaching and grasping, including smart prosthetics, we develop bio-inspired perceptual systems for haptic and vision, which would provide more suitable input to different stages of the autonomous learning model.

Scientific Projects

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ROMEO
Robot-MEdiated Object manipulation with haptic feedback

01 Apr 2024 » 31 Mar 2027

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M-RoCK
Human-Machine Interaction Modeling for Continuous Improvement of Robot Behavior

01 Aug 2021 » 31 Jul 2024

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S-FACTOR
Facilitation Robotics for Teams Foundational Research on Group Processes in Human-Robot Ensembles with Social Robots

01 Jan 2021 » 31 Dec 2023

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INSOR
What Social Robots Can and Should Do

01 Jul 2016 » 01 Jun 2021

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RobotDoC
Robotics for Development of Cognition

01 Sep 2009 » 01 Sep 2014

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IRMA
Autonomous Mobile Robot Research

01 Jul 2005 » 01 Dec 2009

Other Projects

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DAISEC
European Digital Innovation Hub for AI and Cybersecurity (DAISEC)

01 Jan 2023 » 31 Dec 2025

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Grape Variety Identification

01 Mar 2008 » 01 Jul 2008

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Crea Conciencia

01 Mar 2005 » 01 May 2008

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Teletón Project

01 Mar 2004 » 01 Dec 2007