Advanced and Humanoid Robotics
The goal of the “advanced and humanoid robotics” curriculum is to study the design, realization, programming and control of anthropomorphic and legged robots. Students will work at the forefront of mechatronics and computer science research jointly covering the full development cycle from software to mechanical design and from machine learning to realization of sensors, actuators and electronics. We address the development of the technologies for the next generation of robots for sensing, actuation and computation. The goal is to develop robots that can adaptively interact with their environment, learn from their mistakes, and succeed in performing safely and reliably in real-world environments. Foreseen applications for anthropomorphic robots range from real-world practical scenarios -e.g., at home, as personal assistants- to industry as co-workers, to natural or man-made disaster scenarios. Humanoid robot software deals with vision, audition and tactile perception as well as the ability to look, reach and manipulate the world while walking freely to reach their targets, interacting naturally with the environment and their human “teachers”.
The PhD themes in this curriculum are offered by research lines that are part of the Robotics research domain and whose laboratories are located in Genova at the Center for Convergent Technologies and Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). IIT’s laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art robotic platforms which include collaborative robots (e.g. Panda from Franka Emika, Kuka LBR iiwa), fully-fledged humanoid robots (e.g. iCub, R1, Walkman) as well as legged systems (e.g. CENTAURO, HyQ).
