Robot Learning & Interaction

News | Jobs | Team | Grants

The Robot Learning & Interaction group focuses on human-centered robotics applications in which the robots can acquire new skills from only few demonstrations and interactions.

It requires the development of models that can exploit the structure and geometry of the acquired data in an efficient way, the development of optimal control techniques that can exploit the learned task variations and coordination patterns, and the development of intuitive interfaces to acquire meaningful demonstrations.

The developed approaches can be applied to a wide range of manipulation skills, with robots that are either close to us (assistive and industrial robots), parts of us (prosthetics and exoskeletons), or far away from us (teleoperation).

Meet Baxter, Idiap’s new robot

research — Sep 04, 2014

Idiap pursues its development with new scientific research groups. Recently, the institute has acquired an American robot worth CHF 30’000.-. This investment opens new perspectives, in particular thanks to the interconnection between the different domains of competencies developed in Martigny.

Idiap Video amongst the 10 finalists of the Rethink Robotics Video Challenge

research — Dec 15, 2015

In the summer of 2015, Rethink Robotics, the worldwide leader in collaborative robotics research and education launched the Rethink Robotics Video Challenge. The Challenge was created to highlight the amazing work being done by the research and education community with the Baxter robot. The Challenge attracted more than 90 total entries from 19 countries around the globe. The video of Dr. Sylvain Calinon’s Robot Learning & Interaction group of the Idiap Research Institute in Martigny was selected amongst the 10 finalists.

Idiap's DexROV project featured in RTS's CQFD radio show today

research — Feb 24, 2016

DexROV is a robot of a special kind. This underwater robot is destined to take the place of human divers for tasks in very deep water (up to 1’300 meters under the sea). The Idiap Research Institute in Martigny is in charge of developing the algorithms that will help teleoperating the two arms of this robot.

Canal9 visits the Baxter robot at Idiap

research — Apr 14, 2016

Dr. Sylvain Calinon, head of Idiap’s Robot Learning & Interaction group, receives Romain Boisset, reporter for the Canap9 TV channel. They demonstrate how Idiap’s Baxter robot learns by demonstration.

Robot graffiti artist is the Banksy of the mechanical world

research — Nov 07, 2016

Best not left alone on the back of a bus

More News

Group Job Openings

Our group is regularly posting job openings ranging from internships to researcher positions. To check the opportunities currently available or to submit a speculative applications use the link below.Our group is regularly posting job openings ranging from internships to researcher positions. To check the opportunities currently available or to submit a speculative applications use the link below.