Alberto Rigo
Papers
6
Total Citations
133
H-Index
5
About
Alberto Rigo is a pioneering roboticist whose work spans two transformative frontiers: insect-scale microrobots and whole-body loco-manipulation for legged robots. His most celebrated contribution is the development of SMALLBug, a 30-milligram crawling robot driven by a high-frequency flexible shape-memory alloy (SMA) microactuator—the smallest electrically-powered legged robot of its kind, with 49 citations. Building on this, he created SMARTI, a 60-milligram steerable robot that achieves differential steering via dual SMA actuators, demonstrating controlled path following at the milligram scale (40 citations). At the opposite end of the size spectrum, Rigo has made major advances in quadrupedal manipulation. His hierarchical model predictive control framework enables non-prehensile loco-manipulation—such as planar pushing of large objects—without an articulated arm (25 citations). More recently, his co-optimization of design and control for dynamic loco-manipulation with a robotic arm on a quadruped robot (2024) and his work on whole-body control for heavy-object manipulation (2024) are setting new standards for practical, industrial-grade legged robotics. Rigo’s research uniquely bridges extreme miniaturization and complex whole-body interaction, earning him recognition as a leading voice in both microrobotics and loco-manipulation.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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