Alice M. Agogino

About

Alice M. Agogino is a pioneering robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of tensegrity robotics, soft robotics, and machine learning-driven control systems. She is perhaps best known for her foundational contributions to tensegrity robot design, most notably through the SUPERball project — a collaborative effort with NASA Ames Research Center's Intelligent Robotics Group that produced one of the first fully untethered tensegrity robots designed for planetary exploration. This landmark work has garnered over 183 citations and inspired a generation of subsequent research into compliant, lightweight robotic platforms capable of rolling and hopping locomotion across challenging terrain. Agogino's research portfolio spans the full arc of modern robotics: from mechanical design and actuation strategies in soft spherical tensegrity systems to sophisticated reinforcement learning algorithms for high-precision robotic assembly. Her 2019 work integrating force/torque information into reinforcement learning for industrial manipulation tasks has accumulated 177 citations, reflecting its significant practical impact. Her contributions to deep reinforcement learning for deformable object assembly further demonstrate her ability to bridge theoretical rigor with real-world engineering challenges. Collectively, her body of work — totaling hundreds of citations across a decade — has meaningfully advanced both space exploration robotics and autonomous manufacturing, establishing her as a leading voice in adaptive, bio-inspired robotic systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   System design and locomotion of SUPERball, an untethered tensegrity robot

   183 citations · 2015
2. 2
   Reinforcement Learning on Variable Impedance Controller for High-Precision Robotic Assembly

   177 citations · 2019
3. 3
   Soft Spherical Tensegrity Robot Design Using Rod-Centered Actuation and Control

   101 citations · 2017
4. 4
   Deep Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Assembly of Mixed Deformable and Rigid Objects

   94 citations · 2018
5. 5
   Rolling Locomotion of Cable-Driven Soft Spherical Tensegrity Robots

   89 citations · 2020
6. 6
   Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion

   71 citations · 2014
7. 7
   Hopping and rolling locomotion with spherical tensegrity robots

   66 citations · 2016
8. 8
   Robust learning of tensegrity robot control for locomotion through form-finding

   49 citations · 2015
9. 9
   SUPERball: Exploring Tensegrities for Planetary Probes

   42 citations · 2014
10. 10
    Mechanism Design and Simulation of the ULTRA Spine: A Tensegrity Robot

    41 citations · 2015

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links