Ignazio Infantino

About

Ignazio Infantino is a distinguished researcher whose work spans cognitive robotics, computational creativity, and human-robot interaction. Over two decades, he has made significant contributions to the development of intelligent robotic systems capable of learning, creating, and meaningfully engaging with humans. Infantino's early work focused on robotic learning and imitation, with his foundational paper on cognitive frameworks for imitation learning (2006, 53 citations) establishing key principles for how robots can acquire complex behaviors by observing humans. This thread extended to robotic hand posture learning, where he pioneered visual control systems enabling anthropomorphic hands to replicate human movements for manipulation and interaction tasks. His research took a creative turn with groundbreaking explorations of humanoid dance generation and computational creativity, developing systems where robots autonomously choreograph and perform dance (40 citations). Equally notable is his work bridging emotion and cognition, examining how robots and humans can share color-emotion representations to enable richer affective interaction. More recently, Infantino has applied social robotics to healthcare, exploring therapeutic robots in pediatric asthma management (22 citations). Through his museum guide robot CiceRobot and numerous other projects, his cumulative body of work demonstrates a rare ability to connect theoretical cognitive architectures with real-world, human-centered robotic applications.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   A cognitive framework for imitation learning

   53 citations · 2006
2. 2
   An automatic system for humanoid dance creation

   40 citations · 2015
3. 3
   Creation and cognition for humanoid live dancing

   27 citations · 2016
4. 4
   Artwork creation by a cognitive architecture integrating computational creativity and dual process approaches

   25 citations · 2015
5. 5
   Experiences with CiceRobot, a Museum Guide Cognitive Robot

   24 citations · 2005
6. 6
   Binding representational spaces of colors and emotions for creativity

   23 citations · 2013
7. 7
   Social robots and therapeutic adherence: A new challenge in pediatric asthma?

   22 citations · 2020
8. 8
   I Feel Blue: Robots and Humans Sharing Color Representation for Emotional Cognitive Interaction

   21 citations · 2012
9. 9
   A posture sequence learning system for an anthropomorphic robotic hand

   19 citations · 2004
10. 10
    A Cognitive Architecture for Robotic Hand Posture Learning

    17 citations · 2005

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links