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About

Silvio Traversaro is a leading robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of humanoid robot control, whole-body dynamics, and human-robot interaction. Based at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), he has made foundational contributions to the field of legged and flying humanoid robotics, with a particular focus on force-based control strategies and real-time locomotion planning. Traversaro's most influential work includes pioneering whole-body control implementations on the iCub platform, where force regulation across rigid contacts enables stable posture and highly dynamic balancing — research that has attracted over 100 citations. His contributions extend to the ambitious iCub3 avatar system, which enables full human embodiment of humanoid robots remotely, and to nonlinear centroidal model predictive control for adaptive locomotion. Particularly striking is his early exploration of flying humanoid robots — machines capable of flight, manipulation, and contact locomotion — a nascent but transformative direction in robotics. Beyond control theory, Traversaro has contributed practical infrastructure for the community, including simulation tools like Gym-Ignition and YARP-based Gazebo plugins, lowering the barrier for reproducible robotics research. His broad portfolio, spanning the EU-funded CoDyCo project to impact-aware motion control, reflects both theoretical depth and real-world engineering impact.