Bio:

Ludovic Righetti studied at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he received an Diploma (eq. MSc) in Computer Sciences in 2004 and a Doctorate in Science (eq. PhD) in Nov. 2008. His doctoral thesis (made under the supervision of Prof. Auke Ijspeert) was awarded the 2010 Georges Giralt PhD Award given by the European Robotics Research Network for the best robotics thesis in Europe. His research interests include robot control, nonlinear dynamical systems and complex systems in general, animal locomotion and computational neurosciences.

Contact Informations:

Ronald Tutor Hall, RTH-417
3710 S. Mc.Clintock Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90089

tel: (213) 740 6717

Recent Publications:

(Please also refer to the infoscience page for publications with my colleagues at EPFL and publications prior 2010)

Righetti, L.;Mistry, M.;Buchli, j.;Schaal, S. (2011). Inverse dynamics control of floating-base robots with external contraints: an unified view, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
[Keywords: inverse control, floating base, constraints, projection-based control]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Kalakrishnan, M.;Righetti, L.;Pastor, P.;Schaal, S. (2011). Learning force control policies for compliant manipulation, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2011).
[Keywords: movement primitives, reinforcement learning, pi2, skill learning, force control]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Pastor, P.;Righetti, L.;Kalakrishnan, M.;Schaal, S. (2011). Online movement adaptation based on previous sensor experiences, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2011).
[Keywords: best overall paper award, movement primitives, force control, associative memeory, perception-action coupling]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Righetti, L.; Buchli, J.; Mistry, M.; Schaal, S. (2011). Control of legged robots with optimal distribution of contact forces , 2011 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, pp.318 - 324.
[Keywords: inverse dynamics, contact forces]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Stulp, F.;Theodorou, E.;Kalakrishnan, M.;Pastor, P.;Righetti, L.;Schaal, S. (2011). Learning motion primitive goals for robust manipulation, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2011).
[Keywords: movement primitives, reinforcement learning, pi2, skill learning]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Mistry, M. and Righetti, L. (2011). Operational Space Control of Constrained and Underactuated Systems, Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems.
[Keywords: operational space, underactuation, constraints, nonlinear control]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Degallier, S.; Righetti, L.; Gay, S.; Ijspeert, A. (2011). Toward simple control for complex, autonomous robotic applications: combining discrete and rhythmic motor primitives , Autonomous Robots.
[Keywords: motor primitives; dynamical systems]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Righetti, L.;Buchli, j.;Mistry, M.;Schaal, S. (2010). Inverse dynamics with optimal distribution of ground reaction forces for legged robots, Proceedings of the international conference on climbing and walking robots (CLAWAR) 2010.
[Keywords: inverse dynamics control, floating base, force control]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Gregg, R. D.;Righetti, L.;Buchli, J.;Schaal, S. (2010). Constrained accelerations for controlled geometric reduction: Sagittal-plane decoupling for bipedal locomotion, Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2010 10th IEEE-RAS International Conference on, pp.1-7.
[Keywords: asymptotic stability humanoid robots legged locomotion matrix inversion matrix multiplication robot dynamics 16-dof humanoid 3d compass-gait biped acceleration-based controller asymptotically stable 3d bipedal dynamic walking bipedal locomotion ]
[Detail] [BibTeX] [PDF]

Awards and Grants:

• Overall Best Paper Award at IROS11 (September 2011) for the paper Online movement adaptation based on previous sensor experiences by P. Pastor, L. Righetti, M. Kalakrishnan and S. Schaal (out of 2459 submitted / 790 accepted papers)
• Finalist for the Best Student Paper Award at IROS11 (September 2011) for the paper Online movement adaptation based on previous sensor experiences by P. Pastor, L. Righetti, M. Kalakrishnan and S. Schaal
• Georges Giralt PhD Award (March 2010) for the best PhD thesis in Europe in the field of robotics. The award is given by the European Robotics Research Network (EURON).
• Young Researcher Scholarship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (March 2009)
• Finalist for the Best Student Paper Award at ICRA06 The paper Programmable Central Pattern Generators: an application to biped locomotion control was one of the 3 finalists for the Best Student Paper Award at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2006.
• Jean Landry Award (April 2004) Awards an original and personal scientific work, obtained for the master thesis Control and Synchronization with Nonlinear Dynamical Systems for an application to Humanoid Robotics.

PhD Thesis:

A copy of my PhD thesis is available on the EPFL's library website