Research Overview on the iCub Humanoid Robot for Locomotion, Physical Interaction, Avatars and Flight Applications

This talk overviews the research outcomes of the Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence lab at the Italian Institute of Technology. In particular, the lab is focusing on three main research axes using the iCub humanoid robot: avatar systems, physical human-robot interaction, and aerial humanoid robotics, a new branch of Robotics aiming at flying humanoid robots. For this, the talk highlights the fundamental approaches used in control, estimation, planning, supervised and reinforcement learning that lay the basis for humanoid robot motion and physical interaction intelligence. Furthermore, the talk highlights how motion and interaction intelligence can be leveraged to design the next generation of humanoid robots with a degree of embodied AI.