Mario Selvaggio
About me
I am an assistant professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Naples Federico II, a position I have held since October 2023. I am member of the PRISMA Lab and co-founder of the spinoff companies BeyondShape and Herobots. I received a Ph.D. degree in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering in April 2020, under the supervision of Prof. Bruno Siciliano. I previously obtained a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering in January 2013 and March 2015, respectively.
My research interests center on human–robot interaction and robotic dynamic manipulation, with particular emphasis on control and autonomy.
My research career includes a one-year internship at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in 2016 (dept. of Advanced Robotics) visiting research periods with the IRISA, INRIA Rennes (Equipe de Recherche Lagadic and Rainbow team) from November to December 2017 and from October to December 2018, respectively, and a visiting appointment at the department of Mechanical Engineering at University of California Santa Barbara from June to December 2019.
If you are interested in working or collaborating with me, don't hesitate to reach out!
Recent News
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04 Mar 2026 The paper "An optimization-based approach to the HyRMan manipulator’s inverse kinematics" has been accepted at 2026 20th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics. Kudos to my co-authors
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02 Mar 2026 The paper "Robotics and Robots: A Paradigm-based MOOC Curriculum for Interdisciplinary Robotics Education" has been accepted at 17th International Conference on Robotics in Education. Kudos to my co-authors
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23 Dic 2025 The survey paper "Shared Control/Autonomy: A Historical Perspective, Current Trends, and the Role of Generative AI" is online! Check it out at TechRxiv
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01 Dic 2025 The paper "Multi-robot nonlinear model predictive control for persistent monitoring" has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Control System Technology. Kudos to all my co-authors
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27 Nov 2025 The FIS3 project proposal ROMOTIVE was funded! Thanks to all my collaborators
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01 Jul 2025 I have started my associate editor service for the Transactions on Robotics
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27 Jan 2025 One paper accepted for presentation at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Congrats to all my co-authors
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01 Oct 2024 One paper accepted for presentation at the 2024 International Symposium of Robotics Research. Congrats to all my co-authors
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05 Apr 2024 Two papers accepted for presentation at the 2024 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Kudos to all my co-authors
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12 Mar 2024 I am co-organizing the workshop Mechanisms for Mapping Human Input to Robots: From Robot Learning to Shared Control/Autonomy to be held at the Robotics: Science and Systems 2024
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25 Jan 2024 The paper "Robotics goes PRISMA" has been accepted for publication in the special issue: The 40th Anniversary of ROBOTICA. Kudos to all my co-authors
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25 Jan 2024 The paper "Modelling and identification methods for simulation of cable-suspended dual-arm robotic systems" has been accepted for publication in the Robotics and Autonomous Systems journal. Kudos to all my co-authors
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30 Sep 2023 I am presenting the paper "A non-prehensile object transportation framework with adaptive tilting based on quadratic programming" to the next 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Detroit
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18 Sep 2023 The paper "Model-predictive control for non-prehensile tray-based object transportation" was accepted for presentation at the fifth National Conference on Robotics and Intelligent Machines
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10 Sep 2023 Serving as associate editor for the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
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01 Aug 2023 Serving as associate editor for the 21th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics
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16 Jun 2023 The paper "Shared-Control Teleoperation Paradigms on a Soft Growing Robot Manipulator" has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems. Congrats to my co-autors
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01 Jun 2023 The paper "Visual and Haptic Cues for Human-Robot Handover" has been accepted for publication in the 2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). Congrats to Marco, who led the work
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26 May 2023 The video of my recently accepted TCST article got featured in the IEEE Spectrum - Video friday weekly selection of awesome robot videos
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13 Apr 2023 The paper "Non-prehensile object transportation via model predictive non-sliding manipulation control" has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. Kudos to my co-authors
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07 Apr 2023 The paper "A non-prehensile object transportation framework with adaptive tilting based on quadratic programming" has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. Kudos to my co-authors
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13 Feb 2023 I am organizing a special session titled "Visual and Haptic Cues for Physical Human-Robot Interaction and Co-Manipulation" at the 2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)
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21 Dec 2022 The workshop proposal "Embracing contacts: making robots physically interact with our world" has been accepted at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Congrats to my co-organizers
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26 Sep 2022 The paper "Robotic non-prehensile object transportation" has been accepted at the 4th Italian Conference for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. Kudos to my co-authors
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30 Jun 2022 The paper "Task-Oriented Contact Optimization for Pushing Manipulation with Mobile Robots" has been accepted at the 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Kudos to my co-authors
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03 Jun 2022 I have obtained the National Scientific Habilitation (ASN)
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16 Mar 2022 The paper "Dual-arm object transportation via model predictive control and external disturbance estimation" has been accepted at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering. Congrats to my co-authors
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16 Mar 2022 The paper "Effects of Design Parameters on the Tip Steering Capabilities of Fabric Pneumatic Artificial Muscle-actuated Soft Growing Robots" has been accepted at the 2022 International Joint Conference on Mechanics, Design Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing. Congrats to my co-authors
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31 Jan 2022 The paper "Nonprehensile object transportation with a legged manipulator" has been accepted at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Congrats to my co-authors
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21 Dec 2021 The workshop proposal "Shared Autonomy in Physical Human-Robot Interaction: Adaptability and Trust" has been accepted at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Kudos to my co-organizers
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06 Sep 2021 The paper "A hardware-in-the-loop simulator for physical human-aerial manipulator cooperation" and the workshop proposal "Design, Learning, and Control for Safe Human-Robot Collaboration" have been accepted at the 20th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics. Kudos to my co-authors and co-organizers
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21 Sep 2021 Serving as associate editor for the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in the area of Medical and Rehabilitation Robotics
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20 Sep 2021 Finalist of the Italian Chapter Robotics and Automation Society "Fabrizio Flacco" Young Author Best Paper Award
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14 Sep 2021 I will be co-chairing the "Shared Autonomy for Physical Human-Robot Interaction" session at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
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07 Sep 2021 The special issue "Advanced Technologies for Autonomous Surgical Robotics" is open for submission
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24 Aug 2021 Serving as associate editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
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19 Jul 2021 The paper "Autonomy in Physical Human-Robot Interaction: A Brief Survey" has been accepted for publication in RA-L and for presentation at the 2021 IROS. Kudos to all my co-authors
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11 Jun 2021 The video of my recently accepted T-RO article got featured in the IEEE Spectrum - Video friday weekly selection of awesome robot videos
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28 May 2021 The paper "A Shared-control Teleoperation Architecture for Nonprehensile Object Transportation" has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Robotics. Congrats to all my co-authors
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21 May 2021 Serving as associate editor for the 20th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics
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21 Dec 2020 The special issue "Shared Autonomy for Physical Human-Robot Interaction" has been accepted to RA-L. I will be serving as guest associate editor. Congrats to my co-organizers
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31 Jul 2020 The paper "The MUSHA Hand II: A Multi-Functional Hand for Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery" has been accepted for publication in the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Congrats to all my co-authors
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16 Apr 2020 I successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis
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22 Jan 2020 Two papers accepted for publication in the 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Congratulations to all my co-authors
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21 Dec 2019 The workshop "Shared autonomy: learning and control" has been accepted to the 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Congratulations to all my co-organizers
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20 Jun 2019 Two papers accepted for publication in the 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
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01 Jun 2019 I started my visiting period at University of California Santa Barbara, Mechanical Engineering Department
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13 May 2019 The paper ''Haptic-guided needle grasping in minimally invasive robotic surgery'' has been accepted to the ICRA full-day workshop Next Generation Surgery
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10 May 2019 I am invited to give a seminar about ''Haptic-based Shared-Control Telerobotics: Industrial and Surgical Perspectives'' at the DISMI of University of Modena-Reggio Emilia
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25 Jan 2019 The paper ''Passive Task-prioritized Shared-Control Teleoperation with Haptic Guidance'' has been accepted in the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
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13 Dec 2018 The STAR L2 program will fund my 6-months abroad period to the University of California Santa Barbara during 2019
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01 Dec 2018 My proposal "Haptic guidance methods for robotic surgery" has just been accepted. The IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Haptics will fund my research for $ 2500
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01 Oct 2018 Two papers accepted for publication in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (also to be presented at the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems)
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27 Jun 2018 Awarded second prize at Sixth National Congress of Bioengineering in the Switch 2 Product - Innovation in Bioengineering program