I received my degree in Electronic Engineering in October 2000, at the University of Genoa. My master thesis at LIRA-Lab (Development of Sound Evoked Reflexes in a Binocular Head) concerned the study of sound localization and the integration between visual and auditory cues in a humanoid robot. In May 2004 I received Ph.D. in Robotics at the University of Genoa (thesis title: Linking Action to Perception in a Humanoid robot: a Developmental Approach to Grasping). From 2005 to 2006 I was Postdoctoral researcher at MIT-CSAIL in the Humanoid Robotics Group. Since 2007 I am Team Leader at the Italian Institute of Technology in the Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department.
In brief my research focuses on developmental robotics, sensorimotor coordination and motor control. I'm also interested in open source software and software development in robotics.
In the past I have been involved in the RobotCub project. In particular I was responsible for coordinating software development and integration on the iCub.
I'm one of the developers of YARP an open source middleware for robotics.
I'm currently involved in the FP7 EU projects CHRIS and ROBOSKIN.
For further information, see:
Some papers are available in electronic format here: LIRA-Lab published papers.
My PhD thesis: click here to download (low-res pdf version 6MB)
My master thesis (in Italian): click here to download (pdf version 4MB). The thesis was eventually published in English as a Journal Paper on Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 39/2, see below.
- Journals:
Schmitz A., Maiolino P., Maggiali M., Natale L., Cannata G., Metta G., Methods and Technologies for the Implementation of Large Scale Robot Tactile Sensors, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Volume 27(3), pp. 389-400, 2011.
Metta, G., Natale, L., Nori, F., Sandini, G., Vernon, D., Fadiga, L., von Hofsten C., Santos-Victor, J., Bernardino, A. and Montesano, L., The iCub Humanoid Robot: An Open-Systems Platform for Research in Cognitive Development, Neural Networks, Volume 23, pp. 1125-1134, 2010.
Fitzpatrick P., Natale L., Metta G., The CMaking of a Humanoid, The Kitware Source: Software Developer's Quarterly, Volume 13, pp. 7–9, April 2010.
Courtney, P., Michel, O., Cangelosi, A., Tikhanoff, V., Metta, G., Natale, L., Nori, F., Kernbach, S., Cognitive Systems Platforms using Open Source, Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems, Volume XIX, 139-160, Springer 2009.
Fitzpatrick, P., Needham, A., Natale, L., Metta, G., Shared Challenges in Object Perception for Robots and Infants, Infant and Child Development, Volume 17(1), pp 7-24, Wiley, 2008.
Fitzpatrick, P., Metta, G., and Natale, L., Towards Long-Lived Robot Genes, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Volume 56(1), pp. 29-45, Elsevier 2007.
Metta, G., Sandini, G., Natale, L., Craighero, L., Fadiga, L., Understanding mirror neurons: a bio-robotic approach, Interaction Studies, Volume 7(2), pp. 197-232, 2006.
Metta, G., Fitzpatrick, P., Natale, L., YARP: Yet Another Robot Platform, International Journal of Advanced Robotics Systems, special issue on Software Development and Integration in Robotics, Volume 3(1), March 2006.
Natale, L., Metta, G. and Sandini, G., Sviluppo sensorimotorio in un robot umanoide, Sistemi Intelligenti, numero monografico su Vita Artificiale, April 2006.
Natale, L., Metta, G., and Sandini, G., Development of Auditory-evoked Reflexes: Visuo-acoustic Cues Integration in a Binocular Head, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Volume 39(2), pp. 87-106, 2002.
- Book Chapters
Fumagalli, M., Gijsberts, A., Ivaldi, S., Jamone, L., Metta, G., Natale, L. and Nori, F., Learning to exploit proximal force sensing: a comparison approach, From Motor Learning to Interaction Learning in Robots, Studies in Computational Intelligence, Volume 264, pp. 159-177, Springer-Verlag, 2010.
Lallee, S., Yoshida, E., Mallet, A., Nori, F., Natale, L., Metta, G., Warneke, F., Dominey, P.F., Human-Robot Cooperation Based Interaction Learning, From Motor Learning to Interaction Learning in Robots, Studies in Computational Intelligence, Volume 264, pp. 508-556, Springer-Verlag, 2010.
Natale, L., F. Orabona, Metta, G., Sandini, G., Sensorimotor coordination in a "baby" robot: learning about objects through grasping, Progress in Brain Research, From Action to Cognition, Volume 164, , Elsevier 2007.
- Conference proceedings
Ascia A., Biso M., Ansaldo A., Schmitz A., Ricci D., Natale L., Metta G. and Sandini G., Improvement of tactile capacitive sensors of the humanoid robot iCub’s fingertips, IEEE Sensors, Limerick, Ireland, October 28-31, 2011.
Del Prete, A., Denei, S., Natale, L., Mastrogiovanni, F., Nori, F., Cannata, G., Metta, G., Skin Spatial Calibration Using Force/Torque Measurements, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, California, September 25-30, 2011.
Ciliberto, C., Smeraldi, F., Natale, L., Metta, G., Online Multiple Instance Learning Applied to Hand Detection in a Humanoid Robot, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, California, September 25-30, 2011.
Ciliberto, C., Pattacini, U., Natale, L., Nori, F., Metta, G., Reexamining Lucas-Kanade Method for Real-Time Independent Motion Detection: Application to the iCub Humanoid Robot, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, California, September 25-30, 2011.
Lallée, S., Pattacini, U., Boucher, J.D., Lemaignan, S., Lenz, A., Melhuish, C., Natale, L., Skachek, S., Hamann, K., Steinwender, J., Sisbot, E.A., Metta, G., Alami, R., Warnier, M., Guitton, J., Warneken, F., Dominey P.F., Towards a Platform-Independent Cooperative Human-Robot Interaction System: II. Perception, Execution and Imitation of Goal Directed Actions, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, California, September 25-30, 2011.
Randazzo, M., Fumagalli, M., Nori, F., Natale, L., Metta G. and Sandini G., A comparison between joint level torque sensing and proximal F/T sensor torque estimation: implementation on the iCub, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, California, September 25-30, 2011.
Metta, G., Natale, L., Nori, F., Sandini, G., Force control and reaching movements on the iCub humanoid robot, 15th International Symposium on Robotics Research, Flagstaff, AZ - 28 August - 1 September 2011.
Saegusa, R., Natale, L., Metta, G., Sandini, G., Active learning for action mirroring, International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, San Jose, California, July 31 - August 5, 2011.
Saegusa, R., Natale, L., Metta, G., Sandini, G., Cognitive robotics – active perception of the self and others - 4th International Conference on Human System Interaction, Yokohama, Japan, May 19-21, 2011.
Schmitz A., Pattacini U., Nori F., Natale L., Metta G. & Sandini G., Design, realization and sensorization of a dextrous hand: the iCub design choices, 10th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Nashville, Tennessee, December 6-8, 2010.
Fumagalli, M., Nori F., Randazzo, M., Natale, L., Metta, G. and Sandini, G., Exploiting Proximal F/T Measurements for the iCub Torque Control, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, October 18-22, 2010.
Lallée, S., Lemaignan, S., Lenz, A., Melhuish, C., Natale, L., Skacheck, S., van der Zant, T., Warneken, F. and Dominey, P.F., Towards Platform-Independent Cooperative Human-Robot Interaction System: I. Perception, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, October 18-22, 2010.
Schmitz, A., Maggiali, M., Natale, L., Bonino, B., Metta, G., A tactile sensor for the fingertips of the Humanoid Robot iCub, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, October 18-22, 2010.
Pattacini, U., Nori, F., Natale, L., Metta, G. and Sandini, G., An experimental evaluation of a novel minimum-jerk cartesian controller for humanoid robots, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, October 18-22, 2010.
Schmitz, A., Maggiali, M., Natale, L., Metta, G. 2010, Touch Sensors for Humanoid Hands, IEEE International Symposium on Robots and Human Interactive Communications, Viareggio, Italy, September 12-15, 2010.
Jamone, L., Fumagalli, M., Natale, L., Nori, F., Metta, G. & Sandini, G., Machine-Learning Based Control of a Human-like Tendon-driven Neck, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Anchorage, Alaska, May 3-8, 2010.
Metta, G., Natale, L., Pathak, S., Pulina, L. & Tacchella, A., Safe learning with real-time constraints: a case study, 23th International On Industrial, Engineering & Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems, Cordoba, Spain, June 1-4, 2010.
Metta, G., Natale, L., Pathak, S., Pulina, L. & Tacchella, A., Safe and Effective Learning: a Case Study, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Anchorage, Alaska, May 3-8, 2010.
Fumagalli, M., Jamone, L., Metta, G., Natale, L., Nori, F., Parmiggiani A., Randazzo M. & Sandini G., A Force Sensor for the Control of a Human-like Tendon Driven Neck, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Paris, France, December 7-10, 2009.
Parmiggiani, A., Randazzo, M., Natale, L., Metta, G. & Sandini, G., Joint torque sensing for the upper-body of the iCub humanoid robot, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Paris, France, December 7-10, 2009
Lallee, S., Metta, G., Natale, L., Pattacini, U. & Dominey, P.F., Proprioception of the hand contributes to visual recognition speed and accuracy: Evidence from the Multi-Modal Convergence Map model of Parietal Cortex Area 5, Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, USA, October 17-21, 2009.
Dominey, P., F., Metta, G., Natale, L. and Nori, F., Anticipation and Initiative in Dialog and Behavior During Cooperative Human-Humanoid Interaction, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, December 1-3, Daejeon, Korea, 2008.
Schmitz, A., Maggiali, M., Randazzo, M., Natale, L., Metta, G., A Prototype Fingertip with High Spatial Resolution Pressure Sensing for the Robot iCub, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, December 1-3, Daejeon, Korea, 2008.
Degallier, S., Righetti, L., Natale, L., Nori, F., Metta, G. and Ijspeert, A., A modular, bio-inspired architecture for movement generation for the infant-like robot iCub, IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) 2008, October 19-22, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
Metta, G., Sandini, G., Vernon, D., Natale, L. and Nori, F.. The iCub Humanoid Robot: an open platform for research in embodied cognition, Workshop on Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Washington DC, USA, August 19-21, 2008.
Nori, F., Natale, L., Sandini, G., Metta, G., Autonomous learning of 3D reaching in a humanoid robot, IEEE/RSJ International Conference of Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Diego, CA, October 29th, 2007.
Natale, L., Nori, F., Metta, G., Sandini, G., Learning precise 3D reaching in a humanoid robot, IEEE International Conference of Development and Learning, London, UK, July 11th, 2007.
Natale, L., Torres-Jara, E., A sensitive approach to grasping. Sixth international Conference on Epigenetic Robotics, Paris, France, 20-22 September, 2006.
Natale, L., Orabona, F., Berton, F., Metta, G., Sandini, G., From sensorimotor development to object perception. 2005 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Tsukuba, Japan, Dec. 5-7, 2005.
Torres-Jara, E., Natale, L., Fitzpatrick, P., Tapping into Touch. Fifth International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics, Nara, Japan. July 22-24, 2005.
Natale, L., Orabona, F., Metta, G., Sandini, G., Exploring the world through grasping: a developmental approach. 6th CIRA Symposium, Espoo, Finland. June 27-30, 2005.
Natale, L., Metta, G., Sandini, G., Learning haptic representation of objects, International Conference on Intelligent Manipulation and Grasping, Genoa - Italy July 1-2, 2004.
Fitzpatrick, P., Metta, G., Natale, L., Rao, S., Sandini, G., Learning About Objects Through Action: Initial Steps Towards Artificial Cognition, In 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Taipei, Taiwan. May 12-17, 2003.
Natale, L., Rao, S., Sandini, G., Learning to act on objects. 2nd Workshop on Biologically Motivated Computer Vision (BMCV). Tübingen (Germany), November 22-24, 2002.
Metta, G., Sandini, G., Natale, L. and Panerai, F., Sensorimotor interaction in a developing robot. In Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics. Lund (Sweden), September 17-18, 2001.
Metta, G., Sandini, G., Natale, L., Panerai, F., Development and Robotics. In IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots. Tokyo (Japan), pp. 33-42, November 22-24, 2001.
Metta, G., Sandini, G., Natale, L., Manzotti, R., Panerai, F., Development in Artificial Systems. In EDEC 2001 Symposium at the International Conference on Cognitive Science. Beijing (China), August 27-31, 2001.
Sandini, G., Metta, G., Panerai, F., Natale, L., Manzotti, R.. Sensory motor technologies: from biology to artificial systems. In Conference on Electroactive polymers and biosystems: new direction in electroactive polymer materials for biomimetic and interactive processes, pp. 139-141. Castelvecchio Pascoli, 2001.
- Others:
Jamone, L., Destephe, M., Natale, L., Hashimoto, K., Sandini, G., Takanishi, A. Learning a Reachable Space Map in a Gaze Centered Reference Frame, IEEE ICDL-Epirob, Frankfurt, Germany, August 24-27, 2011.
Schmitz, A., Maggiali, M., Natale, L. and Metta, G., Integrating tactile Sensors into hands of the humanoid robot iCub, ICRA 2010 workshop on Representations for object grasping and manipulation, Anchorage, Alaska, May 3-8, 2010.
Metta, G., Natale, L., Nori, F. And Sandini, G., Open Source Hardware and Software for Robotics, ICRA 2009 workshop on Open Source Software in Robotics, Kobe Japan, May 12-17, 2009.
Dominey, P., F., Metta, G., Nori, F. and Natale, L., Learning Through Coaching in Cooperative Side-by-Side Human-Humanoid Interaction, in Workshop Imitation and Coaching in Humanoid Robots, IEEE-RAS Conference on Humanoid Robots, Daejeon, Korea, December 2008.
Tikhanoff, V., Fitzpatrick, P., Nori, F., Natale, L., Metta G. and Cangelosi, A., The iCub Humanoid Robot Simulator, IROS Workshop on Robot Simulators, September 22, Nice, France, 2008.
Jamone, L., Natale, L., Metta, G. and Sandini G., Autonomous on-line learning of reaching behavior in a humanoid robot, IROS Workshop on Robotics Challenges for Machine Learning, Nice, September 2008.
Metta, G., Sandini, G., Vernon, D., Natale, L., Nori, F., The RobotCub Approach to the Development of Cognition, IROS workshop From Motor to Interaction Learning in Robot, September 26, Nice, France, 2008.
Tikhanoff, V., Fitzpatrick, P., Metta, G., Natale, L., Nori , F, and Cangelosi, A., An Open Source Simulator for Cognitive Robotics Research: The Prototype of the iCub Humanoid Robot Simulator, Workshop on Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Washington DC, USA, August 19-21, 2008.
Natale, L., Torres-Jara, E., Tactile Manipulation of Unknown Objects. 50th Anniversary Summit of Artificial Intelligence, Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzerland, July 9-14, 2006.
Natale, L., Metta, G., Sandini, G., A developmental Approach to Grasping. Developmental Robotics 2005 AAAI Spring Symposium, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. March 21-23, 2005.
Metta, G., Sandini, G., Natale, L., Manzotti, R., Artificial Development Approach to Presence, In proceedings of Presence 2003, Aalborg, Denmark. October 6-8, 2003.
Metta, G., Natale, L., Rao, S., Sandini, G., Development of the "mirror system": a computational model. In Conference on Brain Development and Cognition in Human Infants. Emergence of Social Communication: Hands, Eyes, Ears, Mouths. Acquafredda di Maratea - Napoli. June 7-12, 2002.
Sandini, G., Metta, G., Natale, L., Panerai, F., Rao, S., Manzotti, R., From Humans to Humanoids. In Italy-Japan 2001 Workshop Humanoids A Techno-Ontological Approach, Tokyo (Japan), November 21, 2001.
Natale, L., Metta, G. and Sandini, G., Visuo-Acoustic Cues Integration in an Artificial Developing Agent. In Workshop on Developmental Embodied Cognition (DECO 2001). Edinburgh (UK), July 31, 2001.
Metta, G., Natale, L., Manzotti, R., Panerai, G., Sandini, G., Development and artificial systems: modeling sensori-motor behaviors in a humanoid robot. In Fifth International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems, CNS. Boston (USA), May 29-June 2, 2001.
- On the press
"Questo robot ci darà una mano" G. Filetto - La Repubblica - 18 marzo 2003
BBC World Service -- Discovery Channel (March 2002)
See also: LIRA-Lab web site.
