I am currently working in the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group under the supervision of Prof. Michael Beetz. My current research efforts concentrate on robot manipulation. Using mechanical models of objects, a system can predict what is going to happen to an object when a force is applied to it. A robot can use this knowledge to know how to exert forces to the object to obtain an specific desired goal. Finding a mapping between this object control and a symbolic representation for it can lead to a language that can be used for robot control. 

Robots that I currently work actively with are Rosie and our iCub. I have worked in the past with our B21 robot. I have attended to the robotCub iCub 2009, 2008 and 2007 summers schools.

I obtained my Bachellor and Licenciatura degrees at Escuela de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad de Costa Rica.

Research Topics

• Parameter Learning

• Motor Control

• Object Models

• Action Language

Current Research Projects

• CogMan : The CogMan project (1) develops computational and control models of pick-and-place tasks in the context of everyday manipulation activities in human environments, (2) implements the model into a control system for the kitchen scenario, and (3) empirically analyzes the impact of this control model on the flexibility, robustness, adaptability, and naturality of the robot behavior.

Teaching Inf. IX (Current Term)

Teaching General

Selected Publications

• Michael Beetz , Freek Stulp , Piotr Esden-Tempski , Andreas Fedrizzi , Ulrich Klank , Ingo Kresse , Alexis Maldonado , Federico Ruiz-Ugalde , Generality and Legibility in Mobile Manipulation, 2010, Autonomous Robots Journal (Special Issue on Mobile Manipulation),

  (BibTeX) (PDF)

• Michael Beetz , Freek Stulp , Bernd Radig , Jan Bandouch , Nico Blodow , Mihai Emanuel Dolha , Andreas Fedrizzi , Dominik Jain , Ulrich Klank , Ingo Kresse , Alexis Maldonado , Zoltan-Csaba Marton , Lorenz Mösenlechner , Federico Ruiz-Ugalde , Radu Bogdan Rusu , Moritz Tenorth , The Assistive Kitchen --- A Demonstration Scenario for Cognitive Technical Systems, 2008, IEEE 17th International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Muenchen, Germany,

  (BibTeX) (PDF)

• Freek Stulp , Ingo Kresse , Alexis Maldonado , Federico Ruiz-Ugalde , Andreas Fedrizzi , Michael Beetz , Compact Models of Human Reaching Motions for Robotic Control in Everyday Manipulation Tasks, 2009, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL).,

  (BibTeX) (PDF)

• Federico Ruiz-Ugalde , Gordon Cheng, Michael Beetz , Prediction of action outcomes using an object model, 2010, 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS),

  (BibTeX)