“𝗠𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.” Marco Iannotta, WASP PhD student at Örebro University, is defending the doctoral thesis “Holding Form in a Shifting World: Flexible and Reliable Robot Manipulation through Behavior Trees” on December 9, 2025, at 09:00 in Hörsal L2, Långhuset, Örebro University. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀? “My work shows that robots can be both structured and adaptive at the same time. Traditional systems are easy to control and understand but tend to be rigid, while learning-based ones are flexible yet often behave like black boxes. I brought these two worlds together, making robots transparent and predictable for engineers, yet flexible enough to handle real-world variations — such as a slippery surface or a misplaced object.” 𝗜𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲? “My research helps bring robots closer to the real world — not just in perfectly controlled factory settings, but in environments where conditions change and uncertainty is part of the job. By making robots more flexible and reliable, we can automate tasks that are too unpredictable for traditional systems and let robots take over more repetitive or physically demanding work from people.” 📍 Public defense: December 9, 2025, 09:00, Hörsal L2, Långhuset, Örebro University 👨🏫 Supervisor: Todor Stoyanov Read the thesis: https://lnkd.in/e7hsqjdD #wasp #waspgraduateschool #phd
