Papers
9
Total Citations
130
H-Index
6
About
David Estevez is a robotics and human-robot interaction researcher whose work spans two compelling domains: socially assistive robotics in therapeutic and educational settings, and autonomous robot manipulation of deformable objects. His most impactful contributions center on the use of social robots — particularly the NAO platform — in speech therapy and pedagogical interventions for children with language disorders and diverse learning needs. His 2021 case study on robot-assisted speech therapy (48 citations) and his 2020 work integrating social robots into logopedic interventions (37 citations) have established him as a meaningful voice in a field that, until recently, focused almost exclusively on autism-related therapies, helping to broaden the conversation around assistive robotics for a wider range of childhood developmental needs. Beyond assistive applications, Estevez has made notable technical contributions to robotic garment handling, developing garment-agnostic algorithms for unfolding, folding, and ironing clothes using depth data — a notoriously difficult challenge due to the unpredictable nature of deformable materials. His earlier work also reflects a creative breadth, including an augmented reality multiplayer robot game built on DIY low-cost platforms. Together, his portfolio reveals a researcher equally comfortable bridging engineering innovation with real-world human benefit.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
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- 3Enabling garment-agnostic laundry tasks for a Robot Household Companion13 citations · 2019
- 4
- 5Towards Robotic Garment Folding: A Vision Approach for Fold Detection6 citations · 2016
- 6
- 7Neural Policy Style Transfer4 citations · 2021
- 8
- 9Robotic ironing with a humanoid robot using human tools3 citations · 2017