Cecilia Morandi

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About

Cecilia Morandi is a robotics researcher advancing the frontier of humanoid locomotion through soft robotics. Her primary research areas include legged locomotion, soft robotic actuation, and tactile sensing for humanoid robots. Morandi’s major contribution lies in demonstrating how soft, adaptable feet can fundamentally improve bipedal walking on uneven terrain—a persistent challenge in robotics. In her most-cited work, “HRP-4 Walks on Soft Feet” (23 citations), she experimentally showed that replacing traditional flat feet with compliant, ground-conforming structures enables humanoid robots to traverse irregular surfaces more effectively. Her follow-up study, “Exploiting Adaptability in Soft Feet for Sensing Contact Forces” (7 citations), introduced a novel approach to estimating force distribution across deformable feet, addressing the sensor limitations that previously hindered soft-foot adoption. By integrating adaptability with sensing, Morandi’s work bridges the gap between mechanical compliance and perceptual awareness. Her research is particularly notable for its practical, hardware-focused methodology—testing real robots rather than relying solely on simulation. For students and researchers in legged robotics, Morandi’s work offers a compelling vision: that the next generation of humanoid robots may walk more naturally not by becoming stiffer, but by learning to yield.