Marco Cognetti

About

Marco Cognetti is a robotics researcher whose work spans robot dynamics, human-robot interaction, multi-robot systems, and motion planning. He has made significant contributions across several interconnected domains, establishing himself as a versatile figure in modern robotics research. His most influential work focuses on robot dynamic identification, particularly his 2019 study on the Franka Emika Panda robot, which introduced a penalty-based optimization approach to extract physically feasible dynamic parameters — a methodological contribution that has garnered over 310 citations and become a key reference for researchers working with collaborative manipulators. His 2021 survey on autonomy in physical human-robot interaction (190 citations) further cemented his reputation, offering a comprehensive overview of shared control frameworks that reduce cognitive and physical workload in collaborative tasks. Cognetti has also advanced multi-robot coordination, developing decentralized localization algorithms for heterogeneous ground-air robot teams — work spanning from 2012 through 2016 that addressed challenging real-world constraints such as anonymous bearing measurements. Additional contributions include rearrangement planning, humanoid whole-body motion planning, and optimal active sensing strategies. His research portfolio reflects a consistent commitment to bridging theoretical rigor with practical robotic applications, making his work highly relevant for students and researchers in autonomous systems and human-robot collaboration.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Dynamic Identification of the Franka Emika Panda Robot With Retrieval of Feasible Parameters Using Penalty-Based Optimization

   310 citations · 2019
2. 2
   Autonomy in Physical Human-Robot Interaction: A Brief Survey

   190 citations · 2021
3. 3
   Rearrangement planning using object-centric and robot-centric action spaces

   85 citations · 2016
4. 4
   Multi-task Cooperative Control in a Heterogeneous Ground-Air Robot Team

   34 citations · 2015
5. 5
   Ground and Aerial Mutual Localization Using Anonymous Relative-Bearing Measurements

   26 citations · 2016
6. 6
   3-D mutual localization with anonymous bearing measurements

   25 citations · 2012
7. 7
   Optimal Active Sensing with Process and Measurement Noise

   22 citations · 2018
8. 8
   Relative localization and identification in a heterogeneous multi-robot system

   20 citations · 2013
9. 9
   Whole-body motion planning for humanoids based on CoM movement primitives

   19 citations · 2015
10. 10
    Cooperative control of a heterogeneous multi-robot system based on relative localization

    18 citations · 2014

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links