Onofrio Gigliotta

About

Onofrio Gigliotta is a leading researcher in evolutionary and developmental robotics, whose work bridges artificial life, cognitive science, and edutainment. His key contributions center on how autonomous agents—both simulated and physical—develop adaptive behaviors, spatial representations, and internal models through evolutionary algorithms and neural networks. Notably, his 2017 study on basic emotions and adaptation (29 citations) provides a computational framework for understanding how affective states drive action selection, grounding evolutionary theories of emotion in robotic models. His 2008 work on spatial representation (29 citations) demonstrates how robots can autonomously develop self-localization abilities by integrating sensory-motor information over time, a foundational contribution to embodied cognition. Gigliotta also made significant practical impacts with the Breedbot system (25+ citations), an innovative edutainment platform that merges digital and physical robotics to teach artificial life concepts. He co-developed the FARSA open-source framework (24+ citations), widely used for simulating and analyzing adaptive robot behaviors, including humanoid robots like the iCub. His involvement in the ITALK Project (25 citations) advanced developmental robotics by integrating linguistic and social learning into humanoid platforms. With over 200 total citations across his most influential works, Gigliotta’s research continues to shape how we understand and build adaptive, intelligent systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Basic emotions and adaptation. A computational and evolutionary model

   29 citations · 2017
2. 2
   On the Coupling Between Agent Internal and Agent/ Environmental Dynamics: Development of Spatial Representations in Evolving Autonomous Robots

   29 citations · 2008
3. 3
   The ITALK Project: A Developmental Robotics Approach to the Study of Individual, Social, and Linguistic Learning

   25 citations · 2014
4. 4
   Breedbot: an evolutionary robotics application in digital content

   25 citations · 2008
5. 5
   Designing adaptive humanoid robots through the FARSA open-source framework

   24 citations · 2014
6. 6
   Evolution of a predictive internal model in an embodied and situated agent

   18 citations · 2011
7. 7
   Breedbot: An Edutainment Robotics System to Link Digital and Real World

   17 citations · 2007
8. 8
   Toward a person-follower robot

   14 citations · 2005
9. 9
   Communication based dynamic role allocation in a group of homogeneous robots

   14 citations · 2014
10. 10
    FARSA: An Open Software Tool for Embodied Cognitive Science

    14 citations · 2013

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links