Paula Stocco

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About

Paula Stocco is a pioneering roboticist whose work bridges biology and engineering, with a primary focus on underactuated locomotion and bio-inspired robotics. Her most notable contribution is the development of **AcroMonk**, a minimalist underactuated brachiating robot that mimics the dynamic, coordinated swinging maneuvers of monkeys and apes. This groundbreaking 2023 paper, which has already garnered 19 citations, demonstrates how brachiation—a complex, energy-efficient mode of locomotion—can be replicated in a simple robotic platform, expanding the potential deployment scenarios for humanoids and animaloids in unstructured environments. Stocco’s research addresses fundamental challenges in underactuated systems, where fewer actuators than degrees of freedom require clever mechanical design and control strategies. By distilling the essence of primate swinging into a minimalist robot, she has opened new avenues for studying dynamic locomotion, with implications for search-and-rescue, exploration, and assistive robotics. Her work stands out for its elegance and practicality, offering a compelling proof-of-concept that complex biological movements can be achieved with minimal hardware. As a rising star in robotics, Stocco continues to inspire students and researchers interested in the intersection of biomechanics, control theory, and robot design.