Pedro Piacenza
Papers
8
Total Citations
165
H-Index
5
About
Pedro Piacenza is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of tactile sensing, robotic manipulation, and motion planning. He is best known for pioneering innovative approaches to touch sensing in robotic systems, particularly through data-driven methods that leverage overlapping optical signals to achieve high-resolution contact localization on curved surfaces — a notoriously difficult engineering challenge. His 2020 paper on the sensorized multicurved robot finger has garnered 60 citations, while his earlier work on tactile super-resolution over 3D surfaces (2018, 45 citations) demonstrated that machine learning could dramatically extend the capabilities of existing sensor hardware. Beyond tactile sensing, Piacenza has contributed to space robotics, developing the compliant perching arm for NASA's Astrobee free-flying robots aboard the International Space Station (27 citations). His more recent research spans reactive motion planning through the RAMP framework, closed-loop grasping with visual feedback, and sensor-guided pouring tasks — reflecting a broader ambition to enable robots to interact fluidly and intelligently with the physical world. Across his body of work, Piacenza consistently bridges hardware innovation with data-driven intelligence, making him a distinctive voice in embodied robotics research.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 2Data-Driven Super-Resolution on a Tactile Dome45 citations · 2018
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