Robin Passama

About

Robin Passama is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of human-robot interaction, collaborative manufacturing, and robotic manipulation. His research has profoundly shaped how robots safely and intuitively work alongside humans, with his landmark 2016 paper on physical human-robot interaction in collaborative manufacturing accumulating an impressive 569 citations — a testament to its foundational influence on the field. Passama has made significant contributions to multimodal control frameworks, developing systems that allow robots to recognize human intention through gesture detection, skeletal tracking, and sensor fusion, enabling more natural and responsive collaboration. His 2019 work on real-time hand gesture detection and skeleton-based interaction further refined these capabilities for practical deployment. Beyond human-robot teaming, he has pushed boundaries in robotic manipulation of deformable objects — particularly cables — pioneering contact-aware planning strategies that mirror how humans naturally reshape flexible materials using environmental constraints. His contributions extend to safety-compliant control, developing ISO10218-aligned damping controllers that ensure physical contact between humans and robots remains safe. The BAZAR collaborative robot project exemplifies his translational vision, bridging research into factory-floor reality. Across more than a decade of work, Passama has consistently advanced the theoretical and practical foundations of intelligent, human-centered robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Collaborative manufacturing with physical human–robot interaction

   569 citations · 2016
2. 2
   A real-time human-robot interaction framework with robust background invariant hand gesture detection

   126 citations · 2019
3. 3
   Robotic Manipulation Planning for Shaping Deformable Linear Objects WithEnvironmental Contacts

   99 citations · 2019
4. 4
   Vision-based manipulation of deformable and rigid objects using subspace projections of 2D contours

   63 citations · 2021
5. 5
   A unified multimodal control framework for human–robot interaction

   56 citations · 2015
6. 6
   Towards Real-Time Physical Human-Robot Interaction Using Skeleton Information and Hand Gestures

   51 citations · 2018
7. 7
   A collaborative robot for the factory of the future: BAZAR

   51 citations · 2019
8. 8
   Multimodal control for human-robot cooperation

   37 citations · 2013
9. 9
   An ISO10218-compliant adaptive damping controller for safe physical human-robot interaction

   34 citations · 2016
10. 10
    Motion Discontinuity-Robust Controller for Steerable Mobile Robots

    19 citations · 2016

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links