Alba Perez Gracia

Alba Perez Gracia is an Associate Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), affiliated with the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRI), a joint center with CSIC. She works in the Department of Robotics within the School of Engineering, focusing on computational robotics, kinematics, and mechanism design.

Research Interests: Her research lies at the intersection of robotics, geometry, and mechanical design. She specializes in computational kinematics, geometric algebra (particularly Clifford algebras), robotic manipulation, and rehabilitation robotics. Her work often involves mathematical modeling of spatial mechanisms, grasping strategies, and the design of robotic hands and exoskeletons.

Publication Trends: Over the period 2010–2019, her publications show a consistent focus on geometric methods in robotics, with increasing emphasis on grasping in unstructured environments and the use of algebraic tools for rotation and motion analysis. Key themes include screw theory, Cayley factorizations, superquadric modeling, and the synthesis of closed-loop linkages.

Scientific Contributions:

• Developed geometric methods for orthonormalization of rotation matrices using Cayley factorization.
• Advanced grasping strategies for cluttered scenes using superquadric object representations.
• Contributed to the kinematic synthesis of multi-fingered and non-anthropomorphic robotic hands.
• Designed low-DOF mechanisms for finger rehabilitation exoskeletons.

Advising and Grants: While specific advisees and funding sources are not mentioned in the text, her collaborative work with researchers such as F. Thomas, E. Simo-Serra, and D. Wolbrecht suggests active participation in research teams and potential supervision of students. Her publications in rehabilitation robotics suggest interdisciplinary collaboration with biomedical engineers.

Labs and Teams: She is affiliated with the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRI), UPC-CSIC, a leading robotics research center in Spain, where she contributes to research in computational robotics and mechanism design.