Alberto Sanfeliu Cortés

Alberto Sanfeliu Cortés is a Full Professor of Computational Sciences and Artificial Intelligence at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where he has been a faculty member since 1981. He is affiliated with the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI), a joint center of UPC and CSIC, and serves as the Scientific Director of the Unit of Excellence Maria Maeztu at IRI. He leads the Mobile Robotics research line and coordinates the Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems Group (VIS). He previously served as director of IRI and the UPC Department of Automatic Control.

Research interests: His work spans Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, SLAM, Human-Robot Interaction, Autonomous Systems, and Networked Robotics. He focuses on both theoretical and applied aspects, including urban robotics, autonomous navigation, and the integration of large language models in robotic systems. His research is deeply interdisciplinary, bridging engineering, AI, and societal applications.

The recent publications highlight a strong trend toward human-centered robotics, particularly in urban environments, last-mile delivery, and cybernetic avatars. There is growing emphasis on large language models for explainability and personalization, collaborative robotics, and context-aware navigation using vision transformers. His work increasingly addresses societal integration of robots in smart cities and sustainable systems.

Scientific Awards:

• Technology Prize from Generalitat de Catalunya
• Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR)

Advising and Grants: He has supervised multiple PhD students, with current advisees working on topics like human intention learning and LLM-enhanced interaction. He has led 45 R&D projects, including 16 EU-funded ones, and was coordinator of the URUS project. Current projects include TORNADO (foundation models for robots handling deformable objects) and SOCIAL PIA (cybernetic avatars). He has also collaborated with Volkswagen Research on autonomous driving initiatives.

Labs and Teams: He leads the Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems (VIS) group and the Mobile Robotics research line at IRI, a premier robotics institute in Spain. His team is actively involved in EU and national projects, focusing on real-world deployment of intelligent robotic systems.