Luigi Penco
Pensacola,USA
Summary
Dynamic roboticist with proven expertise in system integration and technical leadership. Specialized in developing autonomous behaviors and teleoperation systems that drive innovation in humanoid robotics. Committed to ensuring project milestones are achieved with precision and measurable impact.
Overview
4
4
Languages
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Research Scientist
IHMC
Pensacola, Florida
09.2024 - Current
- Technical lead for the autonomy and teleoperation team.
- Principal Investigator for NASA’s Valkyrie project (2024–2025)
- Co‑Principal Investigator for Army DEVCOM breaching projects (2024–2026)
- Co‑Principal Investigator for the ongoing ONR Squadbot project, focused on developing the humanoid robot Alex and autonomy algorithms for building exploration.
Senior Research Associate
IHMC
Pensacola, FL
08.2022 - 08.2024
- Lead the development of interfaces and autonomous building exploration behaviors for the humanoid robot Nadia.
Co‑Chair
IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Telerobotics
02.2026 - Current
- Providing strategic leadership on committee initiatives, coordinating activities and working groups, and helping shape the research agenda in telerobotics.
- Organizing technical sessions, managing collaborations between academia and industry, and supporting community engagement through workshops, panels, and outreach.
Co-Founder
Stealth Startup
Pensacola, Florida
02.2026 - Current
- Developed the core avatar-technology concept and technical strategy for a next-generation sports-media platform
- Providing high-level product, technology, and strategic guidance
Research Associate
Inria Nancy-Grand Est
Nancy, France
04.2019 - 06.2022
- Developed teleoperation systems for the iCub humanoid robot, and maintained the robot’s software and hardware stack for reliable experimental use.
JSPS Research Fellow (visiting PhD)
CNRS-AIST JRL Joint Robotics Laboratory
Tsukuba, Japan
08.2021 - 10.2021
- Limited remote collaboration due to COVID-19 pandemic.
- Motion retargeting from xsens whole-body suit to HRP-4C humanoid robot.
R&D Engineer
Inria Nancy-Grand Est
04.2018 - 10.2019
- Motion retargeting from xsens whole-body suit to iCub humanoid robot.
Research Intern
Inria Nancy-Grand Est
10.2017 - 02.2018
- Integration of teleoperation with a momentum-based whole-body torque controller on iCub humanoid robot
Education
Ph.D. - Department of Computer Science
University of Lorraine
Nancy, France06-2022
Master of Science - Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
Sapienza University of Rome
Rome, Italy03-2018
Master of Science - Automation and Robotics
Technische Universität Dortmund
Dortmund, Germany03-2017
Bachelor - Electronics Engineering
Roma Tre University
Rome, Italy07-2015
Skills
- Robot Data Logging, Analysis & Test-Driven Development – Developing and using real-time and offline logging to diagnose robot-controller and autonomous-behavior performance; developing unit tests and repeatable validation scenarios to verify expected behavior, support safe software integration, and prevent regressions
- Autonomous Behaviors & Experimental Design – Designing, testing, and deploying adaptive behavior systems for humanoid robots; translating capability objectives into measurable tasks
- Teleoperation – Developing shared autonomy, telepresence, motion retargeting, operator interfaces, VR interaction, task-relevant data collection
- System Integration & Engineering Execution – Driving end-to-end integration of perception, autonomy, control, operator interfaces, and hardware to deliver reliable, demonstrable humanoid robotics capabilities
- Humanoid Robot Learning – Developing control policies, motion-imitation pipelines, and reinforcement-learning workflows for humanoid robots using simulation environments including Mujoco and Isaac Lab, with simulation-to-hardware validation
- Technical Leadership & Project Delivery – Leading cross-functional technical initiatives from concept through demonstrations and deliverables; coordinating engineering milestones and communicating technical results to program stakeholders
Awards & Honors
- Winner of the U.S. Army Fuze XTech Humanoid Competition (team IHMC Robotics), September 2026
- Winner of the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research in Japan, 2021
- Instagram HypeAuditor Awards: Top 50 Education, 2019
- Winner of the scholarship 'Wanted The Best' by Sapienza University of Rome, 2016
Publications
For a complete list of publications, see Google Scholar profile:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=b_tNdN8AAAAJ&hl=en
Languages
English
Full Professional
Italian
Native/ Bilingual
French
Professional
Spanish
Elementary
Timeline
Co‑Chair
IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Telerobotics
02.2026 - Current
Co-Founder
Stealth Startup
02.2026 - Current
Research Scientist
IHMC
09.2024 - Current
Senior Research Associate
IHMC
08.2022 - 08.2024
JSPS Research Fellow (visiting PhD)
CNRS-AIST JRL Joint Robotics Laboratory
08.2021 - 10.2021
Research Associate
Inria Nancy-Grand Est
04.2019 - 06.2022
R&D Engineer
Inria Nancy-Grand Est
04.2018 - 10.2019
Research Intern
Inria Nancy-Grand Est
10.2017 - 02.2018
Ph.D. - Department of Computer Science
University of Lorraine
Master of Science - Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
Sapienza University of Rome
Master of Science - Automation and Robotics
Technische Universität Dortmund
Bachelor - Electronics Engineering
Roma Tre University