SOFA-DR-RL — Training RL policies for soft robots with domain randomization in the SOFA framework.
About
I'm a PhD student (39th cycle, 2023–2026) at the Politecnico di Torino, in the Department of Control and Computer Engineering (DAUIN) @ Vandal Lab. My research focuses on applying reinforcement learning to robotics, with a particular interest in reinforcement learning, sim-to-real methods, soft robots, robotic manipulation, and long-horizon manipulation tasks.
Publications
Domain Randomization for Robust, Affordable and Effective Closed-loop Control of Soft Robots
Selected Projects
dr-soro — Project page for the IROS'23 paper on domain randomization for soft robots.
Teaching & Service
Robot Learning — Teaching Assistant
A.A. 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26
Machine Learning and Deep Learning — Teaching Assistant
A.A. 2023/24, 2024/25
Algoritmi e Strutture Dati — Teaching Assistant
A.A. 2023/24, 2024/25
News & Updates
September 2024
Mediterranean Machine Learning Summer School
Attended the M2L School 2024, discussing topics related to robot learning and reinforcement learning.
February 2024 - January 2025
Visiting Research at INRIA
Conducting research collaboration at INRIA Centre, University of Lille, France.
November 2023
SOFA Symposium Award Winner
Participated in the International SOFA Symposium 2023 in Paris, France, and won the Organizers' Prize SOFA Award.
November 2023
PhD Position Start
Joined Vandal Lab at Politecnico di Torino as a PhD student.
October 2023
IROS 2023 Publication
"Domain Randomization for Robust, Affordable and Effective Closed-loop Control of Soft Robots" was published and presented at IROS 2023.
September 2023
SmartData@PoliTO Best Poster
Participated in the 9th SmartData@PoliTO Workshop – SmartData@PoliTO meets AI-H@PoliTO in Loano, Italy, and received the Best Poster Award.
Contact
Email: andrea.protopapa@polito.it
Office: Politecnico di Torino, Vandal Lab — Corso Ferrucci 112, 10138 Turin, Italy