CV

Education

• Ph.D in Industrial and Information Engineering, University of Trieste (Italy), 2022
• M.S. in Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Trieste (Italy), 2018
• B.S. Information Engineering, University of Messina (Italy), 2015

Research Positions

• Assistant Professor (non-tenure track), Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy (ongoing)
• Visiting Researcher, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College of London, United Kingdom (September-December 2022).
• PostDoc Research Fellow, Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy (November 2021 - January 2023). Funded by grant no. 2017YKXYXJ
• Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy (November 2018 – October 2021).
• Master Thesis Internship, Industrial Automation Lab, Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy (October 2017 – October 2018).
• Bachelor Thesis Internship, Laboratory of Electronics of Sensors and Transduction Systems (LESST), Department of Engineering, University of Messina, Italy (October 2014 – July 2015).

Research Grants

• Principal Investigator

  • PNRR Young Research Call CUP n° J43C22000320006, financing amount 45000 € (March 2024 - May 2025$), “Integrated Digital Twin and AI for Coordinating Drone-Autonomous Vehicle Systems”
  • Microgrant CUP n° J93C22001380002 , financing amount 5000 € (March 2024 - December 2024), “AI-Based Control of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems”

• Participant

  • PNRR iNEST (Interconnected North-Est Innovation Ecosystem) funded by the European Union Next-GenerationEU (February 2023 - January 2026)
  • 2017 Program for Research Projects of National Interest (PRIN), Grant n°. 2017YKXYXJ, (November 2021 - January 2023), “Monitoring and Control Underpinning the Energy-Aware Factory of the Future: Novel Methodologies and Industrial Validation”
  • Pattern Recognition Applied to Home Appliances: CUP n° J$96$C$18000410007$ sponsored by Electrolux S.p.a. (October 2018 – July 2019)

Teaching Activities

• Holder of the 12-hour Ph.D course “Learning-based Control and the Reality-Gap” for the Ph.D. program in Industrial and Information Engineering, Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy (since 2023/2024 a.y.),
• Holder of the 48-hour M.S. course “Data-driven and Learning-based Control”, Italian TAF B, in the M.Sc. program in Computer Engineering, Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy (since 2023/2024 a.y.),
• Holder of the 24-hour M.S. course “Simulation Intelligence and Learning for Autonomous Systems”, Italian TAF B, in the M.Sc. program in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Trieste, Italy (since 2023/2024 a.y.),
• Member of Examination Panel for the “Fundamentals of Automatic Control” class, Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy (since 2020/2021 a.y.).

Conference Organization

• International

  • Co-organizer of the Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Artificial Life and Collaborative Intelligent Systems, part of the IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI) 2025 (flagship event IEEE CIS)
  • Workshop organizer on “Control Design in Soft-Robotics: from Model-free to Model-based<\a>” at the 22n d in the EUCA Series of European Control Conferences
  • Session Co-Chair on Switched and Hybrid Systems held at the IEEE European Control Conference (ECC 2022)
  • Member of Operating Team at the 6th IEEE International Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA)

• National

  • Member of the Technical Committee at the Automatica.it conference (since 2023)
  • Session Chair on Applications in control engineering at the 2023 Automatica.it conference
  • Member of the Program Committee at the 2020 Didamatica<\a> conference

Conferences speaker

• Conference of the Italian Society of Lecturers and Researchers in Automatics (Automatica.it), Bolzano, Italy (2024), “Stop-and-Go Traffic Wave Attenuation: A Shared Control Approach”
• 22nd IEEE European Control Conference (ECC), Stockholm, Sweden (2024), “An Active Disturbance Rejection Model Predictive Controller for Constrained Over-Actuated Systems”
• Conference of the Italian Society of Lecturers and Researchers in Automatics (Automatica.it), Catania, Italy (2023), “Model-Free Plant Tuning for Robust Position-Based Visual Servoing”
• The 22nd World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control, Yokohama, Japan (2023), “Model-free cable robot control”
• 21st IEEE European Control Conference (ECC), Bucharest, Romania (2023), “Data-driven dynamic relatively optimal control”
• Conference of the Italian Society of Lecturers and Researchers in Automatics (Automatica.it), Cagliari, Italy (2022), “Data-driven dynamic relatively optimal control”
• 20th IEEE European Control Conference (ECC), London, United Kingdom (2022), “Closed-loop control from data-driven open-loop optimal control trajectories”
• Conference of the Italian Society of Lecturers and Researchers in Automatics (Automatica.it), remote due to Covid, Italy (2021), “Control of a mixed autonomy signalised urban intersection: an action-delayed reinforcement learning approach”
• 44th International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), Opatija, Croatia (2021), “Characterization of modeling errors affecting performances of a robotics deep reinforcement learning controller in a sim-to-real transfer”
• Conference of the Italian Society of Lecturers and Researchers in Automatics (Automatica.it), Ancona, Italy (2019), “Model predictive control of glucose concentration based on signal temporal logic specifications with unknown-meals occurrence” (poster presentation)
• 6th International Conference on Control, Decision and Information Technologies (CoDIT), Paris, France (2019), “Model predictive control of glucose concentration based on signal temporal logic specifications”
• International Conference on Applications in Electronics Pervading Industry (ApplePies), Environment and Society, University La Sapienza, Roma, Italy (2015), “Udoo-based environmental monitoring system”

Conferences and Schools attended

• The 60th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) 2021, Austin, Texas, USA, 13-17 December 2021
• The 44th International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), 2021, Opatija, Croatia, 27 September-1 October 2021.
• The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) 2021, remotely, 10-14 July 2021.
• 3rd Advanced Course on Data Science & Machine Learning, Siena, Italy, 13-17 July 2020.
• Model Predictive Control course, Prof. Alberto Bemporad, IMT Lucca, Italia, 3-10 June 2020.
• Brain-Computer Interface Spring School, g.tec (https://www.gtec.at/spring-school-2020/), remotely, 20-23 April 2020.
• National Conference Automatica.it of the Italian Society of Professors and Researchers in Automation (SIDRA), Ancona, Italy, 9-11 September 2019.
• Workshop on Locomotion and Navigation from Flies to robots at The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, 10-12 July 2019.
• 6th International Conference on Control, Decision and Information Technologies (CoDIT), Paris, France, 23-26 April 2019.
• Winterschool on Quantitative Systems Biology: Learning and Artificial Intelligence at The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, 12-23 November 2018.

National and International Collaborations

• Edinburgh Napier University (UK), Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotic - Dr. Sarah L. Thomson (since 2024).
• University of Cyprus (CY), KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence (CY) - Dr. Panayiotis Kolios (since 2022).
• National Research Council (CNR) of Italy (IT), Information & Systems Engineering Group at IEIIT - Prof. Fabrizio Dabbene (since 2022).
• Imperial College of London (UK), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Dr.Angelo Barboni, Dr. Hamed Rezaee (since 2022).
• University of Trento (IT), Department of Industrial Engineering - Prof. Giulia Giordano (since 2022).
• University of Udine (IT), Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences - Prof. Franco Blanchini (since 2021).
• Jozef Stefan Institute (SI), Department for Automation, Biocybernetics and Robotics - Dr. Andrej Gams (since 2021).
• Ohio State University (US), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Dr. Arnob Ghosh (since 2021).
• Glance Vision Technologies S.r.l. Trieste (IT) - Prof. Felice Andrea Pellegrino, Dr. Walter Vanzella (since 2021).
• Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste (IT), Information Technology group - Eng. Marco Lonza, Dr. Giulio Gaio(since 2019).
• University of Trieste (IT), Department of Engineering and Architecture - Prof. Eric Medvet (since 2018).

Publications

UDOO-Based Environmental Monitoring System

Giulio Borrello, Erica Salvato, Giovanni Gugliandolo, Zlatica Marinkovic, Nicola Donato, "UDOO-Based Environmental Monitoring System." In the proceedings of Applications in Electronics Pervading Industry, Environment and Society, 2017.

Model Predictive Control of glucose concentration based on Signal Temporal Logic specifications

Francesca Cairoli, Gianfranco Fenu, Felice Pellegrino, Erica Salvato, "Model Predictive Control of glucose concentration based on Signal Temporal Logic specifications." In the proceedings of 2019 6th International Conference on Control, Decision and Information Technologies, 2019.

Toward the Application of Reinforcement Learning to the Intensity Control of a Seeded Free-Electron Laser

Nicky Bruchon, Gianfranco Fenu, Giulio Gaio, Marco Lonza, Felice Pellegrino, Erica Salvato, "Toward the Application of Reinforcement Learning to the Intensity Control of a Seeded Free-Electron Laser." In the proceedings of 2019 23rd International Conference on Mechatronics Technology, ICMT 2019, 2019.

Basic reinforcement learning techniques to control the intensity of a seeded free-electron laser

Nicky Bruchon, Gianfranco Fenu, Giulio Gaio, Marco Lonza, Fin O'shea, Felice Pellegrino, Erica Salvato, "Basic reinforcement learning techniques to control the intensity of a seeded free-electron laser." ELECTRONICS, 2020.

Loads estimation using deep learning techniques in consumer washing machines

Alexander Babichev, Vittorio Casagrande, Luca Della, Gianfranco Fenu, Imola Fodor, Enrico Marson, Felice Pellegrino, Gilberto Pin, Erica Salvato, Michele Toppano, Davide Zorzenon, "Loads estimation using deep learning techniques in consumer washing machines." In the proceedings of ICPRAM 2020 - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods, 2020.

Model Predictive Control of Glucose Concentration Based on Signal Temporal Logic Specifications with Unknown-Meals Occurrence

Francesca Cairoli, Gianfranco Fenu, Felice Pellegrino, Erica Salvato, "Model Predictive Control of Glucose Concentration Based on Signal Temporal Logic Specifications with Unknown-Meals Occurrence." CYBERNETICS AND SYSTEMS, 2020.

An Online Iterative Linear Quadratic Approach for a Satisfactory Working Point Attainment at FERMI

Niky Bruchon, Gianfranco Fenu, Giulio Gaio, Simon Hirlander, Marco Lonza, Felice Pellegrino, Erica Salvato, "An Online Iterative Linear Quadratic Approach for a Satisfactory Working Point Attainment at FERMI." INFORMATION, 2021.

Characterization of Modeling Errors Affecting Performances of a Robotics Deep Reinforcement Learning Controller in a Sim-to-Real Transfer

Erica Salvato, Gianfranco Fenu, Eric Medvet, Felice Pellegrino, "Characterization of Modeling Errors Affecting Performances of a Robotics Deep Reinforcement Learning Controller in a Sim-to-Real Transfer." In the proceedings of 2021 44th International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), 2021.

Control of a Mixed Autonomy Signalised Urban Intersection: An Action-Delayed Reinforcement Learning Approach

Erica Salvato, Arnob Ghosh, Gianfranco Fenu, Thomas Parisini, "Control of a Mixed Autonomy Signalised Urban Intersection: An Action-Delayed Reinforcement Learning Approach." In the proceedings of 2021 IEEE International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), 2021.

Crossing the Reality Gap: a Survey on Sim-to-Real Transferability of Robot Controllers in Reinforcement Learning

Erica Salvato, Gianfranco Fenu, Eric Medvet, Felice Pellegrino, "Crossing the Reality Gap: a Survey on Sim-to-Real Transferability of Robot Controllers in Reinforcement Learning." IEEE Access, 2021.

Machine learning for computationally efficient electrical loads estimation in consumer washing machines

Vittorio Casagrande, Gianfranco Fenu, Felice Pellegrino, Gilberto Pin, Erica Salvato, Davide Zorzenon, "Machine learning for computationally efficient electrical loads estimation in consumer washing machines." NEURAL COMPUTING &amp; APPLICATIONS, 2021.

Closed-loop Control from Data-Driven Open-Loop Optimal Control Trajectories

Felice Pellegrino, Franco Blanchini, Gianfranco Fenu, Erica Salvato, "Closed-loop Control from Data-Driven Open-Loop Optimal Control Trajectories." In the proceedings of 2022 European Control Conference (ECC), 2022.

Event-Triggered Action-Delayed Reinforcement Learning Control of a Mixed Autonomy Signalised Urban Intersection

Erica Salvato, Arnob Ghosh, Gianfranco Fenu, Thomas Parisini, "Event-Triggered Action-Delayed Reinforcement Learning Control of a Mixed Autonomy Signalised Urban Intersection." In the proceedings of 2022 American Control Conference (ACC), 2022.

Singularity Avoidance for Cart-Mounted Hand-Guided Collaborative Robots: A Variational Approach

Erica Salvato, Walter Vanzella, Gianfranco Fenu, Felice Pellegrino, "Singularity Avoidance for Cart-Mounted Hand-Guided Collaborative Robots: A Variational Approach." Robotics, 2022.

Data-driven dynamic relatively optimal control

Felice Pellegrino, Franco Blanchini, Gianfranco Fenu, Erica Salvato, "Data-driven dynamic relatively optimal control." European Journal of Control, 2023.

Evolutionary Machine Learning in Robotics

Eric Medvet, Giorgia Nadizar, Federico Pigozzi, Erica Salvato, "Evolutionary Machine Learning in Robotics." Handbook of Evolutionary Machine Learning, 2023.

Model-free cable robot control

Franco Blanchini, Luca Schiava, Gianfranco Fenu, Giulia Giordano, Felice Pellegrino, Erica Salvato, "Model-free cable robot control." In the proceedings of IFAC-PapersOnLine, 2023.

Model-free feedback control synthesis from expert demonstration

Franco Blanchini, Fabrizio Dabbene, Gianfranco Fenu, Felice Pellegrino, Erica Salvato, "Model-free feedback control synthesis from expert demonstration." IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2023.

Talks

Model Predictive Control of Glucose Concentraion Based on Signal-Temporal Logic Specifications

April 24, 2019

Talk at 6th 2019 International Conference on Control, Decision and Information Technologies (CoDIT'19), Paris, France

Model Predictive Control of Glucose Concentration Based on Signal Temporal Logic Specifications with Unknown-Meals Occurrence

October 16, 2019

Seminar at Data Science and Scientific Computing Master of the University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

Crossing the Reality Gap: the Sim-to-Real Transferability of Robot Controllers in Reinforcement Learning Problems

December 19, 2019

Seminar at Data Science and Scientific Computing Master of the University of Trieste, 19 December 2019, Trieste, Italy

Control of a Mixed Autonomy Signalised Urban Intersection: An Action-Delayed Reinforcement Learning Approach

September 08, 2021

Talk at AUTOMATICA 2021, Catania, Italy

Characterization of Modeling Errors Affecting Performances of a Robotics Deep Reinforcement Learning Controller in a Sim-to-Real Transfer

September 30, 2021

Talk at MIPRO 2021, Opatija, Croatia

Closed-loop Control from Data-Driven Open-Loop Optimal Control Trajectories

July 14, 2022

Talk at ECC 2022, London, United Kingdom

Data-driven Dynamic Relatively Optimal Control

September 01, 2022

Talk at AUTOMATICA.it 2022, Cagliari, Italy

Reinforcement Learning on Real-World Dynamical Systems

January 25, 2023

Seminar at Data Science and Scientific Computing Master of the University of Trieste, 25 January 2023, Trieste, Italy

Research Community Services

• Reviewer for Journals:
  • IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
  • Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
  • Frontiers in Robotics and AI
  • Systems & Control Letters
  • IFAC: Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems (NAHS)
  • IEEE Control Systems Letters (L-CSS),
  • IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics,
  • IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics,
  • IEEE Access,
• Reviewer for International Conferences:
  • European Control Conference (ECC),
  • American Control Conference (ACC),
  • International Conference on Decision and Control (CDC),
  • International Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA),
  • EEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS),
• Reviewer for National Conferences:
  • Automatica.it 2020
  • Automatica.it 2021
  • Automatica.it 2022
  • Automatica.it 2023
  • Automatica.it 2024
• Subreviewer for International Conferences:
  • International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI) 2019
• Subreviewer for National Conferences:
  • Automatica.it 2019

Languages

• Italian (mother tongue)
• English (B2)

Software Skills

• Python (Numpy, Gym, PyTorch)
• MATLAB
• CoppeliaSim
• Arduino IDE
• NVIDIA Jetson Nano
• RStudio
• LaTeX
• Excel
• Word
• PowerPoint