Diego Romeres
- Phone: 617-621-7561
- Email:
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Position:
Research / Technical Staff
Senior Principal Research Scientist,
Team Leader -
Education:
Ph.D., University of Padova, 2017 -
Research Areas:
External Links:
Diego's Quick Links
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Biography
Diego's research interests are in machine learning, system identification and robotic applications. At MERL he is currently working on applying nonparametric machine learning techniques for the control of robotic platforms. His Ph.D. thesis is about the combination of nonparametric data-driven models and physics-based models in gaussian processes for robot dynamics learning.
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Recent News & Events
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NEWS Diego Romeres Delivers Invited Talks at Fraunhofer Italia and the University of Padua Date: July 16, 2025 - July 18, 2025
MERL Contact: Diego Romeres
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Control, Machine Learning, Optimization, Robotics, Human-Computer InteractionBrief- MERL researcher Diego Romeres was invited to present MERL's latest research at two institutions in Italy this July, focusing on human-robot collaboration and LLM-driven assembly systems.
On July 16th, Dr. Romeres delivered a talk titled “Human-Robot Collaborative Assembly” at Fraunhofer Italia – Innovation Engineering Center (EIC) in Bolzano. His presentation showcased research on human-robot collaboration for efficient and flexible assembly processes. Fraunhofer Italia EIC is a non-profit research institute focused on enabling digital and sustainable transformation through applied innovation in close collaboration with both public and private sectors.
Two days later, on July 18th, Dr. Romeres was hosted by the University of Padua, one of Europe’s oldest and most renowned universities. His invited lecture, “Robot Assembly through Human Collaboration & Large Language Models”, explored how artificial intelligence can enhance human-robot synergy in complex assembly tasks.
- MERL researcher Diego Romeres was invited to present MERL's latest research at two institutions in Italy this July, focusing on human-robot collaboration and LLM-driven assembly systems.
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NEWS MERL researchers present 13 papers at ACC 2025 Date: July 8, 2025 - July 10, 2025
Where: Denver, USA
MERL Contacts: Ankush Chakrabarty; Vedang M. Deshpande; Stefano Di Cairano; Purnanand Elango; Jordan Leung; Saviz Mowlavi; Diego Romeres; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang; Avishai Weiss
Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Electric Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, RoboticsBrief- MERL researchers presented 13 papers at the recently concluded American Control Conference (ACC) 2025 in Denver, USA. The papers covered a wide range of topics including Bayesian optimization for personalized medicine, machine learning for battery performance in eVTOLs, model predictive control for space and building systems, process systems engineering for sustainability, GNSS-RTK optimization, convex set manipulation, PDE control, servo system modeling, battery fault diagnosis, truck fleet coordination, interactive motion planning, and satellite station keeping. Additionally, MERL researchers (Vedang Deshpande and Ankush Chakrabarty) organized an invited session on design and optimization of energy systems.
As a sponsor of the conference, MERL maintained a booth for open discussions with researchers and students, and hosted a special session to discuss highlights of MERL research and work philosophy.
- MERL researchers presented 13 papers at the recently concluded American Control Conference (ACC) 2025 in Denver, USA. The papers covered a wide range of topics including Bayesian optimization for personalized medicine, machine learning for battery performance in eVTOLs, model predictive control for space and building systems, process systems engineering for sustainability, GNSS-RTK optimization, convex set manipulation, PDE control, servo system modeling, battery fault diagnosis, truck fleet coordination, interactive motion planning, and satellite station keeping. Additionally, MERL researchers (Vedang Deshpande and Ankush Chakrabarty) organized an invited session on design and optimization of energy systems.
See All News & Events for Diego -
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Awards
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AWARD University of Padua and MERL team wins the AI Olympics with RealAIGym competition at IROS24 Date: October 17, 2024
Awarded to: Niccolò Turcato, Alberto Dalla Libera, Giulio Giacomuzzo, Ruggero Carli, Diego Romeres
MERL Contact: Diego Romeres
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, RoboticsBrief- The team composed of the control group at the University of Padua and MERL's Optimization and Robotic team ranked 1st out of the 4 finalist teams that arrived to the 2nd AI Olympics with RealAIGym competition at IROS 24, which focused on control of under-actuated robots. The team was composed by Niccolò Turcato, Alberto Dalla Libera, Giulio Giacomuzzo, Ruggero Carli and Diego Romeres. The competition was organized by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Technical University of Darmstadt and Chalmers University of Technology.
The competition and award ceremony was hosted by IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) on October 17, 2024 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Diego Romeres presented the team's method, based on a model-based reinforcement learning algorithm called MC-PILCO.
- The team composed of the control group at the University of Padua and MERL's Optimization and Robotic team ranked 1st out of the 4 finalist teams that arrived to the 2nd AI Olympics with RealAIGym competition at IROS 24, which focused on control of under-actuated robots. The team was composed by Niccolò Turcato, Alberto Dalla Libera, Giulio Giacomuzzo, Ruggero Carli and Diego Romeres. The competition was organized by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Technical University of Darmstadt and Chalmers University of Technology.
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AWARD Honorable Mention Award at NeurIPS 23 Instruction Workshop Date: December 15, 2023
Awarded to: Lingfeng Sun, Devesh K. Jha, Chiori Hori, Siddharth Jain, Radu Corcodel, Xinghao Zhu, Masayoshi Tomizuka and Diego Romeres
MERL Contacts: Radu Corcodel; Chiori Hori; Siddarth Jain; Devesh K. Jha; Diego Romeres
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, RoboticsBrief- MERL Researchers received an "Honorable Mention award" at the Workshop on Instruction Tuning and Instruction Following at the NeurIPS 2023 conference in New Orleans. The workshop was on the topic of instruction tuning and Instruction following for Large Language Models (LLMs). MERL researchers presented their work on interactive planning using LLMs for partially observable robotic tasks during the oral presentation session at the workshop.
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AWARD Joint University of Padua-MERL team wins Challenge 'AI Olympics With RealAIGym' Date: August 25, 2023
Awarded to: Alberto Dalla Libera, Niccolo' Turcato, Giulio Giacomuzzo, Ruggero Carli, Diego Romeres
MERL Contact: Diego Romeres
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, RoboticsBrief- A joint team consisting of members of University of Padua and MERL ranked 1st in the IJCAI2023 Challenge "Al Olympics With RealAlGym: Is Al Ready for Athletic Intelligence in the Real World?". The team was composed by MERL researcher Diego Romeres and a team from University Padua (UniPD) consisting of Alberto Dalla Libera, Ph.D., Ph.D. Candidates: Niccolò Turcato, Giulio Giacomuzzo and Prof. Ruggero Carli from University of Padua.
The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) is a premier gathering for AI researchers and organizes several competitions. This year the competition CC7 "AI Olympics With RealAIGym: Is AI Ready for Athletic Intelligence in the Real World?" consisted of two stages: simulation and real-robot experiments on two under-actuated robotic systems. The two robotics systems were treated as separate tracks and one final winner was selected for each track based on specific performance criteria in the control tasks.
The UniPD-MERL team competed and won in both tracks. The team's system made strong use of a Model-based Reinforcement Learning algorithm called (MC-PILCO) that we recently published in the journal IEEE Transaction on Robotics.
- A joint team consisting of members of University of Padua and MERL ranked 1st in the IJCAI2023 Challenge "Al Olympics With RealAlGym: Is Al Ready for Athletic Intelligence in the Real World?". The team was composed by MERL researcher Diego Romeres and a team from University Padua (UniPD) consisting of Alberto Dalla Libera, Ph.D., Ph.D. Candidates: Niccolò Turcato, Giulio Giacomuzzo and Prof. Ruggero Carli from University of Padua.
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Internships with Diego
See All Internships at MERL -
MERL Publications
- , "RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), October 2025.BibTeX TR2025-152 PDF Video
- @inproceedings{Vats2025oct,
- author = {Vats, Shivam and Jha, Devesh K. and Likhachev, Maxim and Kroemer, Oliver and Romeres, Diego},
- title = {{RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation}},
- booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
- year = 2025,
- month = oct,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-152}
- }
- , "Hierarchical Task Planning for Human-Robot Collaborative Assembly", IFAC Joint Conference on Computers, Cognition, and Communication, September 2025.BibTeX TR2025-134 PDF
- @inproceedings{Pegoraro2025sep,
- author = {Pegoraro, Giulia and Giacomuzzo, Giulio and Terreran, Matteo and Ghidoni, Stefano and Carli, Ruggero and Romeres, Diego},
- title = {{Hierarchical Task Planning for Human-Robot Collaborative Assembly}},
- booktitle = {IFAC Joint Conference on Computers, Cognition, and Communication},
- year = 2025,
- month = sep,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-134}
- }
- , "Learning Pivoting Manipulation with Force and Vision Feedback Using Optimization-based Demonstrations", arXiv, August 2025.BibTeX arXiv
- @article{Shirai2025aug,
- author = {Shirai, Yuki and Ota, Kei and Jha, Devesh K. and Romeres, Diego},
- title = {{Learning Pivoting Manipulation with Force and Vision Feedback Using Optimization-based Demonstrations}},
- journal = {arXiv},
- year = 2025,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2508.01082}
- }
- , "Learning Positive Definite Inertia Matrices in Black-Box Inverse Dynamics Models via Gaussian Processes: a Constraint Learning Approach", European Control Conference (ECC), June 2025.BibTeX TR2025-090 PDF
- @inproceedings{Giacomuzzo2025jun,
- author = {Giacomuzzo, Giulio and Romeres, Diego and Carli, Ruggero and Dalla Libera, Alberto},
- title = {{Learning Positive Definite Inertia Matrices in Black-Box Inverse Dynamics Models via Gaussian Processes: a Constraint Learning Approach}},
- booktitle = {European Control Conference (ECC)},
- year = 2025,
- month = jun,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-090}
- }
- , "RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation", R3: Reasoning for Robust Robot Manipulation in the Open World Workshop at R:SS 2025, June 2025.BibTeX TR2025-091 PDF Video
- @inproceedings{Vats2025jun,
- author = {Vats, Shivam and Jha, Devesh K. and Likhachev, Maxim and Kroemer, Oliver and Romeres, Diego},
- title = {{RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation}},
- booktitle = {R3: Reasoning for Robust Robot Manipulation in the Open World Workshop at R:SS 2025},
- year = 2025,
- month = jun,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-091}
- }
- , "RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), October 2025.
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Other Publications
- , "On-line bayesian system identification", Control Conference (ECC), 2016 European, 2016, pp. 1359-1364.BibTeX
- @Inproceedings{romeres2016line,
- author = {Romeres, Diego and Prando, Giulia and Pillonetto, Gianluigi and Chiuso, Alessandro},
- title = {On-line bayesian system identification},
- booktitle = {Control Conference (ECC), 2016 European},
- year = 2016,
- pages = {1359--1364},
- organization = {IEEE}
- }
- , "Online semi-parametric learning for inverse dynamics modeling", Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on, 2016, pp. 2945-2950.BibTeX
- @Inproceedings{romeres2016online,
- author = {Romeres, Diego and Zorzi, Mattia and Camoriano, Raffaello and Chiuso, Alessandro},
- title = {Online semi-parametric learning for inverse dynamics modeling},
- booktitle = {Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on},
- year = 2016,
- pages = {2945--2950},
- organization = {IEEE}
- }
- , "Online semi-parametric learning for inverse dynamics modeling", Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on, 2016, pp. 2945-2950.BibTeX
- @Inproceedings{romeres2016onlinesemiparametric,
- author = {Romeres, Diego and Zorzi, Mattia and Camoriano, Raffaello and Chiuso, Alessandro},
- title = {Online semi-parametric learning for inverse dynamics modeling},
- booktitle = {Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on},
- year = 2016,
- pages = {2945--2950},
- organization = {IEEE}
- }
- , "Classical vs. Bayesian methods for linear system identification: Point estimators and confidence sets", Control Conference (ECC), 2016 European, 2016, pp. 1365-1370.BibTeX
- @Inproceedings{tprando2016classical,
- author = {Prando, Giulia and Romeres, Diego and Pillonetto, Gianluigi and Chiuso, Alessandro},
- title = {Classical vs. Bayesian methods for linear system identification: Point estimators and confidence sets},
- booktitle = {Control Conference (ECC), 2016 European},
- year = 2016,
- pages = {1365--1370},
- organization = {IEEE}
- }
- , "Online identification of time-varying systems: A Bayesian approach", Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on, 2016, pp. 3775-3780.BibTeX
- @Inproceedings{tprando2016online,
- author = {Prando, Giulia and Romeres, Diego and Chiuso, Alessandro},
- title = {Online identification of time-varying systems: A Bayesian approach},
- booktitle = {Decision and Control (CDC), 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on},
- year = 2016,
- pages = {3775--3780},
- organization = {IEEE}
- }
- , "Region of attraction of power systems", IFAC Proceedings Volumes, Vol. 46, No. 27, pp. 49-54, 2013.BibTeX
- @Article{munz2013region,
- author = {Muenz, Ulrich and Romeres, Diego},
- title = {Region of attraction of power systems},
- journal = {IFAC Proceedings Volumes},
- year = 2013,
- volume = 46,
- number = 27,
- pages = {49--54},
- publisher = {Elsevier}
- }
- , "Novel results on slow coherency in consensus and power networks", Control Conference (ECC), 2013 European, 2013, pp. 742-747.BibTeX
- @Inproceedings{romeres2013novel,
- author = {Romeres, Diego and Doerfler, Florian and Bullo, Francesco},
- title = {Novel results on slow coherency in consensus and power networks},
- booktitle = {Control Conference (ECC), 2013 European},
- year = 2013,
- pages = {742--747},
- organization = {IEEE}
- }
- , "Distributed multi-hop reactive power compensation in smart micro-grids subject to saturation constraints", Decision and Control (CDC), 2012 IEEE 51st Annual Conference on, 2012, pp. 1118-1123.BibTeX
- @Inproceedings{bolognani2012distributed,
- author = {Bolognani, Saverio and Carron, Andrea and Di Vittorio, Alberto and Romeres, Diego and Schenato, Luca and Zampieri, Sandro},
- title = {Distributed multi-hop reactive power compensation in smart micro-grids subject to saturation constraints},
- booktitle = {Decision and Control (CDC), 2012 IEEE 51st Annual Conference on},
- year = 2012,
- pages = {1118--1123},
- organization = {IEEE}
- }
- , "On-line bayesian system identification", Control Conference (ECC), 2016 European, 2016, pp. 1359-1364.
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Software & Data Downloads
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Videos
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MERL Issued Patents
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Title: "System and Method for Robust Pivoting for Re-Orienting Parts during Robotic Assembly"
Inventors: Jha, Devesh; Shirai, Yuki; Raghunathan, Arvind U.; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 12,397,425
Issue Date: Aug 26, 2025 -
Title: "System and Method for Controlling a Robotic Manipulator"
Inventors: Romeres, Diego; Zhang, Xiang
Patent No.: 12,397,419
Issue Date: Aug 26, 2025 -
Title: "Method and System for Modelling and Control Partially Measurable Systems"
Inventors: Romeres, Diego; Amadio, Fabio; Libera, Alberto Dalla; Antonello, Riccardo; Carli, Ruggero; Nikovski, Daniel N.
Patent No.: 12,346,115
Issue Date: Jul 1, 2025 -
Title: "Apparatuses Systems and Methods for Optimization-Based Control of Physical Systems"
Inventors: Chakrabarty, Ankush; Quirynen, Rien; Romeres, Diego; Di Cairano, Stefano
Patent No.: 12,346,072
Issue Date: Jul 1, 2025 -
Title: "System and Method for Controlling a Robot using Constrained Dynamic Movement Primitives"
Inventors: Jha, Devesh; Shaw, Seiji; Raghunathan, Arvind U.; Corcodel, Radu Ioan; Romeres, Diego; Nikovski, Daniel N.
Patent No.: 12,343,876
Issue Date: Jul 1, 2025 -
Title: "System and Method for Robust Robotic Manipulation using Chance Constrained Optimization"
Inventors: Jha, Devesh; Raghunathan, Arvind U.; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 12,049,007
Issue Date: Jul 30, 2024 -
Title: "OBJECT MANIPULATION WITH COLLISION AVOIDANCE USING COMPLEMENTARITY CONSTRAINTS"
Inventors: Raghunathan, Arvind U.; Jha, Devesh; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 11,883,962
Issue Date: Jan 30, 2024 -
Title: "System and Method for Robotic Assembly Based on Adaptive Compliance"
Inventors: Nikovski, Daniel N.; Romeres, Diego; Jha, Devesh; Yerazunis, William S.
Patent No.: 11,673,264
Issue Date: Jun 13, 2023 -
Title: "System and Method for Policy Optimization using Quasi-Newton Trust Region Method"
Inventors: Jha, Devesh; Raghunathan, Arvind U; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 11,650,551
Issue Date: May 16, 2023 -
Title: "Systems and Methods Automatic Anomaly Detection in Mixed Human-Robot Manufacturing Processes"
Inventors: Laftchiev, Emil; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 11,472,028
Issue Date: Oct 18, 2022 -
Title: "Systems and Methods for Advance Anomaly Detection in a Discrete Manufacturing Process with a Task Performed by a Human-Robot Team"
Inventors: Laftchiev, Emil; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 11,442,429
Issue Date: Sep 13, 2022 -
Title: "System and Design of Derivative-free Model Learning for Robotic Systems"
Inventors: Romeres, Diego; Libera, Alberto Dalla; Jha, Devesh; Nikovski, Daniel Nikolaev
Patent No.: 11,389,957
Issue Date: Jul 19, 2022 -
Title: "System and Method for Thermal Control Based on Invertible Causation Relationship"
Inventors: Laftchiev, Emil; Nikovski, Daniel N.; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 11,280,514
Issue Date: Mar 22, 2022 -
Title: "System and Method for Automatic Error Recovery in Robotic Assembly"
Inventors: Nikovski, Daniel Nikolaev; Jha, Devesh; Romeres, Diego
Patent No.: 11,161,244
Issue Date: Nov 2, 2021
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Title: "System and Method for Robust Pivoting for Re-Orienting Parts during Robotic Assembly"
