Antonio Alvarez Valdivia
Date:
Speaker
Antonio Alvarez Valdivia received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University in 2021, and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 2025 under the supervision of Prof. L. H. Blumenschein. He was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where his work included field robotics for search-and-rescue and underwater soft robots. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Northeastern University. His research interests include soft robotics, haptics, wearable systems, human–machine interaction, and human-centered robotics. He was awarded the 2024 IEEE Transactions on Haptics Best Application Paper Award.
Speaker Links: Google Scholar
Abstract
Soft robotics offers new opportunities for designing robotic systems that can interact safely and effectively with people while adapting to complex and unstructured environments. In this talk, I will discuss my research at the intersection of soft robotics, haptics, human–robot interaction, and field robotics, with an emphasis on how compliance, novel sensing and actuation, and reconfigurable designs can enable new forms of physical interaction and adaptation. I will highlight lessons from developing robotic systems across a range of applications, from communicating information through touch to operating in challenging real-world environments. More broadly, the talk will explore how the design of a robot’s body, sensing, and interaction capabilities can be considered together to create systems that are better suited to the people, tasks, and environments in which they operate.
Papers Covered
- “Wrapping haptic displays around robot arms to communicate learning.” IEEE Transactions on Haptics 16.1 (2023): 57-72.
- “A modular haptic display with reconfigurable signals for personalized information transfer.” IEEE Transactions on Haptics (2026).
- “SPROUT: The Open-Source Soft Growing Robot for Search and Rescue.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2609.17781 (2026).