Luca Carlone

Leonardo Career Development Professor in Engineering
Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Principal Investigator, Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems (LIDS)
Pronouns He/His
I'm interested in the design of certifiable perception algorithms for high-integrity autonomous systems, and the development of algorithms and systems for real-time 3D scene understanding on mobile robotics platforms operating in the real world.

Contact Info

Office Phone

617.253.6170

Email

Office

Website/Lab

Social Media:

YouTube

Administrative Contact

Olga Novak
617.258.8773

Financial Coordinator

Quentin Alexander
617.253.6270

Specialization and Research Interests

My research interests include nonlinear estimation, numerical and distributed optimization, and probabilistic inference, applied to sensing, perception, and decision making in single and multi-robot systems.

Teaching Interests

Dynamical systems and control, sensing & estimation, optimization, autonomy, robotics

Academic Degrees

B.S., 2006, Polytechnic University of Turin, with highest honors; S.M., 2008, Polytechnic University of Turin, with highest honors; S.M., 2008, Polytechnic University of Milan, with highest honors; Ph.D., 2012, Polytechnic University of Turin

Society Memberships

Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Senior Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

Positions Held at MIT

Leonardo Career Development Assistant Professor, July 2020 – present; Charles Stark Draper Assistant Professor, 2017-2020; Research Scientist, 2016-2017; postdoctoral associate, 2015-2016

Positions Held outside MIT

Postdoctoral fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013-2015; visiting scholar, University of California Santa Barbara, 2011; visiting scholar, University of Zaragoza (Spain), 2010

Featured Story

“Alexa, go to the kitchen and fetch me a snack”
New model aims to give robots human-like perception of their physical environments.
See all stories

Awards & Honors

2021
Outstanding Associate Editor Award, International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
2021
NSF Career Award, National Science Foundation
2020
Honorable Mention, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
2020
RSS Early Career Award
2020
Best Paper Award in Robot Vision, International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
2020
Vickie Kerrebrock Faculty Award, MIT AeroAstro
2020
Amazon Research Award, Amazon
2020
Winner of the Urban Circuit, DARPA Subterranean Challenge, DARPA
2019
Senior Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
2018
Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
2018
King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award, IEEE Transactions on Robotics
2016
Best Paper Award, Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR)

Key publications