Valerio Bo

Valerio Bo is an Assistant Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and a Researcher at the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI, CSIC-UPC), where he works on Human-Robot Interaction and social navigation. His research focuses on multimodal perception and proactive decision-making, enabling robots to recognize human intentions and adapt their behavior accordingly, so they can interact with people naturally, safely, and effectively in shared spaces. He is particularly interested in how robots communicate intent and build trust during close human-robot interaction, and in designing systems that can anticipate people's needs rather than simply react to them. His work combines algorithmic development with experimental validation on real robotic platforms, studying how people perceive and respond to different robot behaviors in everyday, human-populated environments. He earned his Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Siena and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in 2023, focusing on data-driven design for soft robotic hands. He has authored over 15 peer-reviewed publications in international robotics venues.