About
Hi, I’m Roberto.
I’m a robotics software engineer based in La Spezia, Italy. My route into robotics began with software and a preference for understanding how systems behave beneath their interfaces.
I’ve worked on software for autonomous racing vehicles, ROS 2 systems, state estimation, simulation, and Linux-based platforms. What stayed with me was not any one tool, but the challenge of making software meet the physical world: noisy sensors, timing constraints, incomplete information, and systems that still need to behave reliably.
Autonomous driving remains a long-term interest because it brings many of those problems together. More broadly, I’m drawn to autonomy, perception, learning, and low-level engineering—and to the point where a neat idea has to survive contact with a real machine.
Currently exploring
What I’m curious about
Outside of the areas I’ve already worked in, there are a few topics I’m particularly curious about, would like to understand more deeply, and intend to pursue in my future work.
Humanoid robotics
I’m fascinated by the challenge of building general-purpose robots that can perceive, reason, and act reliably in the physical world. I’m especially curious about how these capabilities can be integrated into systems that remain useful outside controlled demonstrations.
Rust
I’m learning Rust as a systems language, particularly for robotics software where performance, reliability, and concurrency all matter. Its approach to ownership and safety makes it an interesting way to rethink familiar engineering problems.
Learning architectures
I’m trying to build a clearer understanding of architectures beyond traditional Transformers—particularly state-space models such as Mamba, and approaches such as JEPA (Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture). I’m curious about what they might offer for learning useful representations of the physical world.
The common thread is that I enjoy moving between levels of abstraction: from algorithms and learned representations down to the software and hardware constraints that make a system work. I’m still learning where many of these paths lead, which is part of the appeal.
Education
- M.Sc. Robotics and Automation Engineering
- University of Pisa · Expected 2027
- B.Sc. Computer Engineering
- University of Pisa