Doctoral colloquium - Branislav Zigo (13.4.2026)
Monday 13.4.2026 at 13:10, Lecture room I 9
Branislav Zigo:
The Humanoid as a Research Platform: Perception, Action, and Intelligence
Abstract:
We present the humanoid robot Unitree G1 with dexterous hands as a research platform for studying perception, action, and intelligence in embodied systems. The talk begins with a short live demonstration of the robot’s basic skills and highlights its current capabilities and limitations in locomotion, manipulation, perception and communication.
The presentation then places these demonstrations into a broader research context. We show how humanoid manipulation is moving beyond scripted control towards learned sensorimotor policies, and briefly introduce Vision-Language-Action models, Large Behavior Models, and the role of tactile sensing and proprioception in stable grasping and regrasping. Particular attention is given to dexterous bimanual manipulation as one of the major open challenges in humanoid robotics.
Finally, we discuss training strategies based on teleoperation, imitation learning, simulation, and Learning Using Privileged Information (LUPI), and summarize current state-of-the-art trends together with selected open problems. The aim is to link an intuitive robot demonstration with current research directions in embodied AI and humanoid dexterity.