David Blanco-Mulero

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Hi there! I’m David Blanco Mulero, currently a Post-doc at Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI, CSIC-UPC).

I received my Ph.D. in Robotics from Aalto University in 2024, advised by Prof. Ville Kyrki head of the Intelligent Robotics group.

My research focuses on learning and representation for manipulation, with a special focus on manipulation of deformable objects.

news

Oct 11, 2025 Our work Scene Understanding in Deformable Object Manipulation via Taxonomy-Guided Vision-Language Models was accepted to the 5th Workshop on RObotic MAnipulation of Deformable Objects at IROS 2025. Check the project website for more information!
Sep 30, 2025 Great news, I have been awarded the José Castillejo grant! I will be doing a research stay at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, DLR during 2026!
Jun 18, 2025 Our work Efficient End-effector Co-Design by Demonstration for Deformable Fragile Object Manipulation was accepted to the 1st Workshop on Robot Hardware-Aware Intelligence at RSS 2025.
Jun 16, 2025 Our work Evaluating the Pre-Dressing Step: Unfolding Medical Garments via Imitation Learning was accepted to IROS 2025! I will be attending the conference so don’t miss out! Check out the project website for more information.
Aug 01, 2024 Our review paper on cloth manipulation: Unfolding the Literature is accepted to Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems.

selected publications

  1. pre_dressing.gif
    Evaluating the Pre-Dressing Step: Unfolding Medical Garments Via Imitation Learning
    David Blanco-Mulero, Júlia Borràs, and Carme Torras
    In 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2025
  2. benchmark_sim2real.gif
    Benchmarking the Sim-to-Real Gap in Cloth Manipulation
    David Blanco-Mulero, Oriol Barbany, Gokhan Alcan, and 3 more authors
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2024
  3. silk2.gif
    Rapid Improvement of Fiber Tensile Properties via In Situ Biomimetic Robotic Pulling and Bayesian Optimization
    Houari Bettahar, David Blanco-Mulero, Ville Kyrki, and 2 more authors
    Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2024
  4. qdp.gif
    QDP: Learning to Sequentially Optimise Quasi-Static and Dynamic Manipulation Primitives for Robotic Cloth Manipulation
    David Blanco-Mulero, Gokhan Alcan, Fares J. Abu-Dakka, and 1 more author
    In 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023
  5. visual_feedback.png
    Learning Visual Feedback Control for Dynamic Cloth Folding
    Julius Hietala, David Blanco-Mulero, Gokhan Alcan, and 1 more author
    In 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022
  6. granular.png
    Manipulation of Granular Materials by Learning Particle Interactions
    Neea Tuomainen*, David Blanco-Mulero*, and Ville Kyrki
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2022