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

May 01, 2026 We are organising the workshop “Beyond Rigidity - Deformable and Articulated Robotic Object Manipulation” at RSS2026 on articulated and deformable objects.
Apr 01, 2026 I just finished a research visit of 3-months at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, DLR.
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!

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
    DOI Website
  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
    DOI Website
  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
    DOI
  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
    Abs DOI Website
  5. iros22.gif
    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
    DOI Code Website
  6. ral22.gif
    Manipulation of Granular Materials by Learning Particle Interactions
    Neea Tuomainen*, David Blanco-Mulero*, and Ville Kyrki
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2022
    DOI Code Website