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

I’m also about to finish my PhD at Aalto University Intelligent Robotics group supervised by Prof. Ville Kyrki.

My research focuses mainly on deformable object manipulation and learning representation for manipulation.

Research interests

• Manipulation. Robotic manipulation of deformable objects.
• Geometric deep learning. Relational inductive-bias models such as Graph Neural Networks or Graph Gaussian Processes.
• Gaussian processes. Probabilistic models on structured domains. Learning data-efficient surrogate models for control.

Selected Publications

1. Blanco-Mulero, D., Barbany, O., Alcan, G., Colomé, A., Torras, C., & Kyrki, V. (2023). Benchmarking the Sim-to-Real Gap in Cloth Manipulation. ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:2310.09543.

   @article{blanco2023benchmarking,
     title = {Benchmarking the Sim-to-Real Gap in Cloth Manipulation},
     author = {Blanco-Mulero, David and Barbany, Oriol and Alcan, Gokhan and Colom{\'e}, Adri{\`a} and Torras, Carme and Kyrki, Ville},
     journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.09543},
     year = {2023},
     group = {preprint},
     link = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.09543},
     website = {https://sites.google.com/view/cloth-sim2real-benchmark}
   }
   

2. Blanco-Mulero, D., Alcan, G., Abu-Dakka, F. J., & Kyrki, V. (2023). QDP: Learning to Sequentially Optimise Quasi-Static and Dynamic Manipulation Primitives for Robotic Cloth Manipulation. 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 984–991. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10342002

   @article{blancomulero2023qdp,
     author = {Blanco-Mulero, David and Alcan, Gokhan and Abu-Dakka, Fares J. and Kyrki, Ville},
     booktitle = {2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
     title = {QDP: Learning to Sequentially Optimise Quasi-Static and Dynamic Manipulation Primitives for Robotic Cloth Manipulation},
     year = {2023},
     volume = {},
     number = {},
     pages = {984-991},
     doi = {10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10342002},
     group = {conference},
     website = {https://sites.google.com/view/qdp-srl}
   }
   

3. Rajani, C., Arndt, K., Blanco-Mulero, D., Luck, K. S., & Kyrki, V. (2023). Co-imitation: Learning Design and Behaviour by Imitation. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 37(5), 6200–6208. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v37i5.25764

   @article{rajani2023coimitation,
     title = {Co-imitation: Learning Design and Behaviour by Imitation},
     volume = {37},
     doi = {10.1609/aaai.v37i5.25764},
     number = {5},
     journal = {Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence},
     author = {Rajani, Chang and Arndt, Karol and Blanco-Mulero, David and Luck, Kevin Sebastian and Kyrki, Ville},
     year = {2023},
     month = jun,
     pages = {6200-6208},
     link = {https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AAAI/article/view/25764},
     website = {https://sites.google.com/view/co-imitation},
     group = {conference}
   }
   

4. Hietala, J., Blanco-Mulero, D., Alcan, G., & Kyrki, V. (2022). Learning Visual Feedback Control for Dynamic Cloth Folding. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

   @inproceedings{hietala2022closing,
     title = {Learning Visual Feedback Control for Dynamic Cloth Folding},
     author = {Hietala, Julius and Blanco-Mulero, David and Alcan, Gokhan and Kyrki, Ville},
     booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
     year = {2022},
     link = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.04771},
     group = {conference},
     website = {https://sites.google.com/view/dynamic-cloth-folding/home},
     code = {https://github.com/hietalajulius/dynamic-cloth-folding}
   }
   

5. Tuomainen*, N., Blanco-Mulero*, D., & Kyrki, V. (2022). Manipulation of Granular Materials by Learning Particle Interactions. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(2), 5663–5670. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2022.3158382

   @article{tuomainen2022manipulation,
     author = {Tuomainen*, Neea and Blanco-Mulero*, David and Kyrki, Ville},
     journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
     title = {Manipulation of Granular Materials by Learning Particle Interactions},
     year = {2022},
     volume = {7},
     number = {2},
     pages = {5663-5670},
     doi = {10.1109/LRA.2022.3158382},
     link = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9732690?source=authoralert},
     group = {journal},
     website = {https://sites.google.com/view/granular-gnn-manipulation},
     code = {https://github.com/dblanm/gnn-manip}
   }
   

6. Blanco-Mulero, D., Alcan, G., Abu-Dakka, F. J., & Kyrki, V. (2023). QDP: Learning to Sequentially Optimise Quasi-Static and Dynamic Manipulation Primitives for Robotic Cloth Manipulation. 3rd Workshop on Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA.

   @inproceedings{blancomulero2023qdp_workshop,
     title = {QDP: Learning to Sequentially Optimise Quasi-Static and Dynamic Manipulation Primitives for Robotic Cloth Manipulation},
     author = {Blanco-Mulero, David and Alcan, Gokhan and Abu-Dakka, Fares J. and Kyrki, Ville},
     booktitle = {3rd Workshop on Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA},
     year = {2023},
     group = {workshop},
     website = {https://sites.google.com/view/qdp-srl}
   }
   

7. Rajani, C., Arndt, K., Blanco-Mulero, D., Luck, K. S., & Kyrki, V. (2022). Co-Imitation: Learning Design and Behaviour by Imitation. Deep Reinforcement Learning Workshop NeurIPS 2022.

   @inproceedings{rajani2022coimitation_workshop,
     title = {Co-Imitation: Learning Design and Behaviour by Imitation},
     author = {Rajani, Chang and Arndt, Karol and Blanco-Mulero, David and Luck, Kevin Sebastian and Kyrki, Ville},
     booktitle = {Deep Reinforcement Learning Workshop NeurIPS 2022},
     year = {2022},
     link = {https://openreview.net/forum?id=SigVQmfyVfR},
     group = {workshop},
     website = {https://sites.google.com/view/co-imitation}
   }
   

8. Blanco-Mulero, D., Heinonen, M., & Kyrki, V. (2021). Evolving-Graph Gaussian Processes. Time Series Workshop at 34th International Conference on Machine Learning.

   @inproceedings{blancomulero2021evolvinggraph,
     title = {Evolving-Graph Gaussian Processes},
     author = {Blanco-Mulero, David and Heinonen, Markus and Kyrki, Ville},
     year = {2021},
     booktitle = {Time Series Workshop at 34th International Conference on Machine Learning.},
     link = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.15127},
     group = {workshop},
     code = {https://github.com/dblanm/evolving-ggp}
   }
   

9. Vihonen, J., Aref, M. M., Vladimı́r Petrı́k, Arndt, K., Mulero, D. B., Kyrki, V., Naskali, J., & Rasinen, M. (2022). Dynamic flex compensation, coordinated hoist control, and anti-sway control for load handling machines. Google Patents.

   @misc{vihonen2022dynamic,
     title = {Dynamic flex compensation, coordinated hoist control, and anti-sway control for load handling machines},
     author = {Vihonen, Juho and Aref, Mohammad M and Vladim{\'\i}r, Petr{\'\i}k and Arndt, Karol and Mulero, David Blanco and Kyrki, Ville and Naskali, Juuso and Rasinen, Marko},
     year = {2022},
     month = dec,
     publisher = {Google Patents},
     note = {US Patent App. 17/849,145},
     group = {patents},
     link = {https://patents.google.com/patent/US20220411234A1/en}
   }
   

News

08.01.2024 - Really exciting news! I just started a Research position at Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI-CSIC-UPC).

20.10.2023 - I was granted the Nokia PhD Scholarship grant (5000 Euros), to encourage the research of my PhD thesis.

15.10.2023 - We have published a pre-print “Benchmarking the Sim-to-Real Gap in Cloth Manipulation”. This work presents a benchmark dataset for dynamic cloth manipulation, and evaluates the reality gap in MuJoCo, Bullet, Flex and SOFA using the proposed benchmark. Check the project website for more information.

02.10.2023 - I presented our paper “QDP: Learning to Sequentially Optimise Quasi-Static and Dynamic Manipulation Primitives for Robotic Cloth Manipulation” at IROS 2023 in Detroit. You can check the project website for videos and more information.

30.05.2023 - I participated in the Cloth Manipulation and Perception track of the ICRA’23 Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Competition.

08.02.2023 - Our work Co-Imitation: Learning Design and Behaviour by Imitation was presented at AAAI 2023!

20.11.2022 - Our work Co-Imitation: Learning Design and Behaviour by Imitation has been accepted at AAAI 2023 as well as the NeurIPS DeepRL Workshop 2022!

26.10.2022 - I presented our work “Learning Visual Feedback Control for Dynamic Cloth Folding” at IROS 2022, which was a finalist for the IROS Best RoboCup Paper, IROS ABB Best Student Paper and IROS Best Paper awards! Check the project website for more information.