Davide De Benedittis
Hey there 👋

I'm Davide De Benedittis

Robotics Engineer and Postdoctoral Researcher

Postdoc by day, robotics engineer by night...
My research focuses on:
  • Planning and control of multi-robot systems 🤖🤖🤖
  • Locomotion of legged robots 🦿
I aim to develop algorithms that can guarantee safety without sacrificing performance in real-world applications. I like...

My last projects

All projects

Control of Quadrupedal Robots on Soft Terrains

Model-based control for quadrupedal robots moving on compliant terrains.

Hierarchical Constraint-Based Control of Multi-Robot Systems

Control of heterogeneous multi-robot fleet using hierarchical optimization and quadratic programming.

Multi-Robot Systems Reinforcement Learning JAX

Control of multi-robot systems using reinforcement learning and JAX.

Docker Container for ROS (1 and 2), GUIs, and NVIDIA GPUs Docker

Docker container to be used with ROS 1 or ROS 2. Supports the usage of GUIs and NVIDIA GPUs.

Latest publications

All publications

Botany Meets Robotics in Alpine Screes Monitoring

IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics —

Autonomous monitoring framework for alpine screes using a quadrupedal robot equipped with cameras.

Quadrupeds

Citation

@article{debenedittis2025botany,
 author={De Benedittis, Davide and Di Lorenzo, Giovanni and Angelini, Franco and Valle, Barbara and Borgatti, Marina Serena and Remagnino, Paolo and Caccianiga, Marco and Garabini, Manolo},
 journal={IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics}, 
 title={Botany Meets Robotics in Alpine Scree Monitoring}, 
 year={2025},
 volume={},
 number={},
 pages={1-1},
 doi={10.1109/TFR.2025.3632773}}

Robotic Monitoring of European Habitats: a Labeled Dataset for Plant Detection in Annex I Habitats of Italy

Scientific Data —

A labeled image dataset acquired by a quadrupedal robot for plant species detection across Annex I habitats of Italy.

Quadrupeds

Citation

@article{dilorenzo2025robotic,
 author={Di Lorenzo, Giovanni and Angelini, Franco and Pierallini, Michele and Tolomei, Simone and De Benedittis, Davide and Denaro, Agnese and Rivieccio, Giovanni and Caria, Maria Carmela and Bonini, Federica and Grassi, Anna and de Simone, Leopoldo and Fanfarillo, Emanuele and Fiaschi, Tiberio and Maccherini, Simona and Valle, Barbara and Borgatti, Marina Serena and Bagella, Simonetta and Gigante, Daniela and Angiolini, Claudia and Caccianiga, Marco and Garabini, Manolo},
 journal={Scientific Data}, 
 title={Robotic monitoring of European habitats: a labeled dataset for plant detection in Annex I habitats of Italy}, 
 year={2025},
 volume={12},
 number={1},
 pages={822},
 doi={10.1038/s41597-025-05182-7}}

Managing Conflicting Tasks in Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems Through Hierarchical Optimization

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters —

Leverage hierarchical optimization (or hierarchical quadratic programming) for multi-robot coordination and guaranteed prioritized task execution.

Multi-Robots Hierarchical QP

Citation

@article{debenedittis2025managing,
 author={De Benedittis, Davide and Garabini, Manolo and Pallottino, Lucia},
 journal={IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
 title={Managing Conflicting Tasks in Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems Through Hierarchical Optimization}, 
 year={2025},
 volume={10},
 number={6},
 pages={5305-5312},
 doi={10.1109/LRA.2025.3559843}}

A Reproducible Benchmarking Methodology to Assess Robotic Locomotion Over Irregular Terrains: A Practical and Scalable Approach

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine —

A modular, replicable testbed, standardized protocol, and performance indicators to objectively benchmark legged locomotion over irregular and sloped terrains.

Quadrupeds

Citation

@article{rodriguezcianca2025reproducible,
 author={Rodriguez-Cianca, David and Sendin, Paulino and Alfonso, Giuseppe and De Benedittis, Davide and Tolomei, Simone and Angelini, Franco and Garabini, Manolo and Torricelli, Diego},
 journal={IEEE Robotics \& Automation Magazine}, 
 title={A Reproducible Benchmarking Methodology to Assess Robotic Locomotion Over Irregular Terrains: A Practical and Scalable Approach}, 
 year={2025},
 volume={},
 number={},
 pages={2-12},
 doi={10.1109/MRA.2025.3631570}}

Soft Bilinear Inverted Pendulum: a Model to Enable Locomotion with Soft Contacts

IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems —

Model-based two-control-blocks architecture (motion planner and tracking controller) for quadrupedal locomotion in the presence of soft contacts.

Hierarchical QP Quadrupeds

Citation

@article{debenedittis2025soft,
 author={De Benedittis, Davide and Angelini, Franco and Garabini, Manolo},
 journal={IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems}, 
 title={Soft Bilinear Inverted Pendulum: A Model to Enable Locomotion With Soft Contacts}, 
 year={2025},
 volume={55},
 number={2},
 pages={1478-1491},
 doi={10.1109/TSMC.2024.3504342}}