Rate My Professor Luka Peternel

Dr. Luka Peternel serves in the Department of Cognitive Robotics within the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Delft University of Technology, where since 2019 he has led the Human-Robot Collaboration group in the Human-Robot Interaction section. He earned his PhD in robotics from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2015, with doctoral studies conducted at the Department for Automation, Biocybernetics and Robotics, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, from 2011 to 2015, and at the Department of Brain-Robot Interface, ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan, in 2013 and 2014. Previously, from 2015 to 2018, he was at the Human-Robot Interfaces and Physical Interaction Lab, Advanced Robotics department, Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy. Peternel's research centers on physical human-robot interaction, teleoperation, exoskeletons, robot learning, and human motor control. His work develops control strategies enabling robots to collaborate with humans in unstructured environments for tasks in manufacturing, physiotherapy, elderly care, and hazardous operations. This includes integrating human biomechanical models for ergonomic assistance, teleimpedance interfaces for remote skill teaching, and studies of human neuromechanical systems.

Peternel is course manager and instructor for RO47001 Robot Dynamics & Control and instructor for RO47013 Control in Human-Robot Interaction in TU Delft's Master in Robotics program, and contributes to courses like Mechanics of Materials and Human-Robot Interaction. He is a member of the Works Council for the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (2020-2026), serving on sub-committees for HR, Education, and Communication. Editorial roles include Associate Editor for International Journal of Robotics Research (Human-Robot Interaction, 2023-present), IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (Robot Learning, 2020-2023), and associate editor for conferences ICRA, IROS, Humanoids. He has organized workshops at IROS, ICRA, and Humanoids, and delivered invited talks at RSS, ICRA, IROS, and others. Awards include Best Paper at FICTA 2024 for "Computer vision- and human-robot interaction-supported assembly for collaborative off-earth habitat construction" and Finalist Best Interactive Paper at Humanoids 2023 for "Real-time tendon strain estimation of rotator-cuff muscles during robotic-assisted rehabilitation." Key publications are "Robot adaptation to human physical fatigue in human-robot co-manipulation" (Autonomous Robots, 2018), "A Human-Robot Collaboration Framework for Improving Ergonomics During Cyclic Tasks" (Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 2021), "Dynamic movement primitives in robotics: A tutorial survey" (Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, 2023), and "Visio-verbal teleimpedance interface: enabling semi-autonomous control of physical interaction via eye tracking and speech" (Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2026).