(image credit: LinkedIn)

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of Robotics at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), Abu Dhabi, UAE. I am also an IEEE senior member and the recipient of the 2023 IEEE CSS George S. Axelby Outstanding Paper and the 2023 IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Best Paper Awards. In addition, I am a part of several IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. I am also in the advisory Board and the Steering Committee of the International Elite Summer School in Robotics and Entrepreneurship.

Before joining MBZUAI, I was a Senior Scientist and Teaching Coordinator at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), where I led the Robot Learning research groups and coordinated and delivered various robotics and control courses. Furthermore, I led several high-profile EU projects with a focus varying from Robotic design to applying AI on large-scale robotic systems.

My research interests lie at the intersection of artificial intelligence and robotics, where I focus on pioneering new strategies that harness AI’s potential to enhance robotic control systems. I am particularly drawn to designing and analyzing innovative robotic systems that integrate AI-driven safe learning methodologies, empowering robots and autonomous systems to adapt seamlessly to their environments while upholding safety standards. My work involves compositional analysis of large-scale interconnected systems and using symbolic control and control barrier functions to ensure stability across infinite networks.

(source: Personal Webpage)

Research Interests

• Robotics Systems and Mechatronics design
• Quantum robotics and control systems
• Safe learning in robotic control and autonomous systems
• Compositional analysis and synthesis of interconnected systems
• Symbolic Control
• Control barrier function
• Incremental stability
• Stability analysis of infinite networks

(source: RSI webpage)

Contact

• LinkedIn
• Personal Webpage
• MBZUAI
• Google Scholar
• ORCID

Selected Publications

• Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Dennis Ossadnik, Vasilije Rakcevic, Kangwagye Samuel, Abdalla Swikir, Valentin Le Mesle, Sami Haddadin, IBSA Joint: A Fully Integrated Bi-Stiffness Actuator Joint for Precise Energy Transfer Timing in Explosive Motion Tasks, 2025. [Project Page]
• Jicong Ao, Fan Wu, Yansong Wu, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, LLM-as-BT-Planner: Leveraging LLMs for Behavior Tree Generation in Robot Task Planning, 2025. [Project Page]
• Yansong Wu, Zongxie Chen, Fan Wu, Lingyun Chen, Liding Zhang, Zhenshan Bing, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Alois Knoll, TacDiffusion: Force-Domain Diffusion Policy for Precise Tactile Manipulation, 2025. [Project Page]
• Alessandro Melone, Robin Jeanne Kirschner, Dirk Müller, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, MonLog: MONotonic-Constrained LOGistic Regressions for Automated Safety Curve Design, 2025. [Project Page]
• Peter So, Abdalla Swikir, Fares J. Abu-Dakka, Sami Haddadin, Evaluating Human-Robot Skill Gaps in Electrical Circuit Inspection: A New Electronic Task Board for Benchmarking Manipulation, 2025. [Project Page]
• Shreenabh Agrawal, Hugo T. M. Kussaba, Lingyun Chen, Allen Emmanuel Binny, Pushpak Jagtap, Sami Haddadin, Abdalla Swikir, Scalable Learning of High-Dimensional Demonstrations with Composition of Linear Parameter Varying Dynamical Systems, 2025. [Project Page]
• Lingyun Chen, Xinrui Zhao, Marcos P. S. Campanha, Alexander Wegener, Abdeldjallil Naceri, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Enhanced Robotic Navigation in Deformable Environments using Learning from Demonstration and Dynamic Modulation, 2025. [Project Page]
• Katharina Bieker, Hugo T. M. Kussaba, Philipp Scholl, Jaesug Jung, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Gitta Kutyniok, Compositional Construction of Barrier Functions for Switched Impulsive Systems, 2024. [Project Page]
• Lingyun Chen, Haoyu Yu, Abdeldjallil Naceri, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Time-Optimized Trajectory Planning for Non-prehensile Object Transportation in 3D, 2024. [Project Page]
• Peter So, Ahmed Abdelrahman, Hoan Quang Le, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Towards Mastering Real-World Robot Benchmarking: Lessons Learned from the Robothon Grand Challenge, 2024. [Project Page]
• Ali Aminzadeh, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Abolfazl Lavaei, Compositional Safety Verification of Infinite Networks: A Data-Driven Approach, 2024. [Project Page]
• Dennis Ossadnik, Vasilije Rakcevic, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Hugo T. M. Kussaba, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Optimal Control for Clutched-Elastic Robots: A Contact-Implicit Approach, 2024. [Project Page]
• Lingyun Chen, Abdeldjallil Naceri, Abdalla Swikir, Sandra Hirche, Sami Haddadin, Autonomous and Teleoperation Control of a Drawing Robot Avatar, 2024. [Project Page]
• Martin Schonger, Hugo T. M. Kussaba, Lingyun Chen, Luis F. C. Figueredo, Abdalla Swikir, Aude Billard, Sami Haddadin, Learning Barrier-Certified Polynomial Dynamical Systems for Obstacle Avoidance with Robots, 2024. [Project Page]
• Peter So, Rafael I. Cabral Muchacho, Robin Jeanne Kirschner, Abdalla Swikir, Luis F. C. Figueredo, Fares J. Abu-Dakka, Sami Haddadin, CITR: A Coordinate-Invariant Task Representation for Robotic Manipulation, 2024. [Project Page]
• Sebastian Kuhn, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Kübra Karacan, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, A Novel Variable Stiffness Suspension System for Improved Stability and Control of Tactile Mobile Manipulators, 2024. [Project Page]
• Sonja Groß, Michael Ratzel, Edgar Welte, Diego Hidalgo-Carvajal, Lingyun Chen, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Amartya Ganguly, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, OPENGRASP-LITE Version 1.0: A Tactile Artificial Hand with a Compliant Linkage Mechanism, 2024. [Project Page]
• Lingyun Chen, Haoyu Yu, Liding Zhang, Abdeldjallil Naceri, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Trajectory Planning for Non-Prehensile Object Transportation, 2024. [Project Page]
• Johannes Ringwald, Samuel Schneider, Lingyun Chen, Dennis Knobbe, Lars Johannsmeier, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Towards Task-Specific Modular Gripper Fingers: Automatic Production of Fingertip Mechanics, 2023. [Project Page]
• Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Dennis Ossadnik, Abdalla Swikir, Saeed Abdolshah, Sami Haddadin, Optimally Controlling the Timing of Energy Transfer in Elastic Joints: Experimental Validation of the Bi-Stiffness Actuation Concept, 2023. [Project Page]
• Johannes Ringwald, Shaochuan Zong, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Automatic Gripper-Finger Design, Production, and Application: Toward Fast and Cost-Effective Small-Batch Production, 2023. [Project Page]
• Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edgar Alejandro Pisano, Mazin Hamad, Valentin Le Mesle, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, A Task-Aware Lightweight Link Design Framework for Robots Under Dynamic Loading, 2023. [Project Page]
• Moritz Eckhoff, Dennis Knobbe, Henning Zwirnmann, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Towards Connecting Control to Perception: High-Performance Whole-Body Collision Avoidance Using Control-Compatible Obstacles, 2023. [Project Page]
• Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Abdalla Swikir, Saeed Abdolsah, Sami Haddadin, Comparing Digital Implementations of Torque Control for BLDC Motors with Trapezoidal Back-Emf, 2022. [Project Page]
• Mehmet Can Yildirim, Mohamadreza Sabaghian, Thore Goll, Clemens Kössler, Christoph Jähne, Abdalla Swikir, Andriy Sarabakha, Sami Haddadin, Development of a Collaborative Wheeled Mobile Robot: Design Considerations, Drive Unit Torque Control, and Preliminary Result, 2022. [Project Page]
• Dennis Ossadnik, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Fan Wu, Abdalla Swikir, Hugo T. M. Kussaba, Saeed Abdolshah, Sami Haddadin, BSA - Bi-Stiffness Actuation for optimally exploiting intrinsic compliance and inertial coupling effects in elastic joint robots, 2022. [Project Page]
• Riddhiman Laha, Luis F. C. Figueredo, Juraj Vrabel, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Reactive Cooperative Manipulation based on Set Primitives and Circular Fields, 2021. [Project Page]
• Lingyun Chen, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Drawing Elon Musk: A Robot Avatar for Remote Manipulation, 2021. [Project Page]
• Riddhiman Laha, Jonathan Vorndamme, Luis F. C. Figueredo, Zheng Qu, Abdalla Swikir, Christoph Jähne, Sami Haddadin, Coordinated Motion Generation and Object Placement: A Reactive Planning and Landing Approach, 2021. [Project Page]