WHERE, Walk the Future
International Summer School on Legged Robots, from Basics to Frontier Research
- ricerca
The University of Trento, in cooperation with the Free University of Bolzano and the Italian Institute of Technology, will organize an intensive, hands-on summer school dedicated to the science and practice of legged locomotion — covering fundamental modeling, advanced control, and real-time planning, and culminating in experiments on a real quadruped robot.
Target Group
PhD Students or last-year-M.Sc. with programming experience in C++ and/or Python.
Program of the Summer School
Lectures by leading robotic researchers on machine learning, control, perception, and planning for legged robots.
- Advanced lectures on dynamic control of quadrupeds, including whole-body and optimization-based approache.
- Reduced-order modeling for locomotion, bridging theoretical foundations and practical motion generation.
- Optimal control and trajectory optimization methods, including real-time Model Predictive Control with feasibility and stability guarantees.
- Introduction to State Estimation and Reinforcement Learning for robust performance under uncertainty and limited model knowledge.
- Hands-on sessions with state-of-the-art open-source tools for multi-body dynamics, visualization, in Python and C++ using ROS.
- Integration, deployment, and evaluation of developed software on Unitree Aliengo and Unitree Go2 quadrupeds.
- Social and networking activities, including a social dinner and a trekking excursion in the Dolomites.
Important deadlines
Call for abstracts opens in April 2026.
Information on registration fees coming soon. Included in the fees: lectures, lunch, access to robots, welcome drinks, social dinner and social program. You will have to take care of and pay for your travel and accommodation!
Organizing commitee
Prof. Michele Focchi, University of Trento
Prof. Marco Frego, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Dr. Giulio Turrisi, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Scientific commitee
Prof. Andrea Del Prete, University of Trento
Prof. Marco Camurri, University of Trento