PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alberto Sanfeliu

Also known as Alberto Sanfeliu Cortés

Alberto Sanfeliu is an artificial intelligence researcher whose work spans pattern recognition and robotics. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1978 and a PhD in 1982 at UPC, joined its faculty in 1981 and directed IRI from 2008 to 2014. His career included the European URUS project on networked robotics in urban settings and a 2024 survey of socially aware robot navigation. In June 2025, he coauthored an urban study of robotic services; in 2026, he coauthored work on visual intent communication in human-robot collaboration. As of October 2026, he is a professor emeritus at IRI.

Now at
Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Works
386
Citations
7,902
h-index
43
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1978–1982

    UPC degrees and faculty

    At UPC, he earns a BSEE in 1978 and a PhD in 1982, and joins its faculty in 1981. His field is Computational Sciences and Artificial Intelligence.

  2. 1994

    An IAPR fellowship

    He becomes an IAPR Fellow in 1994 for contributions to syntactic and structural pattern recognition and service to the association.

  3. 2006–2009

    Leading the URUS project

    From 2006 to 2009, he serves as principal investigator of URUS, a European project on networked robotics in urban settings.

  4. 2008–2014

    Directing the IRI

    He directs IRI from 2008 until Juan Andrade takes over as director in 2014.

  5. 2024

    Surveying social robot navigation

    In 2024, he coauthors a survey titled “A Survey on Socially Aware Robot Navigation: Taxonomy and Future Challenges.”

  6. June 2025

    Studying urban robot delivery

    In June 2025, he coauthors a study of robotic services in the urban public space of cities.

  7. 2026

    Communicating robot intent

    In 2026, he coauthors research on visual intent communication for human-robot collaboration.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor emeritus at IRI

    As of October 2026, he is a professor emeritus at IRI in its Mobile Robotics and Intelligent Systems area.

A language model matched the links in this timeline to people, organizations and papers (provisional, model-judged).

Career

  1. Since 2008Institute of Robotics and Industrial InformaticsDirector
  2. 1989–2008Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
  3. 1987–2008Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
  4. From 1981Polytechnic University of Catalonia

Education

  1. 1982Polytechnic University of CataloniaPhD
  2. 1978Polytechnic University of CataloniaBSEE

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. A distance measure between attributed relational graphs for pattern recognition1983 · IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics · 1,001 citations
  2. GANimation: Anatomically-Aware Facial Animation from a Single Image2018 · Lecture notes in computer science · 619 citations
  3. PL-SLAM: Real-time monocular visual SLAM with points and lines2017 · IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation · 503 citations
  4. The AEROARMS Project: Aerial Robots with Advanced Manipulation Capabilities for Inspection and Maintenance2018 · IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine · 253 citations
  5. Robot companion: A social-force based approach with human awareness-navigation in crowded environments2013 · IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) · 233 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 32%Includes Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1962 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  4. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Alberto Sanfeliu yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Website of Prof. Alberto Sanfeliu iri.upc.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Chronological List of IAPR Fellows iapr.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. Proyectos de investigación webdiis.unizar.es. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Juan Andrade, nou director de l’IRI saladepremsa2.upc.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. A Survey on Socially Aware Robot Navigation: Taxonomy and Future Challenges arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Propuesta metodológica para la integración de servicios robóticos en el espacio público urbano de las ciudades revistes.upc.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. Alberto Sanfeliu Cortés iri.upc.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.