Matías Mattamala

Research Associate in Human-Robot Interaction

Matias is a roboticist and researcher developing new robotic systems leveraging perception and machine learning, to interact, assist, and learn from humans over time.

Tell us about your journey before you joined the Centre for AI in Assistive Autonomy?

I’ve been a roboticist for quite a bit. During my undergrad in Chile, I was the perception lead of the RoboCup robot football team. For my masters I wrote a thesis on Visual Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) for humanoid robots. Next, I did my PhD on robot navigation for legged robots at the University of Oxford. I stayed there as a Postdoctoral Researcher till 2025, extending these systems to autonomously collect data from forests and natural environments.

What motivates you to work in this area?

I’m interested in making robots that do good, useful things (and the fundamental principles to achieve it). So it’s exciting to be part of such a huge initiative with the same goals.

What do you love about Edinburgh?

When it’s nice outside, I enjoy exploring the city and looking for animals – I particularly enjoy looking at birds doing smart things, or cats judging you from their windows. Otherwise, you can find me reading, mainly non-fiction and science fiction, or doing some DIY (I’ve been hacking a Furby for a while).