I am a Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh, working in the Centre for AI in Assistive Autonomy. From 2023-2025 I was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Dynamic Robot Systems Group at the University of Oxford. I received the M.Sc in Electrical Engineering from the Universidad de Chile in 2018, and the Ph.D. in vision-based legged robot navigation from the University of Oxford in 2023. In 2022, I was also a visiting researcher at the Robotics Systems Lab, ETH Zurich. My research interests are in the foundations and systems for robot autonomy—representations, perception, action, and learning.
Short Bio (third person)
(Useful for other things, like IEEE papers)
Matias Mattamala is a Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh, working in the Centre for AI in Assistive Autonomy. From 2023-2025 he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Dynamic Robot Systems Group at the University of Oxford. He completed his Ph.D. in vision-based legged robot navigation from the University of Oxford in 2023. In 2022, he was also a visiting researcher at the Robotics Systems Lab, ETH Zurich. His research interests are in the foundations and systems for robot autonomy—representations, perception, action, and learning.
Long version (English)
(If you need a detailed explanation, with links)
Since June 2025, I’m a Research Associate at the new Centre for AI in Assistive Autonomy, based in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. I’m leading the Assistive Care team, which is developing robotic systems to interact with humans in assistive settings in long-term scenarios.
Before, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher (September 2023 - May 2025) at the Dynamic Robot Systems Group (DRS) of the Oxford Robotics Institute, enabling robots to achieve autonomous surveying and monitoring missions in the wild.
Between October 2019 and November 2023 I was a PhD student in DRS, working on visual navigation for legged robots in challenging environments. I was supervised by Maurice Fallon, and my thesis was examined by Stefan Leutenegger (Then at the Technical University of Munich, now at ETH Zurich) and Ioannis Havoutis (University of Oxford).
From April to September 2022 I was a visiting researcher at the Robotic Systems Lab (RSL) at ETH Zurich under Marco Hutter, thanks to a NCCR Robotics fellowship.
Before the PhD, I did my M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering working on visual-proprioceptive SLAM in the Robotics Lab at the Universidad de Chile led by Javier Ruiz-del-Solar.
My research expertise is on robot perception, mainly with cameras, as well as state estimation. Recently I’m also exploring planning and learning-based methods. I’m generally interested in the design and development of closed-loop systems (perception-action loop), as well as the mathematical fundamentals of robotics.
Last but not least, I’m from Chile, the long and thin country in South America (not the spicy thing). That means I also speak Spanish, you can find my description below.
Version larga (Español)
(Lo mismo que arriba, pero en español)
Desde Junio 2025, soy Research Associate en el Centre for AI in Assistive Autonomy, ubicado en la School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. Estoy liderando el Assistive Care Team, el cual esta desarrollando sistemas robóticos para interactuar con humanos/as en problemas de asistencia (por ejemplo, alimentar gente con mobilidad reducida).
Anteriormente, fui Investigador Postdoctoral (Septiembre 2023 - Mayo 2025) en el Dynamic Robot Systems Group (DRS) del Oxford Robotics Institute, desarrollando sistemas para que robots puedan recolectar datos y monitorear entornos naturales de forma autónoma.
Entre Octubre 2019 y Noviembre 2023 fui estudiante de doctorado en DRS, trabajando en navegación visual para robots cuadrúpedos en entornos desafiantes. Fui supervisado por Maurice Fallon, y mi tesis fue examinada por Stefan Leutenegger (en ese momento afiliado a la Universidad Técnica de Múnich, actualmente a ETH Zurich) and Ioannis Havoutis (Universidad de Oxford).
De Abril a Septiembre del 2022 fui investigador visitante en el Robotic Systems Lab (RSL) de ETH Zurich supervisado por Marco Hutter, gracias a una beca de NCCR Robotics.
Antes del doctorado, hice mi master en SLAM visual en el Laboraotorio de Robótica de la Universidad de Chile supervisado por Javier Ruiz-del-Solar.
Mi area de expertiz se centra en percepción robótica, principalmente con cámaras, además de estimación de estados. Recientemente he estado explorando sistemas de planificación e inteligencia artificial. En general me interesa el desarrollo de sistemas de lazo cerrado (que involucran percepción y acción), como también entender los fundamentos matemáticos que usamos en robótica.