Case Study: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia improves iCub head tracking with MathWorks simulation tools

Building a Digital Twin of the iCub Humanoid Robot’s Head

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) develops the open-source iCub humanoid robot and needed a better way to validate head-and-neck design changes before building hardware. The team struggled with inaccurate dynamic simulations and relied on time-consuming CAD, simulator, and physical testing workflows to assess control performance. To address this, they worked with MathWorks products including Simulink, Simscape Multibody, and Simulink Control Design.

MathWorks helped IIT create a digital twin of the iCub head and neck, importing the CAD assembly into Simscape, linearizing the model, and tuning PID controllers with `systune`. The updated model improved trajectory tracking substantially, reducing RMSE by more than 80% for pitch and more than 75% for roll in simulation, with similar gains confirmed on the robot. MathWorks’ approach also gave IIT a validated modeling workflow they plan to extend to other robot components and predictive maintenance efforts.

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Mattia Fussi

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia