Arthur Haffemayer

Arthur Haffemayer

Postdoctoral researcher - CTU Prague, Czech Republic

About

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at CIIRC, CTU Prague, in the IMPACT team. My research focuses on robotic motion planning and advanced control, with an emphasis on dynamic collision avoidance in changing environments. I work at the intersection of control theory, optimization, and machine learning, developing robust and reactive methods for real-time motion generation by combining classical model-based approaches with data-driven techniques, including VLA. I mainly work with Pr. Josef Sivic and Dr. Vladimir Petrik.

During my PhD, I focused on dynamic collision avoidance on manipulator arms, supervised by Nicolas Mansard and Florent Lamiraux, in the GEPETTO Team, which specializes in humanoid robotics.

I graduated from Arts Et Métiers and Sorbonne Université, where I specialized in robotics and mechanical engineering.

News

  • [11/2025] Moving to Prague, Czech Republic, to start a postdoc in CIIRC CTU.
  • [10/2025] Successfully defending my PhD!
  • [05/2025] Presenting the paper Collision Avoidance in Model Predictive Control using Velocity Damper in ICRA 2025, Atlanta, USA.
  • [12/2024] Coding Week at CIIRC-CTU, Prague for the AGIMUS Project.
  • [06/2024] Presenting the paper Model Predictive Control under Hard Collision Avoidance Constraints for a Robotic Arm in UR 2024, New York, USA.
  • [06/2024] 2 months Invited Scholar in the Machines in Motion team in New York University

Publications

  • Fall 2025: Diffusion Augmented Model Predictive Control for Collision Avoidance in Cluttered Robotic Environments. Arthur Haffemayer. PhD thesis. Thesis here..

  • Summer 2025: Learning-Guided Force-Feedback Model Predictive Control with Obstacle Avoidance for Robotic Deburring. Krzysztof Wojciechowski, Ege Gursoy, Arthur Haffemayer, Sébastien Kleff, Vincent Bonnet, Florent Lamiraux, Nicolas Mansard. Submitted to ICRA 2025.

  • Summer 2025: Collision-Free Model Predictive Control Warm-Started with Diffusion Model. Arthur Haffemayer, Alexandre Chapin, Armand Jordana, Krzysztof Wojciechowski, Florent Lamiraux, Nicolas Mansard, Vladimír Petrík. Submitted to Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). Paper, video and open-source implementation here.

  • Winter 2024: Infinite-Horizon Value Function Approximation for Model Predictive Control. Armand Jordana, Sébastien Kleff, Arthur Haffemayer, Joaquim Ortiz-Haro, Justin Carpentier, Nicolas Mansard, Ludovic Righetti. Published at Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). Paper here.

  • Winter 2024: Collision Avoidance in Model Predictive Control using Velocity Damper.
    Arthur Haffemayer, Armand Jordana, Ludovic de Matteïs, Krzysztof Wojciechowski, Ludovic Righetti, Florent Lamiraux, Nicolas Mansard.
    Published at ICRA 2025.
    Paper, video and open-source implementation here.

  • Spring 2024: Model Predictive Control under Hard Collision Avoidance Constraints for a Robotic Arm.
    Arthur Haffemayer, Armand Jordana, Médéric Fourmy, Krzysztof Wojciechowski, Guilhem Saurel, Vladimír Petrík, Florent Lamiraux, Nicolas Mansard. Published at International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR). Paper, video and open-source implementation here.