Mohammad Javad Zallaghi

I am a researcher and engineer in robotics, currently pursuing my PhD in Electrical Engineering at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium, under the supervision of Prof. Bram Vanderborght, Prof. Adrian Munteanu, and Dr. Bryan Convens. My work is perception-aware control with reinforcement learning to achieve safe and efficient control and navigation policies for robots. Previously I worked as autonomous driving algorithm engineer, and developed software and algorithms for planning and control of autonomous cars and robots.

I am interested in control and navigation algorithms for aerial and mobile robots, reinforcement learning for control and planning, and perception-aware control of autonomous robots. Also, I love robot software development with C/C++, ROS/ROS2, and Isaac Gym/Isaac Sim simulators for RL training!

Email  /  CV  /  LinkedIn  /  GitHub  /  Google Scholar  /  Homepage@VUB

profile photo
News
[09/2024] I started my PhD in Electrical Engineering: Robotics at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
[09/2024] I joined as PhD researcher in robotics at BruBotics, R&MM, and ETRO Departments, Brussels, Belgium.
[04/2023] I started working as Autonomous Driving Algorithm Engineer for developing planning and control algorithms.
Education
blind-date Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
PhD
Electrical Engineering: Robotics
2024-NOW
blind-date Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic - AUT)
Master of Science
Mechanical Engineering: Robotics and Control
2019-2022
blind-date Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology (KNTU)
Bachelor of Science
Mechanical Engineering: Robotics and Control
2015-2019
Videos
Publications
UAV Navigation Learning UAV Navigation with Collision-Aware Predicted-Motion Embedding
Mohammad Javad Zallaghi, Bryan Convens, Kelly Merckaert, Adrian Munteanu, and Bram Vanderborght
45th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 2026
paper
fast-texture Direct model parameter identification of twisted string actuators using Nelder-Mead simplex method
Mohammad Javad Zallaghi, Hamed Ghafarirad, and Afshin Taghvaeipour
Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. C, 2024
paper | project page | code | video
Competitions
Gold Medal Icon fast-texture
IROS 2023 Humanoid Robot competition
Mohammad Javad Zallaghi, as MechaCheetahs
Rank: 1st place, gold medal
Competition's page | code | video

Created based on Jon Barron's code.

Last updated: 24 May 2026