Gilberto G. Briscoe-Martinez

Human Interaction and Robotics Group .

I am a roboticist dedicated to creating truly independent robots. My PhD research focuses on giving robots a sense of “self-understanding” so they can autonomously adapt their behavior to keep working when they or the environment around them changes. Ultimately, my goal is to build systems that don’t just shut down when things go wrong, but find safe, creative ways to complete their tasks without needing human rescue.

My work spans a variety of applications, from ensuring long-term reliability for NASA’s space exploration missions, to developing safe, contact-aware robots with Yaashia Gautam at the ROCC Lab that can physically interact with their environments without causing harm. I am also a researcher at Plus One Robotics, there I apply these principles to intelligent package sorting. By giving the system the ability to visually reason about its environment, it can understand when a task fails, independently formulate a recovery plan, and coordinate an entire team of robots and conveyor systems to keep supply chains moving efficiently.

I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering in May 2021. I am currently pursuing my Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science at the University of Colorado - Boulder within the HIRO Group, with an anticipated graduation in May 2027.

Selected Publications

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation [ICRA]

Vienna, Austria, June 2026

Moving On, Even When You're Broken: Fail-Active Trajectory Generation via Diffusion Policies Conditioned on Embodiment and Task [PDF] [BIB]

Gilberto Briscoe-Martinez , Yaashia Gautam , Rahul Shetty , Anuj Pasricha , Marco M. Nicotra , and Alessandro Roncone

IFAC World Congress

Busan, South Korea, August 2026

Compliant Explicit Reference Governor for Contact Friendly Robotic Manipulators [PDF] [BIB]

Yaashia Gautam , Gilberto Briscoe-Martinez , Adhitya Mohan , Nataliya Nechyporenko , Alessandro Roncone , and Marco M. Nicotra
Co-first author (equal contribution with Yaashia Gautam).

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems [IROS]

Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 14-18

Exploring How Non-Prehensile Manipulation Expands Capability in Robots Experiencing Multi-Joint Failure [PDF] [BIB]

Gilberto Briscoe-Martinez , Anuj Pasricha , Ava Abderezaei , Santosh Chaganti , Sarath Chandra Vajrala , Sri Kanth Popuri , and Alessandro Roncone