Ornella Tortorici Pabst was born in Paris in 1992. She received her Engineering degree in mechatronics from Supmeca, Toulon, France, in 2015, and her Ph.D degree in robotics from the COSMER laboratory, University of Toulon, in 2021. Her doctoral work focused on the design and automatic control of an instrumented umbilical for underwater robots.

Before her Ph.D., she gained industry experience as a mechanical design engineer in several private companies, working on projects ranging from panoramic camera systems to subsea robotics. Since April 2022, she has been a postdoctoral researcher at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany. She joined the ligeti center upon its founding in January 2023, and since October 2025, she leads the Human-Machine-Collaboration research team at the Institute for Mechatronics in Mechanics. 

Her research interests include the design, simulation, construction, and control of robotic systems with a strong focus on human-machine interaction. She is particularly involved in the project “Exploring the Multimodality of Arts with the Help of Robotics”. In this initiative, her work spans the development of a painting robot that interprets music (via features such as BPM, mood, loudness, etc.), mapping those audio cues to artistic variables like color, brush pressure, speed, and shape. The project combines mechatronics, electronics, sensor and actuator design, control algorithms, AI-based interpretation, workshops, and interaction with human participants to better understand how humans perceive and interpret art, music, and movement.

Alongside research, she is passionate about teaching. Since the winter semester 2025, she has been responsible for the course Measurement Technology for Mechanical Engineers at TUHH. She also supervises students at bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels, fostering both technical expertise and collaborative skills.

Measurement Technology for Mechanical Engineers (MT)

In the winter semester, I am responsible for the lecturing of the Bachelor course "Measurement Technology for Mechanical Engineers". In 2023 I completely reworked the "Expeiment 7" for the optical sensors and designed the basic electrical measurements part of "Experiment 0". 

Applied Design Methodology in Mechatronics (ADMM)

In the Master course Applied Design Methodology in Mechatronics (ADMM), I supervised students groups since the summer term 2022. I took over the role of the customer in the summer term 2023 and originated the topic of that year "Robot interpreting music to paint", which derived in the creation of the research project "Exploring the multimodality of Arts with the help of Robotics". Since the summer term 2024, I am lecturing the lecture session about Patents. 

Haptic Technologies for the Human-Machine-Interface (MMI)

In the winter semester 2022, I participated in the design of an experiment regarding impedance and force measurements with actuators for the Master course Haptic Technology for Human-Machine-Interfaces (HMI). I supervised several experiments during the winter terms in 2022 and 2023. 

Machine Dynamics (MD)

In the summer semester 2024, I lectured four sessions for the Bachelor course Machine Dynamics. 

M-4 IMEK – Technical University of Hamburg:

2025

• Master thesis: "Design of a digital twin for a 4-DOF arm painting robot."
• Project work: "Development of a drawing simulator to experiment with different music interpretation parameters."

2024

• Bachelor thesis: “Control design and implementation for a painting robot based on music analysis in real time.”
• Bachelor thesis: “Design optimization of a handle for combined grip force and impedance measurement for integration into a wrist rehabilitation system.”
• Project work: “Control and HMI for a wrist rehabilitation robot.”
• Master thesis, external (Trioptics GmbH): “Evaluation of Intrinsic Camera Calibration Accuracy: Reference Setup Verification and Methodology.”
• Project work: “Cross-modal generation from music to painting via deep learning.”
• Project work: “Low level control and HMI for a robot interpreting music to paint.”

2023

• Bachelor thesis, external (Viewlicity GmbH): “Conceptual Design and Implementation of a motor-controlled Putting-Simulator for an Augmented Reality Golf application.”
• Project work: “Design optimization and control of an exoskeleton for safe wrist rehabilitation with data monitoring.”
• Bachelor thesis: “Design and prototyping of a hand grip force sensor for patient rehabilitation.”
• Master thesis, external (Zeiss): “Hand gesture control for a robotic camera system.”
• Bachelor thesis: “Design and implementation of a painting robot capable of authentically imitating human painting for show purposes.”

2017-2020 - SeaTech School of Engineering – University of Toulon:

• Design of an autonomous boat (2 master students)
• Design of a marinized cable winch (2 master students)

Previously:

• Tortorici, O.; Péraud, C.; Anthierens, C.; Hugel, V. Automated Deployment of an Underwater Tether Equipped with a Compliant Buoy–Ballast System for Remotely Operated Vehicle Intervention. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2024, 12, 279. doi.org/10.3390/jmse12020279
• O. Tortorici, C. Anthierens and V. Hugel, "A New Flex-Sensor-Based Umbilical-Length Management System for Underwater Robots," 2023 European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR), Coimbra, Portugal, 2023, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ECMR59166.2023.10256299.
• Ornella Tortorici. Conception et contrôle automatique d'un ombilical instrumenté pour robots sous-marins. Automatique / Robotique. Université de Toulon, 2021. Français. ⟨NNT : 2021TOUL0024⟩.
• O. Tortorici, C. Anthierens, V. Hugel, and H. Barthelemy, (2019) « Towards active self-management of umbilical linking ROV and USV for safer submarine missions », IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 52, nᵒ 21, p. 265‑270, dec. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.12.318.