Hello! I’m a robotics researcher at Toyota Research Institute (TRI) with interests spanning machine learning, robot control, and extended reality (XR) headsets. At the intersection of these interests is my overarching goal of establishing effective human-robot interactions where people live and work.

My recent work has focused on improving robot foundation models, such as vision-language-action (VLA) models. Through the Large Behavior Models project and TRI’s collaboration with Boston Dynamics to deploy these models on the eAtlas humanoid, I have contributed across the full stack, from data collection, processing, and curation to policy training, evaluation, and deployment in simulation and on hardware. I am especially interested in interactive imitation learning as a means of enabling VLA models to collaborate with people in personalized and customizable ways.

Prior to joining TRI, I was a research scientist in robotics at Northeastern University, serving as a research lead on NSF and DARPA projects. I hold a PhD in Computer Engineering from Imperial College London, where my research focused on augmented reality headset interfaces, shared control for robot teleoperation, and learning-based methods for estimating human intent.

Email: mark[dot]zolotas[at]tri[dot]global