Dr. Alejandro Castro is a manager in the Large Behavior Models division at Toyota Research Institute (TRI). Dr. Castro's research focuses on the development of accurate physics-based models for the simulation and control of complex mechanical systems with frictional contact.

Dr. Castro's work at TRI focuses on the development of mathematical models and algorithms for the simulation and control of systems with rigid and deformable bodies. In addition, Dr. Castro contributes his research solutions as mature software implementations in the open-source robotics toolbox Drake. Currently Dr. Castro works on the development of novel formulations of multibody dynamics with frictional contact for robotics manipulation applications. These problems are particularly challenging due to large mass ratios, high stiffness, and a large number of constraints. Dr. Castro is particularly interested in elegant solutions with a strong mathematical foundation and their practical software implementation that prove useful to the robotics and simulation communities at large.

Dr. Castro holds a BSE in nuclear engineering (2006) and an MsC in physics (2007) from Balseiro Institute in Argentina, his country of origin, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Iowa (2011). Dr. Castro has worked in a diverse range of fields including mechanics of articulated bodies, contact mechanics with friction, fluid mechanics, continuum mechanics, multi-phase flows, acoustics, and neutron transport, among others.