High quality education, frontier research and exploitation of research results: this is the mission of the Biorobotics Institute of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. The Institute, a university center of excellence founded in 2011, has built over the years a wide wealth of knowledge and skills in various sectors of biorobotics, including social robotics, industrial robotics, assistance robotics, rehabilitation robotics, surgical robotics, neural engineering, cognitive systems, bio-inspired robots and all the related ethical, legal, social and economic implications.
WEB site: http://www.santannapisa.it/it/istituto/biorobotica/biorobotics-institute
Role of Biorobotics Institute of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in the project INGENE
The Institute will deal with the design, development, integration and testing of an innovative wearable device for measuring muscular strength and motor activity in patients affected by neuro-muscular diseases. The device, appropriately interfaced with the software libraries developed by the other partners, will allow an objective assessment of the degree of impairment of the muscular structures in order to improve the early diagnosis and the personalization of the treatment.
Profile of staff engaged in the project
Stefano Roccella Aeronautical Engineer, PhD in Robotics, is currently a Technical Research Manager at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, as a member of the BioRobotics Institute. His research interests concern the design, development and integration of mechatronic systems, service and industrial robotics, biomedical robotics and biomechatronics. He participated, as a technical-scientific manager, in several projects concerning the robotics and biorobotics field taking part in the design, development and integration of robotic devices and mechatronic systems (“CENTAURO: Colavoro, Efficienza, preveNzione nell’industria dei motoveicoli mediante Tecnologie di AUtomazione e RObotica”- “MBZIRC 2017: International Robotics Challenge” – “NEUROBOTICS: The fusion of NEUROscience and roBOTICS for augmenting human capabilities”, “CYBERHAND: Development of a CYBERnetic HAND prosthesis”, “The ADAH Project: an astronaut dexterous artificial hand to restore the manipulation of abilities of the astronaut”). He was Assistant Professor at the Sant'Anna School in Biomedical Robotics.
Andrea Spezzaneve Mechanical engineer, PhD in Industrial Design, is currently Research Fellow at the BioRobotics Institute - Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. Expert in mechanical design for robotic and automation applications, he has participated in several projects concerning service robotics and biorobotics (“WINSHOES: When INnovation makes Shoes - Design and development of an ICT platform for the innovation of shoes' manufacturing process” – “OPERA: Advanced Operating Room” – “RISE - Progettazione, sviluppo, validazione e sperimentazione clinica di un dispositivo robotico per la verticalizzazione e la mobilità di persone con disabilità motorie gravi”
Tommaso Pardi Robotics and automation engineer, is currently Research Fellow at the BioRobotics Institute - Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. Expert in modeling, design, development and integration of high-level control systems combining multi-sensorial information with particular reference to bio-inspired systems, he has participated in projects concerning the development of autonomous and service robotic systems (“MBZIRC 2017: International Robotics Challenge”)
Roberto Lazzarini Electronic engineer, is currently a specialized technician at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, as a member of the BioRobotics Institute. Expert in the design, development, integration and testing of electronic devices and control systems, he has participated in several applied research projects in the field of robotics and automation (HYDRONET, CYBERHAND, DUSTBOT, ROBOCUB, ICUB, PALOMA, VECTOR). He was Teaching Assistant in biomechatronics, mechatronics and biomedical technologies at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.
Giovanni Rateni Biomedical engineer and PhD candidate in BioRobotics, is currently a Research Fellow at the BioRobotics Institute - Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. Expert in the design, prototyping and development of portable optical devices, spectroscopy, sensor data acquisition and analysis, multivariate statistical analysis. He has participated in applied research projects in the field of robotics and Industry 4.0 (“CENTAURO: Colavoro, Efficienza, preveNzione nell’industria dei motoveicoli mediante Tecnologie di AUtomazione e RObotica”)