University of Pisa

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The University of Pisa, founded 1343, is among the oldest and most prestigious universities in Europe, with alumni such as Galilei, Volterra and Fermi. The Research Centre “Enrico Piaggio”, founded in 1962 and recently promoted to the status of Centro di Ateneo, organises interdisciplinary research among engineering, medicine, and biological scientists towards applications in Bioengineering and Robotics. Centro E. Piaggio has longstanding experience in managing contracts with international, EC, and industrial partners, and currently hires four professional project managers. The Robotics Group of the Research Centre “Enrico Piaggio” focuses on robotics and embedded automation. The group is among the originators of the modern approach to physical human-robot interaction, where it has been advocating intrinsic safety via the co-design of mechanics and control, oriented towards performance maximization within rigid safety constraints. Particular attention has been focused on the study of hands and haptics since at least 20 years. Recent works are: (i) a synergy-based approach to hand design and control for grasp and manipulation (projects THE and PACMAN), (ii) industrial grippers for automation (project ROBLOG), Multiple autonomous LGV vehicles in industrial environments (project CHAT).

Key people

  • Lucia Pallottino: PI
  • Manolo Garabini
  • Manuel Catalano
  • Manuel Bonilla
  • Giorgio Grioli

Role in the project

The University of Pisa will significantly contribute on the whole design of real time motion planning for robotic grasping and manipulation and will contribute to the distributed coordination of fleets of autonomous guided vehicles for product commissioning. We will also address the issue of the development of a novel gripper for the grasping and manipulation of the boxes and an end-effector for the cutting of the plastic film wrapping around the pallet.