UNICAMPUS - Evryon Project

Description of partecipating institution
University "Campus Bio-Medico di Roma" (www.unicampus.it) was founded in 1992 as a non-profit institution devoted to higher education and research in the biomedical field. The university confers degrees in Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Nursing, and Nutrition. Furthermore, the university runs Ph.D. programs in Neuroscience, Endocrinology, Otolaryngology and Biomedical Engineering. A research polyclinic is associated to the university. A characteristic is close research cooperation between the School of Medicine & Surgery and the School of Engineering (focusing on Bioengineering only).
The Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems (www.biorobotics.it) will participate in the EVRYON project.

Main tasks
UNICAMPUS will be involved in the EVRYON project as coordinator and WP leader in WP1 and WP5. Its main RTD tasks will be related to the detailed design, fabrication and experimental testing of the active orthosis, including the design of its VIJs.

Expertise
The Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems has a solid background in human-centred design of robotic and mechatronic systems, rehabilitation & assistive robotics, biorobotics, neurorobotics, microengineering and rapid prototyping. The Lab has a strong experience in EU-funded R&D projects and currently participates in FP6 (e-Health, e-Inclusion, FET), NEST and Socrates\Minerva European programmes. Together with the Lab of Developmental Neuroscience, they jointly promoted the new emerging area of Neurodevelopmental Engineering. The lab is active in the development of innovative solutions for dependable, highly back-driveable machines for tele-rehabilitation and neuro-rehabilitation. Special attention is given to model the human component using a biomechatronic approach.

Key personnel

Eugenio GUGLIELMELLI (MS 1991, PhD 1995, Assistant Professor 1998 , Associate Professor 2001). He teaches Biomechatronics and Rehabilitation Bioengineering at UNICAMPUS. His main current research in terests are in the fields of novel theoretical and experim ental approaches to human-centered robotics and to biomorphic control of mechatronic systems, and in their application to basic neuroscience, behavioural analysis, robot-mediated motor therapy, assistive robotics, neuro-robotics and neuro-developmental engineering. He is author/co-author of more than 170 publications appeared on peer-reviewed international journals, books and procs. of international conferences. He is also co-author of three international patents, and founding member of four academic spin-off companies.

Dino ACCOTO is Assistant Professor at Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, where he teaches “Biomicrosystems”, “Mechanical Bioengineering” and “Laboratory of Mechanical Bioengineering”.
He graduated in Mechanical Engineering (cum laude) in 1998 from the University of Pisa, as allievo ordinario of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. He got his PhD degree in Biomedical Robotics (cum laude) from the Scuola Sant’Anna in 2002.  From 2001 to 2002 he has been Visiting Researcher at RPL-Lab, Stanford University (CA). From 2003 to 2007 he has been Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Scuola Sant'Anna.
His main research efforts are in the development of smart mechatronic systems interacting with the human body, exploiting multi-physics and multi-domain approaches and merging MST and robotics. On such topics he co-invented  6 patents and co-authored more than 50 papers. Dino Accoto is also co-funder of Encrea, a spin-off company of Scuola Sant’Anna.

Fabrizio SERGI (BS 2005, MS 2007) is PhD Student at Campus Bio-Medico University, Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, under the supervision of Prof. Eugenio Guglielmelli. His current research activities include the development of novel methodologies for the design of wearable robots for the lower limbs, with special account to the synthesis of non-anthropomorphic robotic kinematic structures, aimed at improving the ergonomics and the dynamical aspects of pHRI. Furthermore, he is involved in the development of multi-modal robotic interfaces for the guidance of the movements of the upper limb, and their kinematical analysis with a spatial tracking system.

Giorgio CARPINO (BS 2005, MS 2008) is currently a PhD Student at Campus Bio-Medico University, where he started working in the Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems in January 2009, under the supervision of Prof. Eugenio Guglielmelli. His research programme is focused on the development of novel robotic devices for human assistance and rehabilitation, with a special focus on the relation between morphology and control. Such research is being applied to lower limbs exoskeletric robots for assisting human walking.

Nevio Luigi TAGLIAMONTE (BS 2006, MS 2008) is a PhD student in biomedical engineering at Università Campus Bio-Medico in Rome where he started working in the Biomedical Robotics & Biomicrosystems Laboratory in January 2009. His research programme is focused on the design and development of novel robotic devices for rehabilitation motor therapy after neurological injury, with special attention to the issue of interaction control for augmenting robotic systems' backdriveability in order to not perturb human natural movements.