Research
The Biorobotics Institute
Promoting a Sustainable Welfare System
How our research in robotics can make society more inclusive for elderly and disabled people
Advanced education, frontier research and innovation: this is The BioRobotics Institute of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, founded in 2011. With time the Institute has built a wealth of knowledge and expertise in several fields of biorobotics and bionics, such as medical robotics, wearable technologies, collaborative robotics, bioinspired robotics, neuroscience robotics, rehabilitation robotics and implantable technologies.
The Institute promotes the internationalization of didactics and scientific research through collaboration with the most prestigious international knowledge centers. The Institute aims to educate engineers that are scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs and problem solvers.
Our mission is based on three pillars:
- Education: MSc in Bionics Engineering and PhD program in BioRobotics;
- Research: scientific publications, national and international research projects, joint labs;
- Innovation: start-up companies, patents and industrial contracts.
The BioRobotics Institute has also activated an Educational Robotics program with schools in Tuscany, Italy. The program aims at bringing technology and robotics in schools and using them as a new instrument for teaching scientific and technical subjects.
Video:
The main contribution of the Sant'Anna School team, led by Arianna Menciassi, will be in the supervision of the hardware components design and development, with the final aim to builds up a modular, versatile platform layout for steering a new breed of highly dynamic catheters in an unprecedented coordinated fashion. Specific attention will be focused on the design of the distal deployment module for the smart catheter positioning
The scientific collaboration between The BioRobotics Institute of Sant’Anna School and Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, has allowed the development of a bilayer hydrogel that imitates the characteristics of articular cartilage and restore its natural properties in the areas where the tissue has degenerated. The study was published in Advanced Healthcare Materials and is the result of the collaboration between the Institute of The BioRobotics Institute and Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli. "Once the hydrogel has passed all pre-clinical tests, it could be injected or implanted with a small surgery", says Diego Trucco, first author of the paper
Such a diverse and interdisciplinary mission was born not for the sake of records - Samuele will be the first Italian student to have 6 university degrees at the age of 25 - but to achieve a specific professional goal: mastering the new and emerging use of robotics in abdominal surgery, focusing on the tumors of the gastrointestinal system, with a particular reference to pancreatic and hepatic malignancies
56025 - Pontedera, Italy
tel. +39 050 883420
fax +39 050 883497
istitutobiorobotica@santannapisa.it