Niccolo Pagliarani

Niccolò Pagliarani is a bionics engineer and soft robotics researcher (Postdoctoral Fellow at the BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) and CTO & Co-founder of Capio Robotics. He develops gentle, safe manipulation technologies that enable robots to operate in unstructured real-world environments from agri-food automation and assistive robotics to space-related scenarios with an emphasis on responsible innovation and safety-by-design.

He has contributed to 5+ international projects across 3 continents (including EU-funded initiatives), collaborating with academic and industry partners and engaging internationally through research periods at Harvard (Prof. Rob Howe in a project involving NASA collaboration) and EPFL (Prof. Josie Hughes).

As a founder, he leads Capio’s technology and fundraising strategy to automate delicate harvesting with intelligent soft grippers: €150k pre-seed secured and a seed round in preparation targeting €1.5M. He holds two robotics patents, authored 10+ peer-reviewed publications, and delivered 10+ invited talks/keynotes in 8+ countries (including ESA, Stanford University, Oxford University, MIT, National University of Singapore and the Italian Senate). He serves as Young Fellow representative in the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Soft Robotics, supports STEM orientation through the Fondazione Levi-Montalcini, and promotes the Art & Robotics Expo at IEEE RoboSoft 2025–26 to foster a more humanistic approach to robotics. He is co-organized of workshops at IEEE RoboSoft, ICRA, BioRob on embodied intelligence, bioinspired robotics. He is reviewer for many top-tier journals including IEEE RA-L, RA-M, T-RO, T-MECH, Soft Robotics Journal, Advanced Intelligent Systems, Nature Communications, Bioinspiration and biomimetics. He is chair of the Gordon Research Seminar on Robotics 2028 in Ventura, USA.

In 2025, he received the Premio Italia Giovane (12th Edition) as an Under-35 Excellence with a Special Mention in AI, under the patronage of Italian institutions (with recognition associated with President Sergio Mattarella). His mission is to integrate engineering, biology, design, and art to build inclusive robotic systems empowering humans to stay human.