Talking Robotics

Talking Robotics

Maria Pozzi

Date:

Speaker

Maria Pozzi is a fixed term Assistant Professor (RTD-A) at the University of Siena and Affiliated Researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology of Genova. She holds a BSc (Computer and Information Engineering, 2013), a MSc (Computer and automation Engineering, 2015), and a PhD (Information Engineering and Science, 2019), all with honours from the University of Siena. In 2021, she was selected as an “RSS Pioneer” and was invited as a speaker for the “IFRR Global Robotics Colloquium on The Future of Robotic Manipulation”. Her research interests include robotic grasping, simulation of soft robots, and haptic interfaces for human-robot collaboration. Since 2021 she has been Associate Editor for the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), and since 2023 she has been Associate Editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine (RAM) and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).

Speaker Links: Google Scholar

Abstract

The advent of soft robotics has greatly changed researchers’ perspective on robotic manipulation. The philosophy of embedding the intelligence of the robot into its structure has led to new prototypes of robotic hands and grippers that show capabilities that were inconceivable with their rigid counterparts. Over the past decade, several different gripper prototypes have been developed, but still the question of how to exploit their embodied intelligence in real-world grasping and manipulation tasks remains open. This presentation will outline on-going research efforts on how to unlock new manipulation skills in soft-rigid grippers, and will discuss the application of soft manipulation principles in human-robot interaction.

Selected Papers

  • Castellani, C., Turco, E., Bo, V., Malvezzi, M., Prattichizzo, D., Costante, G., & Pozzi, M. (2024). Soft Human-Robot Handover Using a Vision-Based Pipeline. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.
  • Pozzi, M., Malvezzi, M., Prattichizzo, D., & Salvietti, G. (2023). Actuated palms for soft robotic hands: review and perspectives. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.
  • Bo, V., Turco, E., Pozzi, M., Malvezzi, M., & Prattichizzo, D. (2022). Automated design of embedded constraints for soft hands enabling new grasp strategies. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.
  • Pozzi, M., Marullo, S., Salvietti, G., Bimbo, J., Malvezzi, M., & Prattichizzo, D. (2020). Hand closure model for planning top grasps with soft robotic hands. The International Journal of Robotics Research.