Brief trajectory

Since 2009, I started working on bio-inspired systems, shifting form Nature-based (software) search techniques to Nature-based physical systems.

Check out the Bio-Inspired Systems Lab pages for more info:

Before, I have been working on hybrid evolutionary-based algorithms for optimisation (SAT and MAXCLIQUE problems,1996-2002). Since 2003 I have been applying these techniques to learning classifier systems, image-based object pose estimation and tracking, multi-robot cooperative localization, in the field of evolvable systems and robotics, mainly in space and air/ground multi-robot coordination robotics applications.

NOTE: if you are looking for SAT instances, you can find them here.

Recent projects

As PI

As team member

1. SCOUT: Soft bio-inspired robot for high depth, 2023-2025 (PI)
   

2. ROBOMINERS: Resilient Bio-inspired Modular Robotic Miners, 2019-2023 (Project Coordinator)
   

3. TRIDENT: Technology Based Impact Assessment Tool for Sustainable, Transparen Deep Sea  Mining Exploration and Exploitation, 2022-2027 (PI for UPM)
   

4. UNEXUP !: UNEXMIN Upscaling, 2020-2022 (PI for UPM)
   

5. UNEXMIN: Autonomous Underwater Explorer for Flooded Mines, 2024-2018 (PI for UPM)
   

6. AIRSHIP: Autonomous Flying Ships for Inter-Island and Inland Waters Transport, 2022-2026
   

7. ROBOCITY IV: Service Robots for increasing the quality of living of citizens in metropolitan areas
   

8. METATOOL: A metapredictive model of synthetic awareness for enabling tool invention
   

9. SEWINGS: Sea/Air Interphasic Wing-in-Ground Effect Autonomous Drones, 2022-2026
   

Editorships and organization

1. •Associated editor, International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems (for the topic of bioinspired robotics) 2014-2023.
   

2. •Associated editor, Frontiers in Robot Learning and Evolution (formerly Evolutionary Robotics)  (Frontiers in Robotics and AI) 2013-2023.
   

3. •Member of the Editorial Board, Frontiers in Bionics and Biomimetics (Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology), 2013-2023.
   

4. •Member of the Management Committee, COST Action CA16116 (Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions) 2016-2021.
   

5. •Special session "Raw Materials, Tough Robots", within IROS 2018, co-organizer.
   

6. •Workshop on Nature-inspired techniques for robotics, within PPSN 2014, co-organizer.
   

7. •Workshop on smart materials and alternative technologies for bio-inspired robots and systems, within IROS 2012, co-organizer
   

8. •Member of the programme committee of the EvoROBOT track of EvoStar conference
   

9. •Project evaluator and rapporteur for FP7 calIs
   

10. •Project evaluator for the Academy of Finland
    

Past research projects

1. Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions COST Action
   

2. CHEMOCONTROL: Chemical signals for robotics actuators control, 2015-2015 (PI)
   

3. ROBOCITY III: Service Robots for increasing the quality of living of citizens in metropolitan areas (Member of the research team)
   

4. ROBOSOFT CA: Coordination Action for Soft Robotics (Community Member)
   

5. TASAR: Team of Advanced Search And Rescue Robots (co-PI, 2021-2023)
   

6. PRIC: Proteccion Robotizada de Infraestructuras Criticas -- Robotized Protection of Critical Infrastructures (co-PI)
   

7. FOXIRIS: Flipper-based Oil&Gas ATEX Intelligent RobotIcs System - challenger for the TOTAL ARGOS Challenge (PI for UPM)
   

8. RHEA: Robot Fleets for Highly Effective Agriculture and Forestry Management
   

9. ROTOS: Sistemas Multirobot para proteccion de Grandes Infraestructuras Exteriores -- Multi-robot System for the Protection of Big Infrastructures
   

10. RoboCity2030-II, on Service Robotics, Comunidad Auton. de Madrid. (P2009/DPI-1559)
    

11. RF-WIPE, "Wireless Networks for Planetary Exploration" (European Space Agency). (2009)
    

12. Moon Hound, European Space Agency "Lunar Robotic Challenge". (2008)
    

13. RoboCity2030, Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid. Ref: S-0505/DPI/0176. 2006/01/01-2009/12/31.
    

14. Fleet of Cooperative Aerial and Terrestrial Robots (FRACTAL multi-robot system project). (2006-2009)
    

15. Satellite Docking and Grasping by means of Vision-based Robotic Systems (ASIROV) project, funded by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CICYT), Spain (2006).
    

16. Multisensor Autonomous Vehicle for Robotic Aerial Inspection (Vampira autonomous helicopter project) (2005)
    

17. Collision Avoidance and Warning System (CAWAS), funded by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (PROFIT), Spain (2004).
    

18. Satellite Recognition and Inspection via Relative Autonomous Navigation, funded by Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura (CICYT - P4), Spain (2003-2004).
    

19. Real-time detection of different mammal pathologies, funded by Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura (CICYT), Spain (2002).
    

20. Neural networks for learning of structured information, funded by Ministero dell'Universita e della Ricerca Scientifica, Italy (2000).
    

Misc Activities

Besides the participation to a number of conferences and congresses (see the Publications section), I gave invited talks at various events:

1. • Talk: “From deep underground to deep space”, ESA/ESRIN Space Resources Week, Luxembourg, April 2023.
   

2. • 2023 Annual Arctic Workshop in Mining and Robotics, Saariselkä, Finnish Lapland, March 2023.
   

3. • Invited talk: "Bio-Inspired Robotics", III Hispanic-Swiss meeting on Innovation, Madrid, October 2021.
   

4. • Invited talk: "Robotics to address the health and social challenge of COVID19", Planetic day on the role of digital technologies in times of crisis, online, September 2020.
   

5. • Talk: “ROBOMINERS: from deep underground to deep space”, ESA's workshop on Space Resources, Luxembourg, October 2019.
   

6. • Invited talk: “Evolutionary Robotics for Space Colonization" at ESA's Space 4 Inspiration event, Bilbao, October 2018.
   

7. • Keynote Speech: "Gear-less and Motor-less Robots at the Bio-inspired Systems Lab", content The 3rd Colombian Conference on Automatic Control (CCAC) October 2017.
   

8. • Talk "Three Applications of Evolutionary Algorithms to Robotics" at the 2nd Extract-IT workshop, "Defining FET research topics supporting the ICT challenges of mineral extraction under extreme geo-environmental conditions" Brussels, June 2013.
   

9. • Invited talk: "BatBot: a bat-inspired flying robot", Biomimetics Networking day, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, October 2013.
   

10. • Invited talk: "Bio-inspired robots and alternative actuation systems", workshop "Robots for Citizens", Madrid, June 2012
    

11. • FET Consultation workshop "Living technology / Artificial systems / Embodied Evolution", Brussels November 2011. (see here)
    

12. • The EvoBody (EU FET Proactive Initiative SA on AWARENESS) workshop, Mallorca, Spain, March 2011. (see here)
    

13. • Invited talk: "Could robot fish be used for leading schools of fish?", FitFish Workshop on 'A role for exercise in improving welfare in sustainable aquaculture', FitFish workshop, Barcelona, Spain, July 2010.
    

14. • Invited talk: "Multi-Robot systems in Defense and Security: two case studies", Workshop on Autonomy, EURON/EUROP annual meeting, San Sebastian, Spain, March 2010.
    

Paper reviewer for a number of conferences and journals:

Natural Computation; Smart Materials and structures; Smart Structures and Systems; IEEE Transaction on Mechatronics; Theoretical Computer Science; Bioinspiratio&Biomimetics; Nature Communications; Plos ONE; IEEE Access; Advances in Space Research; and the major robotics and CS conferences.

Brief resume

My first research activities date back to winter 1995-96, when I was guest at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. I've been working within the ALP group, where I've been working on my thesis, concerning Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) and Genetic Algorithms (GAs), and their applications on Neural Networks training. Here is an extended abstract (Sorry, in italian only).

This work got me my university degree ("laurea") in computer science at the Computer Science Department (DSI) of the Ca' Foscari University, Venice in july 1996.

Then, at the Computer Science Department of the University Ca' Foscari of Venice, I worked with M.Pelillo on some problems concerning Computer Vision, more specifically on continuous-based algorithms for the matching of relational structures, which has applications i.e. on object recognition and stereo vision, and which ends up in the well-known NP-hard Maximum Clique Problem on graphs (MCP).

Then I switched from the continuous to the discrete domain, working on genetic algorithms applied to another well-known NP-hard problem, the Satisfiability Problem (SAT) which has relevant applications in Artificial Intelligence.

To this aim, I spent one year back in the Netherlands, guest at the LIACS (Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science), again in the ALP Group. I've been working with Elena Marchiori under the supervision of the head of the ALP group, prof.dr. Joost N. Kok.

I got my PhD in computer science at the Computer Science Department (DSI) of the Ca' Foscari University, Venice and at the Computer Science Department (CS) of the University of Bologna in february 2001. The thesis was about nature-inspired search techniques (evolutionary algorithms an neural networks) for hard optimization problems.

After that, I moved to the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the Polytechnic University (UPM) of Madrid, Spain, where I've been working on Learning Classifier Systems. I was involved in a project whose aim was to apply these techniques to medical applications, more precisely to breast cancer prognosis.

After a brief parenthesis working in the industry on GPS/GIS fleet control software, I've been visiting professor at the Department of Systems Engineerign and Automation of the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, during 2004 and 2005.

Then, I have been granted a "Ramon y Cajal" tenure-track research fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Technology, which I spent at the Industrial Engineering School of at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain.

In summer 2007 I have been guest for a short time at the Free University of Amsterdam, working on robot cooperation within the "Computational Intelligence Group", headed by prof. A.E. Eiben.

Since January 2009 I have been contracted as professor at the UPM.

Since then, I started working (also) on bio-inspired robots and biomimetics.

Research