Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

04/19/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/19/2024 02:19

Robosoft 2024, the international conference to explore the latest frontiers of soft robotics. The contribution of the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant'Anna School

  • Istituto di BioRobotica

Robosoft 2024, the international conference to explore the latest frontiers of soft robotics. The contribution of the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant'Anna School

Publication date:19.04.2024
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Arianna Menciassi, vice.rector of the Sant'Anna School and full professor in industrial bioengineering, and Linda Paternò, assistant professor in industrial bioengineering at the BioRobotics Institute, took part in the seventh edition of Robosoft 2024, the international conference on soft robotics taking place in San Diego (USA) from 14 to 17 April 2024. This year's theme was 'Soft Robotics for Exploration': the demands of exploration require adaptive, resilient, and autonomous systems, whether mapping the earth's surface and ocean depths, or inspecting within the human body.

Soft robotics in the medical and surgical fields

Arianna Menciassi coordinated the plenary session entitled "Medical Applications of Soft Robotics: Mirage or Keystone?": a survey of the various soft robotics solutions in the field of medical robotics, from wearable and implantable devices to high-fidelity simulators, from artificial organs to manipulators for robotic surgery.
The plenary session was also an opportunity to present the activities of the Surgical Robotics and Allied Technologies Area, the research area coordinated by Arianna Menciassi, whose main challenge is to bridge the gap between diagnosis and therapy by developing platforms, enabling technologies and components capable of treating different pathologies inside the body.

The School's contribution also extended to the talk by Linda Paternò, who elaborated on the group's recent work on the development of a soft, biomimetic artificial urinary bladder with self-contracting capabilities thanks to balloon-shaped artificial intelligent hydraulic muscles. The device may represent hope for those who have lost or compromised biological bladder function.

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