English - Percro - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

Antonio Frisoli
Curriculum vitae
Research Interests
SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
The research activity of Antonio Frisoli has been mainly developed at the Perceptual
Robotics laboratory of TeCIP Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Antonio Frisoli is
the head of the research area of Human-Robot Interaction.
His research interests deal with the design and control of spatial robots with high
performance, the study and development of new advanced human-machine interfaces -
including exoskeletons systems, haptic interfaces, Brain-Computer interfaces-, issues of
theoretical kinematics and applied to the study of new mechanisms, design and
development of novel robotic systems for the neuro-motor rehabilitation in virtual
environments, the investigation of sense of presence and multisensory interaction in
virtual environments, biorobotics and cognitive robotics.
In the following, a detailed description of main research themes is reported.
Force feedback exoskeletons
In the course of the last ten years at PERCRO laboratory different versions of arm and
hand force feedback exoskeletons have been designed, characterized with incremental
improvements of performance in terms of force fidelity, mechanical impedance, in terms
of weight and bulk.
Antonio Frisoli significantly contributed to the development of the force-feedback
exoskeleton L-Exos and of its parts, and to the development and definition of modelbased
and model-free controllers for its application in Virtual Environments and
teleoperation.
Two prototypes of the system were built and the system has been significantly
acknowledged in the scientific literature for the design and for its successful application in
rehabilitation [R13].
In a second configuration, an hand exoskeleton was developed on purpose for a
museum application, that can exert forces on the two fingers of the hand can be
mounted as final interface on the end-effector [L9].
The combination of the hand and arm exoskeleton make a system with 10 DoF, with high
performance in terms of dynamics, obtained through the coupling of a micro-system for
the hand and a macro-system for the arm [R19]. The system was successfully employed
in an itinerant exhibition in several well-recognized European museums, demonstrating
high levels of reliability and robustness, in the context of the EU project Pure-Form, of
which Antonio Frisoli was the responsible for technical and application development [74].
Recently Antonio Frisoli has completed the design and construction of a new exoskeleton
for the arm targeting neuromotor rehabilitation, the Rehab-Exos (2009) [43]. The core of
the system was the development of an innovative actuated joint, composed of one
brushless torque motor, integrated with a custom design 1-dof torques sensor, one
Harmonic-Drive speed-reducer and two redundant position sensors, so that both
irreversibility of motion can be guaranteed in case power is off, for increasing safety,
while high back-drivability of motion can be achieved when the power and control is on,
thanks to joint-located torques sensors, with at the same time high safety standards for
the patient.
Moreover the system is based on a modular actuation, so that the exoskeleton can be
easily configured for left and right patients, with only a kinematic change.
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