Lucia Beccai

Lucia Beccai is Tenured Senior Researcher at IIT, leader of Soft BioRobotics Perception (SBRP) research line, and until 2009 was Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the Biorobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy. She has a long experience in bionics and bioinspired smart tactile system, has collaborated and had scientific responsibility in many international projects at European and intercontinental level. In her research she takes a biorobotic approach with the final aim of achieving soft sensing and perceptive soft robotic solutions for intelligent and safe interaction with the environment and humans. She focuses on investigating the elephant trunk as a model of manipulation ‘without hands’, for deriving new concepts of versatile continuum manipulators. Some specific research topics include: animal/object interaction for grasping, soft architected structures for sensing and actuation, multidimensional soft actuation, soft tactile systems inspired by natural mechanotransduction and morphology, milli- and micro-scale fabrication technologies for 3D active structures. Currently she is the coordinator of the PROBOSCIS project (EU H2020-FET Open 863212 proboscis.eu) and partner of the MOZART project (mozart-robotics.eu). She serves as Associate Editor for journals including Scientific Reports, IEEE RA-L and Frontiers in Robotics and AI (receiving the 2021 Outstanding Associate Editor award), is reviewer for several journals (including Science Robotics, Nature Communications, Soft Robotics, Advanced Materials, Nature Electronics), and for international conferences (ICRA, IROS, Living Machines, ICORR, RoboSoft, BIOROB). She serves as expert evaluator for EU project proposals (including ERC programme) and for some international research programs (including US NSF).