The Italian Institute of Technology with headquarters in Genova (Italy), is a non-profit institution with the primary goal of creating and disseminating scientific knowledge and strengthening Italy's technological competitiveness. Current IIT scientific program has a strong multidisciplinary character, merging expertise from different platforms from Neuroscience to Drug Discovery, from Nanotechnologies to Computation.

IIT has recently created an IIT-Network of centers at Italian research institutions in Lecce, Milan, Naples, Pisa, Turin, Parma and Trento. The IIT Center for Space Human Robotics of IIT@Polito in Torino (Italy), directed by Prof. Francesco Profumo, aims to reach a step further in the study of the future generation of space humanoid robotics and to be recognized as a world leader laboratory in solutions and (selected) technologies for humanoid robotics within 5 years (see a description of research plan below)