Ferdinando Cannella

Ferdinando Cannella is Head of Industrial Robotic Unit. He received is first PhD (University of Padua) in 2002 in “Mechanical Measurement applied to Engineering” with Thesis “Optical Measurement of strain: Application on Timing Belt” and his second PhD (Polytechnic University of Marche) in 2006 in “Mechanical Engineering” with Thesis “Stiffness Modelling and Kinematic Analysis of Carton Handling and Manipulation with a Reconfigurable Mechanism using Numerical Simulation”. From January 2005 he has been working at King’s College of London, University of London as Post-doctor Visiting Researcher in the ARCHAPS (Automatic Reconfigurable Confectionary Handling and Packaging System) project. The aim of this collaboration is to improve the knowledge in carton crease behavior and folding reconfigurable mechanisms. He joined on 2008 to Advanced Robotics Department lead by Prof. Darwin Caldwell at the Italian Institute of Technology and from October 2010 he worked as a Team Leader at the IIT: the topic is the Flexible Multi-Body Simulations applied to the development of Robot Manipulators, Packaging and Biomedical Devices. From 2015 to 2019 he has been responsible for the Advanced Industrial Automation Laboratory and he is now head of the Industrial Robotics Unit, with which he has participated various European projects such as Autorecon, WearHap, EuroC++, SoftManBot and industrial projects with partners as GE Avio, Ansaldo, Tetra Pak, NovaCart, Camozzi, Fameccanica, etc. He has published over 100 papers, 4 patents and granted about 3 challenges in industrial robotics. He is Associated Editor of JMES and reviewer of several magazines of Mechanics and Robotics as well as Member of IEEE and ASME. He is currently also responsible for the Robotics Macro-node within ARTES 4.0 Competence Center, member of the Technical Scientific Committee of the START 4.0 Competence Center and of DIH Liguria. His research is on investigation and development new reconfigurable grippers, manipulators, packaging mechanisms exploiting the bio-inspiration models supported by his significant experience in using Computer-Aided Engineering tools for Co-Simulation (Multi-body, Finite Element, Control and Optimization Tools). The main topics are: in-hand manipulation, flexible materials handling, reconfigurable mechanisms, elasticity control-numerical simulation and digital twin, tactile and force sensors. The main application fields are: industrial manufacturing, inspection and predictive maintenance of machines and infrastructures, packaging and quality control, peripheral neuropathies and biomedical devices