Paolo Dario

BioRobotics Technical Committee Chair

Director, The BioRobotics Institute
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy

EMBS 2015 Retreat

Los Cabos, January 18, 2015
The IEEE EMBS BioRobotics TC
 Vision
 Thematic Areas
 Members
 Organization and Activities: Conference,
Journals, Awards, Education, Roadmapping,
Dissemination and International
Collaborations, …
 BioRobotics is a new scientific-technological area
which derives its methodological background from Robotics
and Biomedical Engineering
The objectives of BioRobotics include:
• to investigate bio-mimetic robots aimed at increasing the scientific
knowledge on how biological systems work;
• to develop bio-inspired systems, like worm-like painless colonoscopy
systems, dexterous surgical systems, exoskeletons and humanoid robot
assistants to persons with special needs;
• to design high-performance medical devices and robots (e.g. for
surgery, diagnostics, limb substitution, rehabilitation, etc.).
BioRobotics TC Thematic Areas
 Rehabilitation Robotics
 Surgical Robotics
 Bionic Prostheses and Exoskeletons
 Neurodevelopmental Robotics
 Robotics in Biology
 Robot Companions for Assisted Living
 … a few others (under discussion)
 Robot Companions at all ages
Preterm birth Extended independent life

Infancy Maturity Old age

Neurodevelopmental Robotics for frail age
bioengineering to prolong autonomy
Robotics at work

Educational robotics Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)

Search and rescue

Service robotics

Surgery/rehabilitation
 Robot Companions at all ages
Preterm birth Extended independent life

Infancy Maturity Old age

Neurodevelopmental Robotics for frail age
bioengineering to prolong autonomy
Robotics at work

Educational robotics Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)

Search and rescue

Service robotics

Surgery/rehabilitation
30 Members
 Covering all thematic areas
 From 14 countries worldwide
 Academia/industry
 23 males, 7 females

Nomination Committee Members

 Paolo Dario (TC Chair)
 Arianna Menciassi, SSSA, Italy
 Jim Patton, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, US
 Mamoru Mitsuishi, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Confirmed Members from past TC (I)

Paolo Dario James Patton Brian Davies

BioRobotics TC Chair Rehabilitation Institute Imperial College
The BioRobotics Institute, of Chicago (USA) London (UK)
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
(Italy)

Rolf Johansson Allison Okamura Massimiliano Zecca

Lund University Stanford University Loughborough University
(Sweden) (USA) (UK)
Confirmed Members from past TC (II)

Eric Perreault Eugenio Guglielmelli Jaydev Desai

Rehabilitation Univarsity Campu Bio- University of Maryland
Institute of Chicago Medico (Italy) (USA)
(USA)

Arianna Menciassi Cecilia Laschi

The BioRobotics Institute, Herman Van der Kooij The BioRobotics Institute,
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna University of Twente Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
(Italy) (Netherlands) (Italy)
 New TC Members (I)

Alicia Casals
Technical University of Atta Badii Etienne Burdet
Catalonia (Spain) Reading University (UK) Imperial College London (UK)
Nominated TC Vice-Chair

Elena De Momi Jorge Dias John-John Cabibihan

Politecnico di Milano Khalifa University (UAE) Qatar University (Qatar)
(Italy)
 New TC Members (II)

Mamoru
Martha Zequera Diaz Christian Cipriani
Mitshuishi
Pontificia Universidad The BioRobotics Institute,
The University of
Javeriana (Colombia) Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Tokyo (Japan)
(Italy)

Arturo Forner Cordero

Christophe Leroux Hongbin Liu
Universidade de San Paolo
CEA LIST (France) King’s College London (UK)
(Brazil)
 New TC Members (III)

Tim McGloughlin Marko Munih Lorenzo Masia

Khalifa University (UAE) University of Liunljana Nanyang Technological
(Slovenia) University (Singapore)

Pietro Valdastri Yong-Lae Park

Loredana Zollo
Vanderbilt University (USA) Carnegie Mellon University
Univaristy Campus Bio-Medico
(USA)
(Italy)
BioRobotics TC Sub-Committees
Conferences Sub-Committee (Chair: Eugenio Guglielmelli)
supervises the review of papers and suggests sessions and invited sessions for
EMBC, BioRob and other conferences

Publication Sub-Committee (Chair: Marko Munih)

identifies journals and books for special issues on BioRobotics

Awards Sub-Committee (Chair: Jim Patton)

collects nominations for all the EMB awards and Distinguished Lecturers and
passes its recommendations to the Awards Board

Education Sub-Committee (Chair: Tim McGloughlin)

promotes Summer Schools and other student activities

Roadmapping Sub-Committee (Chair: Christian Cipriani)

designs and implements strategic actions and roadmaps for BioRobotics

Outreach Sub-Committee (Chair: Martha Zequera Diaz)

for dissemination and the involvement of the community (webmaster, mailing list
and newsletter) and international collaborations
 Conference activities
Conferences Sub-Committee (Chair: Eugenio Guglielmelli)
supervises the review of papers and suggests sessions and invited sessions for
EMBC, BioRob and other conferences

 EMBC 2014
 “Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering Symposia”
 Special Session, workshop, mini-symposia at
EMBC 2015 on BioRobotics themes
 Rehabilitation Robotics
 Surgical Robotics
 Bionic Prostheses and Exoskeletons
 Neurodevelopmental Robotics
 …..
 BioRob 2016 in Singapore
 Journals and books
Publication Sub-Committee (Chair: Marko Munih)
identifies journals and books for special issues on BioRobotics

 Special Issues on BioRobotics in journals

 IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
 IEEE Transactions on Robotics
 IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
 IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine
 …..
 Book series and chapters
 Springer: Biosystems & Biorobotics (BioSysRob)
 A new Journal?
‘BioRobotics’/’BioRobotics Science and Engineering’