Guest Speaker: Prof. Giuseppe Carbone
Department of Mechanical, Energy, Management Engineering
University of Calabria
Prof. Giuseppe Carbone received his Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Cassino, Italy, in 2004. He is a Professor at the University of Calabria, Italy (since 2018), and joined East China Jiaotong University in 2024. His international profile includes faculty and visiting appointments at Sheffield Hallam University, UK (Senior Lecturer and Executive Board Member of Sheffield Robotics, 2015–2017; Visiting Professor, 2018–2021), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Beihang University, and Waseda University. He also served as Scientific Director of the International Research Laboratory on Intelligent Robotic Systems. Prof. Carbone chairs the IFToMM Technical Committee on Robotics and Mechatronics (since 2020). His editorial leadership includes serving as Editor-in-Chief of Robotica (Cambridge University Press), Section Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Bionic Engineering and MDPI Machines, and Technical Editor for IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. He has been PI or Co-PI for over 20 research projects, including EU FP7 and H2020 initiatives.
Abstract
The aging population and the progressive decline of National Health Service (NHS) resources across Europe and worldwide are creating critical challenges in healthcare that must be addressed through sustainable robotic innovations. This presentation provides an overview of open issues and innovative approaches, focusing specifically on the solutions developed by the research team of Prof. Giuseppe Carbone, with a particular emphasis on robotic-assisted post-stroke rehabilitation. The discussion outlines the team's distinctive methodological approach, which integrates analytical, numerical, and experimental co-design strategies to optimize structural topology alongside dimensional synthesis. Through this robust methodology, a wide range of your team's validated rehabilitation robotic systems will be detailed, including cable-driven architectures, wearable parallel exoskeletons, and assistive devices. The presentation delves into the fundamental design principles, unique architectural concepts, and human-in-the-loop control strategies that underpin these state-of-the-art systems, using the team's landmark clinical prototypes and case studies as primary evidence. Key requirements for next-generation systems—such as adaptability to patient-specific neurophysiological feedback, modularity, low-cost clinical resilience, safety, and usability—are briefly analyzed. Finally, to provide a broader landscape of the field, other innovative robotic applications beyond neurorehabilitation, such as advanced industrial manipulation and space mechatronics developed within the team's collaborative networks, are also briefly outlined.
