The European Research Council has awarded a Starting Grant to Prof. Vito Cacucciolo for RoboFluid, funding €1.5 million of research at Politecnico di Bari over five years.
RoboFluid asks what becomes possible when the pump stops being external hardware and becomes part of the machine's own body. The project runs along four lines: fluidic artificial muscles in fiber format, haptic gloves for telemanipulation, thermoregulating clothing with woven fluidic circuits, and low-cost robotic hands driven by muscle fibers.
The grant established the RoboPhysics Laboratory in its current form and funds the PhD positions and postdoctoral research now working across those lines.