The seminar will present the two main active research areas at the MDM Lab at the University of Florence: (1) Wearable robotics for rehabilitation and assistance in impaired hand function, (2) Underwater robotics. The talk initially explores the potential of wearable hand exoskeletons to significantly improve functional independence and quality of life for people with disabilities, supporting daily activities and home rehabilitation. Despite the benefits, adoption is limited by technical issues like weight, bulkiness, and poor battery life. The goal is to create reliable, accessible, and clinically valid systems. In this context, the MDM Lab team developed DANTE, a fully wearable exoskeleton with a hybrid and modular design, capable of reproducing over twenty gestures. DANTE, controlled via myoelectric signals, was successfully presented at EXPO 2025 in Osaka, bringing the systems to a development stage that allows for clinical validation.
The second part of the talk is devoted to the underwater robotics activities of MDM Lab, including research on mutant (reconfigurable) underwater vehicles. Underwater drones are designed based on operational needs, so two different families exist, meeting conflicting requirements: 1) Carry out surveys over large areas of seafloor or water column using available on-board power efficiently. 2) Perform close inspection or intervention on submerged infrastructures. These tasks require conflicting design features. Close inspection and intervention, require compact, “stocky,” shape with several actuators aimed at achieving hovering with good pose precision. For surveying large areas of the seafloor, the preferred shape is torpedo, and hover is not requirement. Mutant underwater drones, featuring reconfigurable shape are the right answer to the need to obtain drone excellent performance in both hovering and survey tasks.
