ESR 12
FRANCESCO VIGNI
BIO
Francesco is a robotic scientist and a licensed engineer in computer and automation, who strives to understand the role of robotics in daily social contexts.
Growing up in the charming city of Forlì, situated in the heart of Italy, Francesco developed an eager curiosity for small devices that can aid humans with everyday tasks.
Later on, he decided to nurture his interests by acquiring a B.Sc. in Management Engineering in 2015 and his M.Sc. in Computer and Automation Engineering cum laude in 2018 at Università degli Studi di Siena.
His research focused on hand force interaction during human-robot handshakes and his awarded results provide insights regarding the policies that are naturally adopted by humans.
After his experience as a research assistant at Technische Universität München, he specialized in robotic software development helping companies to achieve effective and efficient solutions. His robot developments range from dexterous manipulators over indoor mobile robotics to AI-powered mono and stereo vision systems. Francesco’s interests go beyond robotics and languages that machines can understand, in fact, he also loves learning natural languages, traveling and familiarizing himself with new cultures.
He is currently an early stage researcher in the EU project PERSEO, focusing on exploiting the social cues during multimodal Human-Robot Interactions in order to i.e. influence persuasion.
His goal is to drive the future of social robotics towards inclusive agents that can easily adapt to cross-cultural behaviors and perform personalized interactions.
SUEPERVISOR
Prof. Silvia Rossi