The Crab Robot SILVER 2 will be able to move and walk on the seabed. It can learn and adapt for a safe interaction with the underwater habitat. It will not add damage to the marine environments that are already exposed and vulnerable to plastic pollution.   It will move towards its intended target without causing adverse effects on the marine ecosystem.

A recent study published in Science Robotics journal and coordinated by the Biorobotics Institute at Sant’Anna School - Pisa in partnership with the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn – Napoli, shows that SILVER 2, drawing inspiration from benthic animals such as crabs,  can use legged locomotion to move dexterously on the seafloor, anchor to underwater structures, and ultimately remove plastic waste found on the sea floor. 

Benthic and dynamic (hopping) locomotion will be performed by robot SILVER 2 through open loop control algorithm. The robot has been designed for underwater applications by a research team under the supervision of Marcello Calisti, a researcher at the Institute of Biorobotics, building on the pioneering work conducted by Cecilia Laschi  in soft robotics. As a major advance in legged locomotion thanks to ultra-flexible materials and actuators changing the stiffness for higher energy efficiency in locomotion, SILVER 2 will be able to sense the objects it handles and distinguish between different metal, plastic, and other objects or living organisms such as fish or corals. Calisti and the research team focused on the SILVER six-legged robot with active hopping behaviors when adapting to the underwater context also preventing organisms from being harmed.

“SILVER 2 is a teleoperated robot system equipped with temperature and pressure sensors – said PhD student Giacomo Picardi, as the first author of the paper– that allows the (human) operator  to direct the robot’s locomotion.” Funded by Arbi Dario S.p.A. and National Geographic Society, SILVER 2 has been developed in the Lab.  Centro di ricerca sulle tecnologie del mare e la Robotica marina,  to operate adaptively in unstructured environments. In particular, SILVER 2 is designed to integrate soft manipulators (a robot arm with soft grippers) for safe interaction in underwater operations.

“Our long-term goal is to expand the exploration capabilities of underwater robots – said  Marcello Calisti – As robots get deeper in the sea, they interact with the environment moving to the different areas where they can collect plastics or explore  the sea floor. Studying the human interaction with the sea is critical for the sustainability of marine ecosystems that are degraded by human waste and pollutants from oil and mining. Therefore, we work with marine biologists, geologists and oceanographers using a collaborative approach for pollution prevention and control.”

“This collaborative, ‘bioinspired’ and 3-D vision-based approach is aimed at exploring the natural dynamics of the soft systems. Current results allow operators to enable the utility of switching modes in a realistic scenario – explains Sergio Stefanni, a researcher at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn – Addressing the biodiversity issue, SILVER 2 can investigate deep-sea biodiversity and benthic biodiversity variations form the sampling stations. As biodiversity and ecosystem are considered a top priority for all sectors, monitoring biodiversity, and reducing marine pollution will lead to economic growth and improved quality of life. The next generation of robots will autonomously navigate, collect plastic waste and remove marine litter.”

Un docente e un affiliato dell’Istituto di Management della Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna sono tra i redattori delle raccomandazioni cliniche e organizzative dell’ISQua (International Society for Quality in Health Care) contro il Covid-19. L’Italian Network for Safety in Health Care (INSH), associazione collegata alla International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), ha pubblicato un documento contenenti raccomandazioni di carattere clinico e organizzativo per la gestione della sicurezza, relativamente alla pandemia di Covid-19. La redazione delle “Patient Safety Recommendations” è avvenuta in collaborazione con gli operatori sanitari del “front line” di varie regioni italiane. Alla redazione delle raccomandazioni hanno collaborato la prof.ssa Chiara Seghieri dell’Istituto di Management della Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna e il dott. Riccardo Tartaglia, professional affiliate dello stesso Istituto di Management.

La partecipazione alla stesura delle “raccomandazioni” si inserisce nell’ambito del lavoro di ricerca portato avanti dalla prof.ssa Chiara Seghieri nel campo della qualità e sicurezza delle cure. “Il documento ha una taglio pratico – commentano Chiara Seghieri e Riccardo Tartaglia – ed è veloce da consultare. Le raccomandazioni prendono in esame gli aspetti della gestione della sicurezza delle cure da parte dei sistemi sanitari durante questa epidemia, a partire dalla diagnosi e dalla terapia fino alle problematiche collegate alla quarantena. Includono inoltre aspetti come la gestione dello stress post-traumatico degli operatori, il benessere mentale dei pazienti, le procedure medico-legali conseguenti al decesso, la misurazione degli esiti delle cure”.

Il primo rilascio delle raccomandazioni ha fatto registrare circa 12.000 click sul sito di ISQua e oltre 2.000 click da Facebook e Twitter, ma soprattutto ha avuto un’eco rilevante sia nel campo della ricerca che della pratica clinica.

Il documento è stato tradotto in diverse lingue ed è scaricabile da questo link sul sito di ISQua.

In gallery: Chiara Seghieri e Riccardo Tartaglia

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sant’Anna School research community decided to move online the conference Scheduling and Power Management for the Linux Kernel: OSPM Summit 2020 on May 11-19.  The  Linux Kernel OSPM Summit 2020 was planned to take place in the TeCIP Institute but in the interest of  the scientific community and attendees this online event will provide an opportunity to hear from ARM, RedHat, Intel, Google, VMWare, Oracle, Linaro, SuSE and IBM experts and keynote speakers.

The conference organizers Tommaso Cucinotta and Luca Abeni, professors of Embedded Systems at the TeCIP Institute RETIS Lab., embraced the opportunity to connect with Juri Lelli (RedHat), Morten Rasmussen (ARM) and Claudio Scordino (Evidence s.r.l.) for covering the latest developments to the power management and scheduling facilities for the energy harvesting embedded systems in the Linux Kernel and other related topics such as real-time performance requirements, energy consumption, and heterogeneous mobile platforms future releases.

The OSPM Summit 2020 will cover: 

·         Performance or Security, hardware problems and CPU optimization: Meltdown, Spectre and L1TF vulnerabilities.

·         Thermal pressure, overheating events, and thermal management on mobile devices.

·         Developments of ARM’s Big.Little multi-core load balancing architecture for power/performance optimization.

·         The API of co-kernel approaches, system performance and the latency effects of real-time applications.

·         The Virtual Machine Power Management on Cloud Computing.

The Linux Kernel is the largest software project on the planet, with over 21 million lines of code. It is a complex ecosystem with numerous areas of specialty. The kernel covers many areas, from hardware enablement to scheduling algorithms for new generation of robotic workstations in manufacturing industry, embedded systems, and the combination of data analytics with high performance computing configurations.

The RETIS Lab. participates in the Linux open source ecosystem under the EU ACTORS project and in cooperation with Italian company Evidence. Researchers of RETIS Lab have developed the SCHED_DEADLINE scheduler available in the Linux kernel since version 3.14. The SCHED_DEADLINE scheduler is suitable for real-time applications like multimedia and industrial control. Based on scheduling algorithms, so that latencies are bounded, and timing constraints are guaranteed, it allows specifying the timing constraints of each running task.

The OSPM Summit will provide a great opportunity to discuss the Kernel state of the art and plans to reduce energy consumption allowing a rigorous comparison of existing features with the effectiveness of hybrid architectures.

Are you interested in a professional / academic career dealing with open innovation or technology transfer? Or are you passionate about sustainable development and circular economy and willing to carry out research and in-field projects on these topics? Or, maybe, are you aiming to support healthcare managers to improve their performance?

Our PhD in management at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies is the right place for you!

Please share this post and help other interested students to get a great opportunity.

Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies is a public university - with special autonomy - working in the field of applied sciences.

Located in the very heart of the historical town of Pisa, Sant'Anna School is ranked by the "Times Higher Education 2018" among the best universities in the World University Rankings (and number 1 in Italy).

The International PhD in Management is a three-year training program, aimed to develop research capabilities and managerial skills, both in the public and private organizations domains.

The program provides a high-profile education and training “pathway” towards a research or professional career, by focusing on the main frontiers of management, as well as by coupling the theoretical and methodological robustness with a pragmatic and operational “practitioner approach”. The PhD candidates follow one of our three main research streams:

• the management of innovation processes and the international competitiveness of firms, institutions, as well as local, regional and national systems. Teaching and research carried out in this area of our PhD program aims to describe, understand, explain and facilitate innovation management in private companies, public administrations and cities/regions. Innovation processes are here interpreted from a technological, managerial, cultural and institutional point of view;

• the management of sustainability in public institutions, private companies and wide territorial areas is specifically focused on resource efficiency, Circular Economy, corporate social responsibility, environmental policies. The Sustainability Management (SuM) research group combines the knowledge of business management and policy making with the principles of sustainable development, through scientific research and empirical investigations;

• the management of healthcare systems relies on international comparisons on governance models and policies to support policy makers and managers to improve performance as well as strategies, to set priorities and to orient behavior in complex systems.

We offer many mandatory and optional courses, such as:

·      Surviving Research methodologies in management

·      Applied statistics for social science

·      Management Theories

·      Scientific English for Researchers in Management

·      Writing and publishing an academic paper

·      Social Network Analysis for Management

·      Experimental methodologies for management research

·      How to design a study proposal for EU funding

·      Economics and management of innovation

·      High-Tech Entrepreneurship

·      Health management

·      Performance management in health care

·      Public administration models and accountability

·      Sustainability Management

·      Life-cycle thinking and environmental footprints

·      Natural Capital, climate change and the businesses in the XXI century

·      Social Marketing

Every PhD student has a full three-year scholarship and free access to the canteen.

For the academic year 2020/2021, six (6) scholarships are available, one of which is reserved for NON-EU candidates.

Applicants will be given the possibility to run for one of the thematic scholarships that are included among the 6 available. We offer the following specific scholarships:

-         a special “David Teece Scholarship” is available for candidates that will commit to carry out research through the peculiar lenses of the “dynamic capabilities theory”

-         a scholarship on data-science applied to innovation, sustainability and health-related topics, in connection with the research activities of the EMBEDS Department of Excellence (http://www.embeds.santannapisa.it/)

-         additional scholarships may be added thanks to funding coming from private or public entities.

Candidates will have to declare their intention to apply for one of the specific scholarships mentioned above when they will be examined by the PhD Commission.

Deadline for online application submission: 15.06.2020

How to apply: /en/admissions/call-admission-phd-management-innovation-sustainability-and-healthcare-3

About Pisa

In the heart of Tuscany, Pisa is the city of science and history. At every corner of the historical city center, you will find a department of its three public universities, or a masterpiece of the ancient times. But Pisa is also a “young town”, a lot of students live here, so you will be able to experience concerts, art exhibitions and vibrant night events. Pisa is well connected to Florence, Siena and the Versilia seaside (just 15 min.), as well as to Rome, Milan and Venice by high-speed trains. The airport of Pisa hosts low-cost companies, and it is very easy to travel across Southern Italy and Europe.