Affiliation:
ProfessorUniversity of Catania
Catania, Italy
Title:
Robots as coworkers: Applications in agriculture and volcano monitoring
Biography:
Giovanni Muscato received the Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Catania, in 1988. After completing graduation, he was with the Centro di Studi sui Sistemi, Turin, Italy. In 1990 he won the position of researcher in Automatic Control in the University of Catania. In 1991 he won a “Fulbright” fellowship. In July-August 1991 he was visiting researcher in the University of New Mexico working on “Robust Control”, In September 1992 he was visiting researcher at the Waseda university (Tokyo) Japan working on “Neural Networks”. In 1998 he becomes Associate
Professor at the University of Catania. In September 2000 he was visiting professor at the University Picardie Jule Verne, San Quentin (France) working on “Mobile robotics”. In 2005 he won the position of Full Professor at the University of Catania.
He regularly holds several courses of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Catania in topics regarding Automatic Control, System theory and Robotics. He regularly follows as supervisor Master students (more than two hundred till now) and PhD students (more than ten till now).
The scientific research activity regarded several theoretical and experimental topics mainly concerning automatic control and robotics. From this activity he has published more than 250 articles in congress proceedings and in national and international journals, four books and two patents.
He was local responsible of several national research projects as ROBINSPEC: A robot for industrial inspection, TECSIS PON (2002-2005), PRIN PICTURE (Motion control of innovative locomotion systems and navigation in unstructured environments” (2004-2006), RI4.2 “Innovative methods for the adoption of ICU in robotics” FAR 2 MIUR (2002-2006), “Study design and building of a robot for automatic artichoke harvesting”, funded by Regione Siciliana. As regard European projects he was the coordinator of the project ROBOVOLC (5FP) where a robot for volcanic inspections was designed built and tested. He was also local coordinator of the european projects: CLAWAR 2 (Climbing and Walking Robots), EUROBOT (Robotic educational events to promote a dissemination of science and technology among young people in Europe), RAPOLAC (Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Components), MOW-BY-SAT (Mowing the lawn by satellite), TIRAMISU (Toolbox Implementation for Removal of Anti-personnel Mines, Submunitions and UXO). Moreover he was responsible of several grants with local and national companies for the development of robotic systems.
In 2003 he organised as General Chairman the international conference CLAWAR 2003 and in 2006 the finals of the international robotic competition EUROBOT.
He is in the editorial board of several journals and in the International committee of many robotic conferences.
He is expert reviewer of the European Commission of the Italian Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico and of the MIUR.
He is senior member of the a IEEE Control & System Society and of the Robotic & Automation society. He is in the board of trustees of the CLAWAR Association. He is in the board of directors of the Distretto Tecnologico Sicilia Micro e nano Sistemi and is one of the founder of the Spin-Off Etnamatica S.r.l. Personal home page: www.muscato.eu