Advanced education, frontier research and innovation: this is The BioRobotics Institute of Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, founded in 2011. With time the Institute has built a wealth of knowledge and expertise in several fields of biorobotics and bionics, such as medical robotics, wearable technologies, collaborative robotics, bio-inspired robotics, neuroscience robotics, rehabilitation robotics and implantable technologies.
The Institute promotes the internationalization of didactics and scientific research through collaboration with the most prestigious international knowledge centers. The Institute aims to educate engineers that are scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs and problem solvers.
Our mission is based on three pillars:
- Education: MSc in Bionics Engineering and PhD program in BioRobotics;
- Research: scientific publications, national and international research projects, joint labs;
- Innovation: start-up companies, patents and industrial contracts.
The BioRobotics Institute has also activated an Educational Robotics program with schools in Tuscany, Italy. The program aims at bringing technology and robotics in schools and using them as a new instrument for teaching scientific and technical subjects.
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The scientific collaboration between The BioRobotics Institute of Sant’Anna School and Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, has allowed the development of a bilayer hydrogel that imitates the characteristics of articular cartilage and restore its natural properties in the areas where the tissue has degenerated. The study was published in Advanced Healthcare Materials and is the result of the collaboration between the Institute of The BioRobotics Institute and Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli. "Once the hydrogel has passed all pre-clinical tests, it could be injected or implanted with a small surgery", says Diego Trucco, first author of the paper

The ERC Celloids project pushes forward the new frontier of microrobotics. The project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) with ERC Starting grants, and is officially started on February 1, 2021. “The microrobots will eventually enable revolutionary medical procedures such as long-term monitoring and non-invasive interventions in delicate organs” explains Stefano Palagi, Assistant Professor at The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Sant'Anna School)