SUPERVISION

OPPORTUNITIES

I am available for supervising BSc and MSc thesis projects at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, which can be carried out internationally as part the Erasmus+ programme or in collaboration with industry. Possible thesis topics include (but are not limited to) robotics for industrial and medical applications, robot modeling and simulation, and mechanism design and optimization.

I also welcome queries from prospective PhD students and postdoctoral candidates, and I'm happy to support applications for PhD and Postdoctoral Fellowships, such as MSCA. Please contact me at matteo.russo@uniroma2.eu if you are interested in working with me, including a short bio with relevant skills, previous projects, background and interests.

THESIS TOPICS

Currently, I'm looking for students to:

Design of bioinspired continuum robots: Design flexible bioinspired robotic grippers or manipulators (Autodesk Inventor Pro), manufacture them (FDM 3D printing, Arduino, servomotors, sensors), and test their performance with experiments.
Design an actuation module for cable-driven robots: Develop a motor-pulley system (Autodesk Inventor Pro) with a tensioning system. Manufacture (FDM 3D printing, Arduino, servomotors, sensors) and validate the design experimentally.
Design a control interface for continuum robots: Develop a user-friendly interface to control continuum manipulators (Arduino, servomotors, control interfaces). Map continuum motion onto a hand-held controller.
Design new sensors for flexible mechanisms: Create new sensing strategies to measure the motion of flexible mechanisms (Arduino, sensors, FDM 3D printing) and validate the new sensing system with experiments.
Optimize continuum robots: Analyze continuum robots, with a focus on tendon-driven designs. Study how different design choices affect performance through modeling and simulation (MATLAB, optimization algorithms).
Analyze musical instrument mechanics: Study a musical instrument that works through a mechanical linkage or transmission (e.g. piano key action, music box, guitar tuning peg), and analyze its functioning and design parameters.

I'm also open to new ideas within my research areas! Please get in touch to discuss alternative topics or theses abroad.