Gian Carlo Maffettone

Postdoc

Short Bio

Gian Carlo Maffettone is a postdoctoral fellow at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale.

His research deals with the control of large ensembles of dynamical systems with applications in mobile robotics.

He obtained a Ph.D. in Modeling and Engineering Risk and Complexity at Scuola Superiore Meridionale with a thesis titled "Controlling the collective dynamics of large-scale hybrid multi-agent systems", under the supervision of prof. Mario di Bernardo (University of Naples Federico II) and prof. Maurizio Porfiri (New York University, Tandon School of Engineering). Previously, he graduated cum laude in Automation Engineering in October 2020 at the University of Naples Federico II, with a research thesis on pattern formation in large scale multi-agent systems, under the supervision of Prof. Mario di Bernardo.

Doctoral Thesis:

Controlling the Collective Dynamics of Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems.

Publications

Journal papers:

• B. Di Lorenzo, G.C. Maffettone, M. di Bernardo, "A Continuification-Based Control Solution for Large-Scale Shepherding", European Control Journal (in press; also accepted for presentation at the 2025 European Control Conference).

• B. Di Lorenzo, G.C. Maffettone, M. di Bernardo "Decentralized Continuification Control of Multi-Agent Systems via Distributed Density Estimation", IEEE Control Systems Letters, vol. 9, pp. 1580-1585, 2025.

• G.C. Maffettone, A. Boldini, M. Porfiri, M. di Bernardo, "Leader-Follower Density Control of Spatial Dynamics in Large-Scale Multi-Agent Systems", IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (early access), 2025.

• G.C. Maffettone, L. Liguori, E. Palermo, M. di Bernardo, M. Porfiri, "Mixed Reality Environment and High-Dimensional Continuification Control For Swarm Robotics", IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 2484-2491, 2024.

• A. Giusti*, G. C. Maffettone*, D. Fiore, M. Coraggio, M. di Bernardo, "Distributed control for geometric pattern formation of large-scale multirobot systems", Frontiers in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, 2023.

• G. C. Maffettone, M. Porfiri, M. di Bernardo, "Continuification control of large-scale multiagent systems under limited sensing and structural perturbations", IEEE Control Systems Letters, vol. 7, pp 2425-2430, 2023

• G.C. Maffettone, A. Boldini, M. di Bernardo, M. Porfiri, "Continuification control of large-scale multiagent systems in a ring", IEEE Control Systems Letters, vol. 7, pp. 841-846, 2023.

Refereed conference papers:

• G.C. Maffettone, M. di Bernardo, M. Porfiri, "High-dimensional continuification control of large-scale multi-agent systems under limited sensing and perturbations",  proceedings of the 63rd Conference on Decision and Control (Milan, December 2024).

Preprints:

• G. C. Maffettone, A. Boldini, M. di Bernardo, M. Porfiri, "Density control of multi-agent swarms via bio-inspired leader-follower plasticity", submitted to Automatica, 2025. ariXiv

*Authors contributed equally to the work.