AUROVAS - Laboratories

Our Laboratories

LiraLab - Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics and Automation

The Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics and Automation (LiraLab) coordinated by Prof. Marcello Bonfè is the main robotics laboratory of the University of Ferrara. The LiraLab hosts research, teaching and thesis activities, as well as knowledge transfer projects in collaboration with local companies and hospitals on the topics of industrial and medical robotics. The main activities of the lab are focused on surgical and industrial robotics, in particular on the topics of payload estimation, control barrier functions, motion planning, model predictive control.

AI Lab

The AI Lab, coordinated by Prof. Marco Gavanelli, provides experience on constrained optimization, image segmentation with neural networks, use of high-performance computer clusters, Reinforcement Learning applied to combinatorial optimization, scheduling application. People in the lab can access computing resources from the Cineca Consortium (including Leonardo, one of the world's most powerful pre-exascale supercomputers), as well as clusters hosted by Ferrara University (COKA and Copernico, capable from 35 to 100 Teraflops). The lab members developed research and technology transfer in collaboration with hospitals and care units, such as Ospedale del Delta and the Sanitary Agency of Bologna; they also teach university courses of Artificial Intelligence applications in Medicine and Optimization in Healthcare for students in Medicine in the laurea course of Medicine and Surgery as well as in other healthcare laurea courses.

Eco-Fluidodynamics Lab

The Eco-Fluidodynamics Lab is part of the Department of Physics and Earth Science at the University of Ferrara. Its main activity focuses on the biophysics of blood circulation, supporting the Medical Physics research group. The lab is equipped with instruments for assessing blood flow, including portable ultrasound equipment for ultrasound examinations, various pumping systems for fluid dynamic circuits that replicate the circulatory system, and manikins both commercial and custom-developed to simulate specific anatomical areas. This instrumentation is primarily used to investigate cerebral venous return, studying the mechanisms that ensure blood returns from the brain to the heart, as in the Drain Brain 2.0 experiment funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Additionally, wearable devices are being developed in the lab to monitor the rehabilitation of individuals with cardiovascular disease, through a research project funded by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN).

Vascular Diseases Centre

The Vascular Diseases Centre is coordinated by prof. Zamboni whose expertise in Vascular Duplex Ultrasound is ranked in the top 0.15% worldwide by analyzing more than 41.000 scientific papers over the last ten years. Such background is mandatory in a project of this type, where it is necessary to transfer the current human skills to the robotics and 3 artificial intelligence fields. The lab. was funded by grants of the Ministry of Research and University (2010), Ministry of Health (2012; 2015), European and Italian Space Agencies (2013; 2022); PNRR (2023).

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