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About

Giovanni Passetti is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of soft robotics, bioinspired design, and human-robot interaction. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering contributions to soft robotic grippers, where he skillfully combined soft materials, underactuated mechanisms, and biologically inspired architectures to create adaptable, effective grasping systems. His 2015 paper "A Bioinspired Soft Robotic Gripper for Adaptable and Effective Grasping" has become a landmark contribution to the field, accumulating over 437 citations and establishing him as a key voice in next-generation manipulation technology. That same year, he published two additional complementary works on the topic, further consolidating the conceptual and engineering foundations of bio-inspired soft grippers. Beyond manipulation, Passetti has demonstrated a broad curiosity across neuroscience-inspired robotics, contributing to the development of neuromorphic vestibular systems that replicate the brain's balance and spatial orientation mechanisms in real-time hardware. More recently, his research has expanded into socially assistive robotics, exploring how robotic platforms can meaningfully support children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during play. Across these diverse themes, Passetti's work reflects a consistent drive to make robots more adaptive, intelligent, and human-centered.