Mariangela Manti

About

Mariangela Manti is a leading researcher in soft robotics, with particular expertise in variable stiffness mechanisms, bioinspired design, continuum manipulators, and assistive robotics. Her highly cited 2016 review on stiffening in soft robotics (613 citations) established a foundational reference for the field, systematically mapping the state of the art in compliance control for robotic systems. Complementing this, her 2015 work on a bioinspired soft robotic gripper (437 citations) demonstrated how soft materials and underactuated mechanisms can be elegantly combined to achieve robust, adaptable grasping — a contribution that remains widely influential in manipulation research. Manti has made sustained contributions to assistive robotics, developing soft manipulator systems designed for the personal care of elderly people, including innovative shower-assistance devices that prioritize safe human-robot interaction. Her pioneering investigations into fiber jamming as a stiffness-tuning mechanism — spanning surgical manipulators and general soft robotic structures — have opened promising avenues for medical robotics. She has also advanced closed-loop kinematic control of continuum manipulators using machine learning, addressing one of the field's most persistent challenges. With over 1,600 cumulative citations across her top works, Manti's research has profoundly shaped how the soft robotics community approaches the dual demands of adaptability and structural control.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Stiffening in Soft Robotics: A Review of the State of the Art

   613 citations · 2016
2. 2
   A Bioinspired Soft Robotic Gripper for Adaptable and Effective Grasping

   437 citations · 2015
3. 3
   Learning Closed Loop Kinematic Controllers for Continuum Manipulators in Unstructured Environments

   136 citations · 2017
4. 4
   Multiobjective Optimization for Stiffness and Position Control in a Soft Robot Arm Module

   111 citations · 2017
5. 5
   Towards the development of a soft manipulator as an assistive robot for personal care of elderly people

   110 citations · 2017
6. 6
   Toward a Variable Stiffness Surgical Manipulator Based on Fiber Jamming Transition

   106 citations · 2019
7. 7
   Soft assistive robot for personal care of elderly people

   95 citations · 2016
8. 8
   Stable Open Loop Control of Soft Robotic Manipulators

   92 citations · 2018
9. 9
   Fiber Jamming Transition as a Stiffening Mechanism for Soft Robotics

   90 citations · 2020
10. 10
    Preliminary experimental study on variable stiffness structures based on fiber jamming for soft robots

    49 citations · 2018

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links