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About

Angela Faragasso is a leading researcher in soft robotics and surgical manipulation, with a focus on creating flexible, intelligent systems for minimally invasive surgery and human-robot interaction. Her work bridges the gap between soft material mechanics and advanced sensing, enabling robots to navigate complex environments safely and adaptively. Faragasso’s most cited paper, “Tendon-Based Stiffening for a Pneumatically Actuated Soft Manipulator” (2016, 207 citations), pioneered methods to control stiffness in soft robots, enhancing their precision without sacrificing flexibility—a critical advance for surgical applications. She also developed bio-inspired tactile sensor sleeves and embedded electro-conductive yarns for shape sensing, contributing to the EU’s STIFF-FLOP project, which aims to create stiffness-controllable manipulators for surgery. Her work on three-axial body force sensors (60 citations) and compliant surgical forceps (37 citations) further demonstrates her impact on safe, adaptive surgical tools. Beyond surgery, Faragasso has explored vision-based navigation for humanoid robots and socially aware navigation via deep reinforcement learning (2022, 17 citations), showcasing her versatility. With over 400 total citations, her research is shaping the future of soft, sensor-rich robots that can operate alongside humans in delicate, dynamic settings.