Enrico Meli

About

Enrico Meli is a prominent robotics and mechanical engineering researcher whose work spans autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), wearable robotics, and assistive exoskeleton systems. His research has made significant contributions to two major domains: marine robotics and rehabilitation engineering. In underwater robotics, Meli developed advanced navigation and cooperative manipulation strategies for autonomous systems, including an unscented Kalman filter-based navigation algorithm for AUVs (96 citations) and a decentralized framework for multi-AUV cooperative tasks (47 citations). These contributions have meaningfully advanced the reliability and autonomy of underwater robotic platforms. Meli's equally influential body of work focuses on portable hand exoskeletons designed to assist individuals with physical disabilities. Through a series of highly cited studies, he developed novel kinematic architectures, series elastic transmissions, and surface electromyography (sEMG)-based control strategies to create affordable, modular assistive devices. His sEMG classifier work reflects a commitment to intuitive human-robot interaction for real-world rehabilitation contexts. More recently, he extended his exoskeleton expertise to industrial settings, designing passive lower-limb devices to protect workers from occupational strain. With cumulative citations exceeding 430 across his top works, Meli's research consistently bridges rigorous mechanical design with meaningful human-centered applications.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   An unscented Kalman filter based navigation algorithm for autonomous underwater vehicles

   96 citations · 2016
2. 2
   A novel kinematic architecture for portable hand exoskeletons

   63 citations · 2016
3. 3
   Design of a Series Elastic Transmission for hand exoskeletons

   50 citations · 2018
4. 4
   An innovative decentralized strategy for I-AUVs cooperative manipulation tasks

   47 citations · 2015
5. 5
   Kinematic synthesis and testing of a new portable hand exoskeleton

   46 citations · 2017
6. 6
   A novel application of a surface ElectroMyoGraphy-based control strategy for a hand exoskeleton system: A single-case study

   33 citations · 2019
7. 7
   A Novel Point-in-Polygon-Based sEMG Classifier for Hand Exoskeleton Systems

   31 citations · 2020
8. 8
   Development and experimental testing of a portable hand exoskeleton

   24 citations · 2015
9. 9
   Development, design and validation of an assistive device for hand disabilities based on an innovative mechanism

   22 citations · 2015
10. 10
    Model-based mechanical design of a passive lower-limb exoskeleton for assisting workers in shotcrete projection

    19 citations · 2020

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links