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About

Francesco Grasso is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of robotics, neuroscience, and marine biology, with a particular focus on chemosensory navigation and biomimetic systems. His groundbreaking work centers on understanding how animals — particularly lobsters — locate odor sources in complex, turbulent underwater environments, and translating those biological strategies into functional robotic platforms. Grasso's most celebrated contributions involve the development and deployment of autonomous underwater robot lobsters, which he used as experimental tools to probe the mechanics of chemotaxis in turbulent plumes. His early work in the mid-1990s demonstrated that robots could successfully navigate odor plumes, while revealing critical distinctions between odor dispersal patterns in jet regions versus patch fields — insights with profound implications for both robotics and animal behavior research. His 1997 study on bilateral sampling advanced understanding of how continuous sensory input shapes chemo-orientation strategies. With a cumulative citation count approaching 75 across his key publications, Grasso's research has had lasting influence on the fields of bioinspired robotics, chemical ecology, and sensory neuroscience. His work exemplifies how biomimetic approaches can simultaneously illuminate biological principles and inspire novel engineering solutions for real-world chemosensory navigation challenges.