Alessandro Manzi

About

Alessandro Manzi is an Italian robotics researcher whose work spans social robotics, autonomous systems, and ambient-assisted living, with particular expertise in designing robots that operate meaningfully within real-world human environments. His most influential contributions examine how robots are perceived and accepted in social contexts — most notably his pioneering 2010 behavioral study conducted in South Korea, which observed public interactions with service robots and raised important questions about social acceptability and even robot vulnerability, accumulating 143 citations. Equally impactful is his 2018 study on robotic services for older adults in smart home environments, which has garnered 141 citations and addresses the growing challenge of supporting aging populations through intelligent technology. Manzi has also made significant contributions to urban robotics, co-developing the DustCart system — an autonomous door-to-door garbage collection robot trialed in the Italian town of Peccioli — and to environmental monitoring through the HydroNet autonomous surface vehicle, designed for real-time coastal water quality assessment. His 2014 work on multi-robot social systems bridges domestic and urban deployment scenarios. Across more than a decade of research, Manzi has consistently translated complex robotics engineering into practical, human-centered applications, cementing his reputation as a versatile and socially conscious contributor to the field.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   How safe are service robots in urban environments? Bullying a robot

   143 citations · 2010
2. 2
   Robotic Services Acceptance in Smart Environments With Older Adults: User Satisfaction and Acceptability Study

   141 citations · 2018
3. 3
   Development of a Socially Believable Multi-Robot Solution from Town to Home

   106 citations · 2014
4. 4
   The HydroNet ASV, a Small-Sized Autonomous Catamaran for Real-Time Monitoring of Water Quality: From Design to Missions at Sea

   62 citations · 2015
5. 5
   DustCart, an autonomous robot for door-to-door garbage collection: From DustBot project to the experimentation in the small town of Peccioli

   56 citations · 2011
6. 6
   On the design, development and experimentation of the ASTRO assistive robot integrated in smart environments

   49 citations · 2013
7. 7
   Two‐person activity recognition using skeleton data

   38 citations · 2017
8. 8
   An Autonomous Water Monitoring and Sampling System for Small-Sized ASVs

   32 citations · 2016
9. 9
   Enabling Global Robot Navigation Based on a Cloud Robotics Approach

   28 citations · 2016
10. 10
    The DustBot System: Using Mobile Robots to Monitor Pollution in Pedestrian Area

    28 citations · 2010

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links