Michele Rucci

About

Michele Rucci is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of robotics, neuroscience, and sensorimotor systems, whose work has significantly advanced our understanding of how biological principles can inform the design of autonomous machines. His research spans biologically inspired robotics, active vision, multisensory integration, and adaptive sensorimotor coordination, drawing inspiration from natural systems — most notably the barn owl — to engineer more capable and flexible robotic platforms. Rucci's most influential contributions include developing robotic systems that replicate human and animal eye movement strategies for active distance estimation and target localization, demonstrating how coordinated head and eye movements yield rich three-dimensional environmental information. His collaborative work bridging robotics and neuroscience established a compelling bidirectional framework: biological systems inspire robotic design, while robotic models serve as testbeds for neuroscientific hypotheses. His research on disassembly automation also addressed pressing ecological concerns around product lifecycle management, an often-overlooked frontier in industrial robotics. With his most cited work accumulating tens to hundreds of citations across diverse venues, Rucci's scholarship has proven foundational for students and researchers working in autonomous systems, computational neuroscience, and human-robot interaction. His career exemplifies how cross-disciplinary thinking can yield insights that neither robotics nor biology could achieve independently.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Adaptation of orienting behavior: from the barn owl to a robotic system

   34 citations · 1999
2. 2
   An approach to disassembly problems in robotics

   25 citations · 2002
3. 3
   Active estimation of distance in a robotic system that replicates human eye movement

   23 citations · 2006
4. 4
   Integrating robotics and neuroscience: brains for robots, bodies for brains

   21 citations · 2007
5. 5
   Robust localization of auditory and visual targets in a robotic barn owl

   21 citations · 2000
6. 6
   Active Vision During Coordinated Head/Eye Movements in a Humanoid Robot

   20 citations · 2012
7. 7
   An investigation on a robot system for disassembly automation

   19 citations · 2002
8. 8
   Integrating Selective Attention and Space-Variant Sensing in Machine Vision

   16 citations · 1996
9. 9
   Autonomous learning of tactile-motor coordination in robotics

   12 citations · 2002
10. 10
    Learning visuo-tactile coordination in robotic systems

    11 citations · 2002

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links