Massimo Bergamasco

About

Massimo Bergamasco is a pioneering robotics and rehabilitation engineering researcher whose work has fundamentally shaped the fields of robotic exoskeletons, haptic interfaces, and human-robot interaction. Based at the PERCRO Laboratory of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Bergamasco has dedicated his career to developing intelligent wearable robotic systems that restore and augment human motor function. His most celebrated contributions center on upper limb rehabilitation exoskeletons for stroke recovery. His EMG-controlled hand exoskeleton (341 citations) and force-feedback L-EXOS system (136 citations) demonstrated that robotic-assisted therapy could produce measurable functional improvements in stroke patients. Notably, he pioneered brain-computer interface integration with exoskeletons, enabling gaze-independent neural control of rehabilitation devices — a landmark 2012 paper that garnered 217 citations. Beyond rehabilitation, Bergamasco extended his vision to full-body augmentation with the Body Extender, a whole-body strength-amplifying exoskeleton designed for industrial and emergency environments. His earlier work in haptic simulation and tactile modeling laid crucial theoretical groundwork for the field. With a research career spanning over three decades — from diagnostic robotics in 1988 to cutting-edge neurotechnology — Bergamasco's cumulative impact, exceeding 1,500 citations across his most influential works, marks him as a defining figure in assistive and rehabilitative robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   An EMG-Controlled Robotic Hand Exoskeleton for Bilateral Rehabilitation

   341 citations · 2015
2. 2
   A New Gaze-BCI-Driven Control of an Upper Limb Exoskeleton for Rehabilitation in Real-World Tasks

   217 citations · 2012
3. 3
   Arm rehabilitation with a robotic exoskeleleton in Virtual Reality

   155 citations · 2007
4. 4
   Evaluation of the effects of the Arm Light Exoskeleton on movement execution and muscle activities: a pilot study on healthy subjects

   140 citations · 2016
5. 5
   Positive effects of robotic exoskeleton training of upper limb reaching movements after stroke

   139 citations · 2012
6. 6
   A Force‐Feedback Exoskeleton for Upper‐Limb Rehabilitation in Virtual Reality

   136 citations · 2009
7. 7
   Body Extender: Whole body exoskeleton for human power augmentation

   91 citations · 2011
8. 8
   Simulating human fingers: a soft finger proxy model and algorithm

   84 citations · 2004
9. 9
   An advanced robot system for automated diagnostic tasks through palpation

   71 citations · 1988
10. 10
    Teaching to write Japanese characters using a haptic interface

    66 citations · 2003

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links