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About

Riccardo Pelliccia is a robotics researcher whose work bridges the tactile and the autonomous, with a particular focus on human-robot collaboration and underwater swarm intelligence. His most cited paper, "Haptic-based touch detection for collaborative robots in welding applications" (2020, 47 citations), introduces a novel approach to enabling safe, intuitive physical interaction between human workers and industrial robots. By leveraging haptic feedback, Pelliccia’s work enhances the precision and safety of collaborative welding tasks, directly addressing real-world manufacturing challenges. Earlier, he contributed to the ambitious subCULTron project (2018, 31 citations), which explores cultural evolution as a tool for coordinating underwater robot swarms—a pioneering effort in bio-inspired, long-duration marine robotics. This research demonstrates his versatility, moving from industrial automation to autonomous systems capable of collective decision-making. Pelliccia’s contributions are notable for their practical impact: his haptic detection methods have been cited in studies on human-robot interaction, sensor design, and industrial safety, while his underwater work informs the growing field of swarm robotics. For students and researchers, Pelliccia exemplifies how robotics can be both deeply technical and broadly applicable, from factory floors to the ocean floor.