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prof.dr.ir. M. Sartori (Massimo)

Professor and Chair of Neuromechanical Engineering

About Me

I am a Professor and Chair of Neuromechanical Engineering at the University of Twente where I  direct the Neuromechanical Modelling & Engineering Lab

My research focuses on understanding how human movement emerges from the interplay between the nervous and the musculoskeletal systems. My goal is to translate such knowledge for the development of symbiotic assistive robots such as exoskeletons and bionic limbs. 

On these topics I have obtained prestigious blue-sky research fundings (e.g., European Research Council), I have contributed to develop widely used open-source software (e.g., CEINMS, MyoSuite) and I have created patented technology with leading companies (e.g, OttoBock HealthCare).

I conducted my PhD (2009-2011) across the Universities of Padova (Italy), Western Australia (Australia) and Stanford (USA). I continued with a post-doc at the University of Göttingen (Germany, 2011) where I become Junior Research Group Leader in 2015. Since In April 2017 I joined the University of Twente as a tenure-track scientist where I am leading an expanding independent research group.

Throughout my career I received awards (e.g. OpenSim Outstanding Research), was guest editor in academic journals (e.g. IEEE TBME, Front Comput Neurosci), and was Workshop Chair at leading congresses (e.g. IEEE BioRob 2018) in the field.

I am currently chairing the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on BioRobotics. I am Associate Editor at the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering: https://www.embs.org/tnsre/associate-editors/. Moreover, I am a member of leading scientific societies spanning across the fields of robotics and biomechanics including: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE International Consortium on Rehabilitation Robotics, and European Society of Biomechanics.

More about me via the UT Featured Scientist page.

Keywords: model-based control; model-based myoelectric control; wearable robot; electromyography; neuromechanics; biomechanics; neuromusculoskeletal modelling; human movement.

Expertise

Engineering & Materials Science
Electromyography
Exoskeleton (Robotics)
Muscle
Patient Rehabilitation
Robotics
Medicine & Life Sciences
Electromyography
Joints
Muscles

Ancillary Activities

  • IEEE
    Associate Editor at the IEEE Transactions of Neural System and Rehabilitation Engineering

Research

For detailed information about my research please visit my research group website

My goal is to establish a unique roadmap for discovering fundamental principles of movement at the interface between humans and machines. My research focuses on understanding the neuro-musculo-skeletal mechanisms underlying human movement and how these are altered by impairment. I apply neuro-mechanical modelling and electrophysiological signal processing, in a translational way, to develop real-time model-based control technologies for restoring natural motor function and for enhancing human health.

 

Software Highlights:

  • MyoSuite: An embodied AI platform that unifies neural and motor intelligence Vittorio Caggiano, Huawei Wang, Guillaume Durandau, Massimo Sartori, Vikash Kumar. Link to Website.

 

  • NeurIPS-MyoChallenge 2023: Learning Physiological Agility & Dexterity. Coming up too at this Website

 

  • NeurIPS-MyoChallenge 2022: Learning contact-rich manipulation using a musculoskeletal hand. Vittorio Caggiano, Huawei Wang, Guillaume Durandau, Seungmoon Song, Yuval Tassa, Massimo Sartori, Vikash Kumar. Link to Website. 

 

  • MyoSim: Fast and physiologically realistic MuJoCo models for musculoskeletal and exoskeletal studies. Huawei Wang*, Vittorio Caggiano*, Guillaume Durandau, Massimo Sartori, Vikash Kumar. Link to Website. 

 

  • CEINMS: A toolbox to investigate the influence of different neural control solutions on the prediction of muscle excitation and joint moments during dynamic motor tasks. Claudio Pizzolato, David G Lloyd, Massimo Sartori, Elena Ceseracciu, Thor F Besier, Benjamin J Fregly, Monica Reggiani. Link to Website. 

 

  • MOtoNMS: A MATLAB toolbox to process motion data for neuromusculoskeletal modeling and simulation. A Mantoan, C Pizzolato, M Sartori, Z Sawacha, C Cobelli, M Reggiani. Website

 

Check out how we interface humans with wearable robot:

Publications

Recent
Mahdian, Z. S., Wang, H. , Refai, M. I. , Durandau, G. V. , Sartori, M., & MacLean, R. (Accepted/In press). Tapping into skeletal muscle biomechanics for design and control of lower-limb exoskeletons: A narrative review. Journal of applied biomechanics, 39(5).
Fang, C., Peternel, L., Seth, A. , Sartori, M., Mombaur, K., & Yoshida, E. (2023). Human Modeling in Physical Human-Robot Interaction: A Brief Survey. IEEE Robotics and automation letters, 8(9), 5799-5806. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2023.3296349
Nabipour, M., Sawicki, G. , & Sartori, M. (Accepted/In press). Predictive Control of Plantarflexor Muscle-Tendon Force During Simulated Human Hopping. Abstract from 28th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics, ESB 2023, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Nabipour, M. , & Sartori, M. (Accepted/In press). Closed-form Modeling of the Soleus Musculotendon Unit. 1-1. Abstract from 28th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics, ESB 2023, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Ornelas-Kobayashi, R., Gogeascoechea, A. , & Sartori, M. (2023). Person-Specific Biophysical Modeling of Alpha-Motoneuron Pools Driven by in vivo Decoded Neural Synaptic Input. IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 31, 1532-1541. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2023.3247873
Wang, H. , Keemink, A. Q. L. , & Sartori, M. (2022). Identification of reflex neural controllers directly from locomotion data. Abstract from 9th World Congress of Biomechanics, WCB 2022, Taipei, Taiwan.
Wang, H. , Sartori, M. , & Durandau, G. V. (2022). Biomechanics in the wild: establish and validation of a wearable kinetic measurement system. Abstract from 27th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics, ESB 2022, Porto, Portugal.
Caggiano, V., Wang, H. , Durandau, G. , Sartori, M., & Kumar, V. (2022). MyoSuite--A contact-rich simulation suite for musculoskeletal motor control. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 168.
Niehaus, S., Ajoudani, A., Bianchi, M. , Durandau, G., Fritzsche, L., Gaertner, C. , Refai, M. I. , Sartori, M., Wang, H., & Wischniewski, S. (2022). Human-centred design of robotic systems and exoskeletons using digital human models within the research project SOPHIA. Zeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft, 76(4), 450–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41449-022-00335-5
Manz, S., Valette, R., Damonte, F., Gaudio, L. A., González-Vargas, J. , Sartori, M., Dosen, S. , & Rietman, J. (2022). A review of user needs to drive the development of lower limb prostheses. Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 19, [119]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-022-01097-1
Ornelas Kobayashi, R. E., Gogeascoechea Hernandez, A. D. J., Tomy, L. J. , van Asseldonk, E. H. F. , & Sartori, M. (2022). Neural data-driven model of spinal excitability changes induced by transcutaneous electrical stimulation in spinal cord injury subjects. In 2022 International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR) IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICORR55369.2022.9896517
Romero-Sánchez, F., Luporini Menegaldo, L., Font-Llagunes, J. M. , & Sartori, M. (2022). Editorial: Rehabilitation robotics: Challenges in design, control, and real applications. Frontiers in neurorobotics, 16, [957905]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2022.957905
Wang, H., Caggiano, V. , Durandau, G. , Sartori, M., & Kumar, V. (2022). MyoSim: Fast and physiologically realistic MuJoCo models for musculoskeletal and exoskeletal studies. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2022 (pp. 8104-8111). (Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811684
Brouwer, N. P., Tabasi, A., Kingma, I., Stegeman, D. F., van Dijk, W. , Moya-Esteban, A. , Sartori, M., & van Dieën, J. H. (2022). Low back muscle action potential conduction velocity estimated using high-density electromyography. Journal of electromyography and kinesiology, 66, [102679]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelekin.2022.102679

UT Research Information System

Google Scholar Link

Projects

In 2016 and 2018 I was awarded a EU H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (MIMICS) and an ERC Starting Grant (INTERACT) respectively. In 2023 I obtained an ERC Proof of Concept Grant (SMARTSEMS). I am co-leading a EU H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network on Bionic Limb Control (SimBionics), an EU-EFRO project on smart sensing garments for stroke rehabilitation (GUTs), an EU H2020 Project of human-robot interaction for injury risk prevention (SOPHIA). I am involved in a NWO Perspectief project on wearable robotics. 

I previously led scientific activities on neuro-mechanical modelling and prosthetic/orthotic technologies on European and National projects including the ERC Advanced Grant DEMOVE (2011-2016), the FP7 EU Project H2R (2013-2016) and the BMBF Innovation Cluster INOPRO (2016-2020). I have served as Scientific Advisory Board member in the FP7 EU Project BioMot (2013-2016). 

Current Projects

Finished Projects

Media

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In the press

Tweets

Contact Details

Visiting Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W111
De Horst 2
7522LW  Enschede
The Netherlands

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Mailing Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex  W111
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands

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