IULM awarded PNRR funding for pioneering project on emotional AI and robotics
Researcher Federico Da Rold leads EDA-Robots, among the winners of the 2024 Young Researchers call
Università IULM has been selected as one of the recipients of the PNRR Young Researchers 2024 funding line, reserved for holders of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral or Individual Fellowships. The winning project, EDA-Robots (Emotion Detection Aligned Robots), was proposed by Federico Da Rold and aims to develop autonomous robots equipped with AI-driven neural networks capable of recognizing and interpreting human emotional states.
The initiative aligns with the vision of Industry 5.0, which promotes a human-centric approach to enhance workers' well-being in high-tech production environments.
The project unfolds along two synergistic research paths:
- Algorithmic development: design of adaptive machine learning systems for analyzing human physiological signals and decoding emotional states;
- Experimental validation: behavioral psychology experiments in virtual reality environments, where human participants interact with simulated robots to assess the effectiveness of emotional adaptation.
The expected impact is twofold: technological innovation through the creation of emotionally responsive robotic prototypes, and social benefit by contributing to more inclusive, sustainable, and psychologically mindful workplaces.