Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge

University Proposal
Authors:
1. Dr. Stefano Roccella (Assistant Professor, Senior member, Team
Principal Coordinator, Team Local Coordinator, Project Manager)
2. Nicola Vitiello (PhD student)
3. Antonio Romano (PhD student)
4. Francesco Esposito (PhD student)
5. Calogero Maria Oddo (PhD Student)
6. Stefano Marco Maria De Rossi (Graduate student)
7. Dario Cazzaro (Graduate student)
8. Luca Invernizzi (Graduate student)
9. Roberto Farolfi (Graduate student)
10. Marco Cempini (Graduate student)
11. Massimo Grava (Undergraduate student)
12. Stefano Mintchev (Undergraduate student)
13. Gerardo De Pasquale (Undergraduate student)
14. Jacopo Corbetta (Undergraduate student)
15. Luca Ceccanti (Undergraduate student)
16. Fiorenzo Artoni (Undergraduate student)

Affiliation:
Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant’Anna,
Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 33
56127, Pisa, ITALY

Firm fixed price: 42.096,00 €

University Responsible Contact Details:

Name: Stefano Roccella
Position: Assistant Professor
Address: via Rinaldo Piaggio, 34, 56025, Pontedera, Pisa, ITALY
Tel: +39 050 883 475
Fax: +39 050 883 497
e-mail: s.roccella@arts.sssup.it




ITT reference: 1-5515/08/NL/HE
Bidder Code: ESABD12966

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Subject/object: ITT AO/1-5515/07/NL/HE - ESA LUNAR ROBOTICS CHALLENGE



Dear Sir,

With reference to the above AO/1-5515/08/NL/HE, we are pleased to present to ESTEC the
following offer for the ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge activity.

In addition and as required by the tender conditions, the following statements are
provided:

1. Our total firm fixed price for the activity in accordance with the funding limit as
described in the ITT is: EURO 42.096,00. Free of taxes and customs duties.

2. Period of validity. The proposal is valid 4 months from the closing date for the receipt of
offers.

3. We, hereby, declare that we are fully compliant with the AO and that we accept your
General clauses and conditions for ESA contracts (ESA/C/290, rev. 6 as resulting from
ESA/C(2003)103) and special conditions as reported in Appendix 3 to AO/1-
5515/07/NL/HE.


4. Our bidder code is ESABD12966.

5. With reference to clause 43.1 of the General Clauses and Conditions for ESA Contracts
rev6, we have identified the background of all IPR belonging to us and/ or of our sub-
contractor and/or third party that we intend to use during the execution of the contract.

6. The contact person for any matter concerning the proposal will be represented by:
Dr. Stefano Roccella, Assistant Professor,
Tel: +39 050 883 475
Fax: +39 050 883 497
E-Mail: s.roccella@arts.sssup.it

7. The person entitled to sign and negotiate the contract will be represented by:
Prof. Maria Chiara Carrozza, Full Professor, Director of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna,
Tel: +39 050 88[3416, 3260]
Fax: +39 050 883212
E-Mail: carrozza@sssup.it, direttore@sssup.it

8. The person responsible for technical and contractual matters during the contract will be
represented by:
Dr. Stefano Roccella, Assistant Professor,
Tel: +39 050 883 475
Fax: +39 050 883 497
E-Mail: s.roccella@arts.sssup.it

9. As requested by Page 3 of the AO/1-5515/08/NL/HE Invitation To Tender document, the
following formal statement is provided:

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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“I state that I have read and understood the cover letter of this ITT giving the R&D
Organization categories in force within ESA, and confirm that the organization that I am
representing falls under these categories for the following reason: Scuola Superiore di Studi
Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant’Anna, which I represent as Director, is a special-
statute public university.”

Prof. Maria Chiara Carrozza
Director

……………………………….

Kind regards
Pisa, 28-04-2008


Ing. Stefano Roccella
Assistant Professor, Team Principal Coordinator


……..…………………………..

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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“TECHNICAL PROPOSAL”

pESApod
The properly-designed ESA hexapod
Abstract
The problem subject of this challenge is the design and construction of a robotic platform
for lunar exploration and specimen retrieval. Our technical proposal consists of a six-
legged robot (hexapod) with the main features described below. The robot will be equipped
with three different kinds of legs, which will be differentiated in order to best adapt to
rough terrain. Sediments will be collected by an end-effector shaped like a small clamshell
bucket, mounted at the tip of a front leg, and dropped into a container. An embedded
controller will handle a control system implementing different motion strategies. Nodes of
a Wireless Sensor Network will be deployed by the robot, guaranteeing a stable
communication link with the teleoperation station. Sensory system will include stereo-
cameras, inertial measurement unit and feet-terrain touch sensors.
Problem Analysis and State of The Art
In order to successfully accomplish the task, the robot should cover about 300 m in 90
minutes, assuming a small overhead, which means that it should reach an approximate 10
cm/s cruising speed on the lunar soil, whose characteristics are described hereafter. The
moon surface (our working area) is covered with regolith, a thick layer of fragmented and
unconsolidated rock material. The irregular and abrasive nature of dust particles, which
dimension varies from 3.3µm to 1.37 mm (Carrier 2001), may cause strong superficial
frictional wear as well as deterioration of gaskets coatings, wiring, and optical lenses.
Narrowing our analysis to the lunar soil close to a crater, we find that on its rim only about
4.3% of the surface is covered with rocks bigger than 20 cm of diameter. This value
decreases to 0.5% on the outer ejecta blanket. Moreover, rocks are usually not deeply
buried, thus they cannot be considered a safe anchor point. Moreover, while the outer rim
slope is minimal (less then 7°), the crater interior is very steep (up to 35°) with a far less
cohesive soil. However, it is often possible to find routes with slopes from 17° to 26°
(Kring 2006).
The above analysis of the operational environment highlights a set of requirements that the
robot must satisfy:

high slope angle climbing capability;

fast movement in both hard and soft terrains;

obstacle avoidance and obstacle climbing capabilities;

high steering;

easy motion planning;

low weight;

low power consumption.

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Moreover, any possible solution should not rely on factors not present in Lunar
environmental conditions. State of the art solutions to the stated problem usually fall into
one of the following categories:

wheeled robots (w/ “rolking” capabilities);

tracked robots;

hopping robots;

multi-legged robots.
Wheels are the simplest and fastest mean to cope with small slope angles, but they are
unable to deal with rugged terrains. A wheeled platform capable of “rolking” (a kind of
movement in which the wheels can also move in a walking fashion) can achieve a
moderate degree of obstacle climbing capabilities, while its disadvantages are caused by
the small contact surface, causing difficulty of fast movement on soft soils, and small
maximum slope angle of about 20° (Lindemann et al., 2005). This type of locomotion,
strongly limited in speed by the geometry of the links, has been used in Spirit and
Opportunity Mars rovers (Lindemann et al., 2005).
Tracks permit to achieve a better contact with the surface, giving better speed and stability,
while increasing steering radius and weight, and losing some obstacle climbing ability.
Hopping locomotion allows optimal obstacle climbing, especially at low gravity, which
increases the power-to-weight ratio. However, in an unstructured environment, this type of
motion is almost unpredictable. Furthermore, state of the art designs (Fiorini et al., 1999)
are slow because they require time to set up a jump, and steering capability of the platform
is quite low.
Multi-legged locomotion potentially overcomes all of the issues presented above: properly
shaped feet which can provide a large ground contact surface, adjustable barycentre height
and stable motion permit movements even on very steep slopes, on both soft and hard
terrains. Multi-legged robots with six or more legs have good obstacle-climbing
capabilities and can use front legs as manipulators for accomplishing various tasks
(Kennedy et al., 2005).
Table 1 State of the art summary
COMPARISON OF THE LOCOMOTION
TECHNOLOGIES FOR ROUGH TERRAINS
Fa
st

so
ft-
te
rr
ai
n

m
o
tio
n

St
ee
rin
g
Ca
pa
bi
lit
y

H
ig
h
slo
pe

an
gl
e

Lo
w

w
ei
gh
t
Pr
ed
ic
ta
bl
e
m
o
tio
n

O
bs
ta
cl
e-
cl
im
bi
n
g
ab
ili
ty

Wheels with Rolking Capability □ ■ □ ■ ■ ■
Tracks ■ □ □ □ ■ □
Hopping robots □ □ ■ ■ □ ■
Multi-legged robots ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

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Beyond the state of the art: the pESApod platform
As explained in the previous paragraph, a multi-legged solution seems the best choice:
therefore, we opted for a six-legged robot, a hexapod. Choosing the best number of legs is
crucial: as this number is increased, stability is improved. However, weight, design
complexity and manufacturing costs rise dramatically. A six-legged robot is a good
compromise, six being the minimum number of legs allowing the robot to use the two front
ones as manipulators while standing on the other four. In order to reduce both the robot
size and weight, and due to the different role of each pair of legs, we chose to differentiate
between rear, middle and front legs. While climbing, rear legs will carry the greater part of
the load, while during descents the load distribution will be reversed. This is why we
designed the rear legs, their joints and their actuators, to cope with higher stresses, and to
provide higher torques. For this reason, during descents, our robot will move backwards.
To actuate the other leg joints cheaper and smaller motors and motor drivers will be used.
To improve reliability, the robot will be able to walk if overturned. In order to achieve that,
the robot will be symmetric with respect to the horizontal plane, the shoulder joints being
able to cover a full 180° range.
The pESApod platform body

Figure 1 Overview of pESApod. On bottom-left Zoom 1, on right Zoom 2.
The hexapod consists of a central body and of six legs. The body, consisting of a
monocoque structure, is designed to contain all the sensors, actuators and electronics
subsequently described, with the exception of those directly involved in the actuation of the

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elbow joints and of the end-effector. The shoulder and elbow joints will be sealed with
rubber coats, in order to protect the components from dust.
The structure will be shaped in order to room the hinges which will support a 2 DoF
mobile stereo-camera system, designed to preserve the robot symmetry (see Figure 1). Two
other short-range cameras are housed in the front part of the body, to be used in the
specimen collection phase. Four low power, ultra-bright LED-based illumination groups
will provide the light needed both in the movement and in the specimen collection phase.
On the top of the body, a funnel-shaped hole connected to a storage container will be used
to collect the soil specimens gathered by the end-effector (see Figure 1-Zoom 1). On the
body rear, a vending-machine-like device has been designed to eject the network nodes,
which will be subsequently described (see Figure 1-Zoom 2). High energy-density Li-
Polymer batteries will power the robot.
The pESApod platform legs
Each robot leg will be a 3 DoF kinematic
chain built from 2 tubular links, coupled by
a 1 DoF revolute joint (the elbow joint) and
connected to the body by a 2 DoF Hooke’s
joint (the shoulder joint). Rear, middle and
front legs will be sized differently according
to the different stresses they will have to
bear. Each leg will be equipped with a
terminal element (the foot) used for support,
which will be different for each pair of legs.
Rear and middle feet will be larger and
connected to their legs by passive elastic
spherical joints, which will enhance the
capability of adapting to rugged terrains and
different slopes.
As stated above, the rear legs (see Figure 2) will be actuated by the most powerful motors
of the robot. In order to increase the step length, the rear legs will be able to extend almost
completely. The foot will be composed by a rigid rectangular support with its lower base
covered with a layer of deformable material,
in order to obtain the best fit to the terrain.
During the movement, the main task of
middle legs (see Figure 3) will be to
enhance stability (see the Section on motion
control). Thus, their size will be properly
scaled in order to reduce the robot weight
and size. During the specimen gathering the
robot will stand only on the four back legs.
This is the reason why the middle legs will
not be attached to the exact centre of the
robot, but they will be placed nearer to the
front.
Figure 2 Rear leg overview
Figure 3 Middle leg overview

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Middle feet will have a wide and fluted sole, equipped with a central retractable spike
attached to a high stiffness spring. This makes the foot adaptable to several categories of
soil. On sandy soils, where the spike can easily penetrate, the sole will provide good
support. On hard rough soils, where the sole alone would have a point wise contact, the
spike will be able to anchor on asperities. On smooth hard soils, the spike will retract
completely leaving the sole in contact with the ground.
The joints connecting the front legs (Figure 4)
to the body are designed to permit the widest
possible workspace area (about 270°), thus
easing the gathering phase and increasing the
stability on rugged terrains. While the front legs
links are sized as the middle legs ones, their end
effectors are designed differently in order to
accomplish the task of specimen gathering and
dropping into the storage container. Our
proposed design is a small clamshell bucket 1.
While walking, its shells are retracted inside
their lodgings, in order to use it as a foot (the
load on these legs is low, thanks to the
advanced position of the middle legs). In order
to reduce costs, only one of the two front
effectors will be actuated.
The pESApod estimated weight and dimensions
According to our preliminary study, the robot will weight approximately 45 kg: 10 kg for
motors, 5 kg of power and control electronics and sensors, 10 kg of batteries, 3 kg for
network nodes and their ejector, 6 kg of aluminium body structure and 3 kg of legs links, 2
kg of feet, 5 kg of transmission and actuators, 1 kg of vision component. Body size will be
about 50x70 cm, while legs links will be 25 cm long.
The pESApod platform Control Architecture

Overview of the Control Architecture
Multi-legged robots, having many degrees of freedom per leg, are characterised by a high
grade of complexity, both for basic movements and complex pattern generation
coordination schemes between the legs and the sensory system. A comprehensive scheme
explaining how the different elements of the mechatronic system will interact is given in
Figure 5. A low level layer will control the basic kinematics of each single leg by
regulating the power drivers. The high level layer (central pattern generator), by means of
sensory-motor coordination, controls complex movements that allow the robotic platform
to move through the working environment in a stable and reliable way, overcoming
obstacles of various typologies. An embedded Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
based board will handle both control layers.

1
A similar solution has been used by Nasa in the Rocky 7 Rover project (Volpe et al., 1996).
Figure 4 Front leg overview

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Motion strategy
We decided to adopt a biologically inspired motion strategy. Some insects, like
cockroaches, achieve impressive speeds in several terrain conditions by modifying their
inclination with respect to longitudinal and transversal axes. This way the power capability
of back legs is increased, front legs are used for braking and middle legs are used to
guarantee equilibrium.

Figure 5 Overview of the pESApod platform modules.
This approach is consolidated in robotics, and one of the most representative examples in
this field is the series of “Sprawl” Robots (Bailey et al., 2001). In a recent study, performed
on the Chimera hexapod (Marinoni et al., 2003), previously developed by our laboratory,
two consolidated walking strategies have been considered: 1-legged and 3-legged modes,
the latter also known as tripod gait (Yumaryanto et al., 2006). Both strategies guarantee
great stability, the centre of mass always falling inside the convex polygon created by the
tip of the steady legs. In the tripod gait walking strategy three legs remain in contact with
ground during each step while the other three move. We will mainly use the latter
approach, as experimental results showed that the 3-legged mode is more efficient both in
terms of speed and power consumption (Buttazzo et al., 2004). The same study also
showed how different postures affect power consumption. Unfortunately, the less
demanding posture is the less stable one (vertical legs). We will solve this trade-off by
letting the central pattern generator (see next Paragraph) reconfigure parameters such as
step length and amplitude, speed of the robot, robot posture and barycentre position
according to a walking scheme selected by the user. The steeper the path, the lower the
barycentre, but also the higher the needed power. This way, our robot takes full advantage
of the flexibility of the hexapodic structure choosing the best compromise in terms of
speed, stability and power consumption. Implemented walking schemes will include:
careful rise, fast rise, careful plane, fast plane, careful descent, fast descent. In order to

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properly coordinate the movements the high level control will make extensive use of the
information coming from the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) (see the Sensors and
Actuators Paragraph).
Control Implementation
The proposed control system implementation is based on the embedded ALTERA FPGA
modular board technology, which allows a mixed software and hardware solution to be
implemented (Todman et al., 2005).
The software control loop, running on a Nios II/f soft-core processor designed by means of
the SOPC builder of the ALTERA Quartus II environment, on which we plan to use the
ERIKA Real-Time operating system (Gai et al., 2001), will be responsible of the central
pattern generation, i.e. the computation of each joint angle, given the motion strategy, and
the motion command (e.g. "move forward", "move backwards"). These high-level
commands will come from the teleoperation station, as described above (see Figure 5). The
software control will receive sensor data from both an inertial platform and from the
optical encoders associated to each actuator.
The hardware control loop, also implemented by means of the FPGA architecture, will be
in charge of controlling the single actuators, receiving low-level commands generated by
the central pattern generator previously described. The in-field reprogramming capability
provided by the ALTERA FPGA board will allow easily implementation and testing of the
designed control, without the need of disassembling the robot. The power drivers required
by each motors will be properly dimensioned, in order to reduce the robot weight and size.
The pESApod platform Sensors and Actuators
Inside the robot body there will be a computer running a Linux kernel, which will retrieve
the sensor data, elaborate it and send it to the teleoperation station. In particular, the images
from the camera will be encoded into an MPEG stream to reduce the needed bandwidth.
The joint encoders, IMU and touch sensors data will be acquired by the FPGA board. The
commands given by the human operator will be routed through the network and the
computer to the FPGA board.
Sensors
The robot will be fitted with four kinds of sensors: cameras for vision, an IMU, joints
optical encoders and touch sensors on the feet to detect the contact with the ground.
Incremental 3-channel optical encoders directly coupled with the motor shafts will be used
as joints angular sensors. In particular, we plan to use 256-1024 counts-per-turn resolution
optical encoder.
The vision system will be comprised of:

a 2 DoF superelevated stereo-camera, which will be used both as main viewpoint and
to estimate object distances. Its support is able to reposition itself in case of
overturning, maintaining the symmetry of the robot;

two fixed auxiliary cameras with short focal distances, arranged as a stereographic
array, which will guide the autonomous phase of the specimen retrieval process and
provide its visual feedback;

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a white ultra-bright LED lighting system attached to each camera, illuminating its
viewing area.
Navigation will be based upon visual feedback from the cameras and data from a
commercial strap-down IMU. The latter will provide both position relative to the starting
point and roll, pitch and yaw angles estimation. This system can be affected by a drift
error2. However, the robot being teleoperated, an accurate measurement of position is not
essential. The angular acceleration measurement can also be used to determine whether a
roll over is imminent, in order to safeguard the stereo-camera.
Actuators
The actuation group will be provided by means of graphite brushes DC motors, each of
which directly connected with a properly sized planetary gear (or harmonic drive gear) in
order to increase the provided joint torque. High current PWM power motor drivers will be
used for actuation groups that need high currents, while lighter, smaller and cheaper ones
will be used for low power demanding actuators.
Wireless Communication
In order to establish the communication link between the teleoperation station and the
robot, a wireless sensor network (WSN) will be deployed on-site. The WSN will be used to
transmit the video stream and relevant sensor outputs to the station that will reply sending
commands to the robot. Choosing a WSN is a good solution to guarantee radio coverage in
an unstructured environment, since it doesn't need line of sight and automatically
reconfigures itself to maintain the linkage.
Such a network will be composed by a set of autonomous nodes (namely Crossbow IRIS
nodes), each of which equipped with a wireless communication device, a microcontroller
and an embedded power supply. Since the robot is teleoperated, guaranteeing complete
network coverage throughout the task is a mission critical issue. To enforce this, the nodes
will be deployed by the robot itself, thus creating a trail of WSN nodes between the robot
and the base station, notwithstanding the path followed. Furthermore, the network will
monitor the signal strength, warning the robot to deploy a node if it's going into a blind
zone.
In details, we will connect both the computer on the robot and on the teleoperation station,
via a USB plug, to a network node like the other ones, in order to gain access to the
network. All the nodes will run ERIKA (Gai et al., 2001), a real time kernel for embedded
devices developed at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna laboratories.
This network will adopt the ZigBee protocol (IEEE 802.15.4) and will be capable of multi-
hopping (implementing an ad-hoc routing algorithm), providing a data rate of about 250
kbps and a range up to 200 meters per node. Such a communication system has already
been developed in a prototypical fashion at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna laboratories.
Teleoperation station
The teleoperation station will be comprised of a laptop PC equipped with a radio unit, an

2
It's also possible to obtain an approximate bearing of the base station applying a multilateration algorithm using the network nodes
(this could be used as an emergency system)

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auxiliary wide screen LCD, a joystick and the Li-Polymer battery charger. The PC will run
a 3D remote controlling software. This software, receiving sensor data from the remote
robot PC, will display a 3D model of the robot in its current position, allowing the user to
know both the posture and workspace of each leg, and to trace the robot position. A
prototypical software of this kind has already been developed for the Chimera Robot in our
laboratories (Marinoni et al., 2003) as shown in Figure 6. In addition, the remote control
software will allow the user to receive a video stream coming from the stereo-camera and
the short-range manipulation cameras. The software, by comparing the two images
acquired by the stereo-camera (or by the couple of short-range cameras), will be able to
determine the distance of some user-defined points with respect to the robot. This feature
could be extremely useful when planning the route to follow to reach the crater interior.

Figure 6 The Chimera Hexapod 3D model simulator.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

S.A. Bailey, J.G. Cham, M.R. Cutkosky, “Comparing the Locomotion Dynamics of the Cockroach and
a Shape Deposition Manufactured Biomimetic Hexapod”, Experimental Robotics VII, Vol. 271, 2001,
pp: 239-248.

G. Buttazzo, M. Marinoni, G. Guidi, “Energy-aware strategies in real-time systems for autonomous
robots”, in Proc. of the 19th Int. Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences (ISCIS 2004),
Kemer-Antalya, Turkey, October 27-29, 2004.

W. D. Carrier III, “Geotechnical Properties of Lunar Soil”, 2005.

P. Fiorini, S. Hayati, M. Heverly, J. Gensler, “A hopping robot for planetary exploration”, in Proc. Of
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 1999.

P. Gai, G. Lipari, and M. Di Natale, “A flexible and configurable real-time Kernel for time
predictability and minimal ram requirements”, Technical Report, Sant'Anna School of Advanced
Studies, Pisa, RETIS TR2001-02.

B. Kennedy, A. Okon, h. Aghazarian, M. Garrett, T. Huntsberger, L. Magnone, M. Robinson and J..
Townsend, “The Lemur II-Class Robots for Inspection and Maintenance of Orbital Structures: A
System Description”, in Proc. of the 8th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and
the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines (CLAWAR), 2005.

D. A. Kring, Parameters of Lunar Soils, 2006.

Lindemann, Voorhees, “Mars Exploration Rover Mobility Assembly Design, Test and Performance”, in
Proc. International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Hawaii, 2005.

M. Marinoni, A. Carlini, G. Buttazzo, “A six-legged robot: real time issues and architecture”, in Proc. of
the 5th. Int. Symposium on Intelligent Components and Instruments for Control Applications (SICIA
2003), Aveiro, Portugal, July 9-11, pp. 245-250, 2003.

T.J. Todman, G.A. Constantinides, S.J.E. Wilton, O. Mencer, W. Luk, and P.Y.K. Cheung,
“Reconfigurable computing: architectures and design methods” in Proc. Of Computers and Digital
Techniques, Vol. 152, pp: 193–207, 2005.

R. Volpe, J. Balaram, T. Ohm, R. Ivlev, “The Rocky 7 Mars Rover Prototype”, in Proc. of the
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS, 1996.

A.A. Yumaryanto, J. An, S. Lee, “A Cockroach-Inspired Hexapod Robot Actuated by LIPCA”, in Proc.
of IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, 2006.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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“FINANCIAL, MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROPOSAL”

BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE OF THE COMPANY(IES)

Brief description of the Organization
The Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSA) is a public institution for university education
(http://www.sssup.it). In the context of Italian Universities the SSSA is a School of
Excellence. This means that all its students (any grade) are recruited by a strict, low
acceptance rate and very challenging selection. During their academic career, the SSSA
students have to attend, other than the ministerial compulsory courses, extra courses mainly
ended to enrich their knowledge background. Moreover they must pass all examination
with high mark (at least 27/30). In particular, the students in engineering fields, have the
possibility to experience, at the SSSA Research Laboratories, in scientific challenging
research issues during all their studies. So they develop a good experience to concretely
design and develop new prototypes. In detail, the SSSA student team involve 15 people, 4
PhD students, 5 graduate students and 6 undergraduate students. Under the supervision and
coordination of the senior team member Dr. Stefano Roccella (Assistant Professor), all the
students will work at the designing, development and test of the pESApod platform in a
context of high level profile R&D experience in field of advanced robotics, bio-inspired
robotics, micro-engineering and real time systems. This context is provided by the
following three SSSA scientific research laboratories: the Advanced Robotics Technology
and Systems Laboratory (ARTS Lab), the Center for Research In Microengineering
(CRIM Lab) and the Real-Time Systems Group (RETIS Lab). Here a description of the
three laboratories and their key members is reported.

The ARTS Lab profile
The ARTS Lab was established in 1989 by Prof. Paolo Dario. The mission of the ARTS
Lab is to address research in the field of Biorobotics and Biomechatronics with a strong
interdisciplinary approach, integrating different knowledge backgrounds to study
theoretical and technological problems related to the development of advanced robotic
systems. The research areas investigated at ARTS Lab are: Rehabilitation Robotics,
Assistive Robotics, Bio-inspired Robotics, Bionics, Humanoid Robotics, Human Machine
Interfaces, and Gerontechnoloy (http://www-arts.sssup.it). The research SSSA–ARTS team
is composed of 3 professors, 2 assistant professors, 6 Post-Doc fellows, 26 PhD students,
14 Research Assistants.

Previous experience of SSSA-ARTS Lab
The ARTS Lab has a strong experimental focus, with particular emphasis on design,
fabrication and experimental assessment of robot prototypes. Several robotic platforms
have been developed in the framework of national and international projects in
collaboration with private and public entities, as for example humanoid robots, platforms
for experiments on learning and sensory-motor coordination, cybernetic and prosthetic
hands, wearable devices for biomechanical motion analysis, robotic systems for functional
support rehabilitation of human limbs, humanoid robotic hands (that are currently

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integrated on humanoid platforms in Italy and Japan) and innovative systems for personal
assistance of disable and elderly people.

Short profile of the key members from SSSA-ARTS Lab
Prof. Maria Chiara Carrozza is Full Professor of Biomedical Robotics and Director of
the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. She teaches Biomechatronics and Rehabilitation
Engineering to Master students of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Pisa. Prof.
Carrozza has been visiting professor at the Technical University of Wien, Austria with a
graduate course entitled Biomechatronics, and she is involved in the scientific management
of the Italy-Japan joint laboratory for Humanoid Robotics ROBOCASA, Waseda
University, Tokyo, Japan where she is responsible for artificial hand design. She is active
in several national and international projects in the fields of biomechatronics and
biomedical robotics. Her research interests comprise biomedical robotics (cybernetic and
robotic artificial hands, upper limb exoskeletons), rehabilitation engineering
(neurorehabilitation, domotic, and robotic aids for functional support and personal
assistance), and biomedical microengineering (microsensors, tactile sensors). The ARTS
Lab team coordinated by Prof. Carrozza has designed and developed the CYBERHAND
artificial hand (http://www.cyberhand.org ) and is currently responsible for the design of an
Exoskeleton for functional support and enhancement of the upper limb, in the framework
of the NEUROBOTICS project (http://www.neurobotics.org).

Prof. Cecilia Laschi is Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Scuola
Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy. She graduated in Computer Science at the University of
Pisa in 1993 and received the Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Genoa in 1998.
Since 1992 she is with the ARTS Lab (Advanced Robotics Technology and Systems
Laboratory) of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy. From July 2001 to June 2002
she was visiting researcher at the Humanoid Robotics Institute of the Waseda University in
Tokyo, as JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Fellow. Her research
interests are in the field of biorobotics. Starting from basic robotics research, she has been
investigated bioinspired solutions for personal robotics and bionics. She has been working
in neuro-robotics, that is the application of robotics in neuroscience research, and she
investigated and developed bioinspired sensory-motor control schemes for robotic systems.
She is currently working on biomimetics, investigating animal and vegetal systems from an
engineering point of view and with engineering tools, and designing robotic replicas that
can fully explain the biological working principles and mechanisms. She has been and
currently is involved in many National and EU-funded projects, in the field of biorobotics.
She has authored/co-authored more than 90 papers, appeared in international journals and
conference proceedings. She is Guest Co-Editor of a Special Issue of the journal
Autonomous Robots on “Bioinspired Sensory-Motor Coordination” and of a Special Issue
of the IEEE Transactions of Robotics on “Human-Robot Interaction”. She is member of the
IEEE, of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, and of the Robotics &
Automation Society, in which she co-chairs the Technical Committee on Human-Robot
Interaction and Coordination.

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Selection of recent scientific papers from SSSA-ARTS Lab

R. Colombo, F. Pisano, S. Micera, A. Mazzone, C. Delconte, MC. Carrozza, P. Dario,
G. Minuco, “Assessing mechanisms of recovery during robot-aided neurorehabilitation
of the upper limb”, Neurorehabilitation and neural repair, vol. 22, pp. 50-63, 2008

C. Cipriani, F. Zaccone, S. Micera, MC. Carrozza, “On the shared control of an EMG-
controlled prosthetic hand: Analysis of user-prosthesis interaction”, IEEE Transactions
on Robotics, vol. 24, pp. 170-184, 2008.

NG. Tsagarakis, G. Metta, G. Sandini, D. Vernon, R. Beira, F. Becchi, L. Righetti, J.
Santos-Victor, AJ. Ijspeert, MC. Carrozza, DG. Caldwell, “iCub: the design and
realization of an open humanoid platform for cognitive and neuroscience research”,
Advanced Robotics, vol. 21, pp. 1151-1175, 2007

HI. Krebs, MC. Carrozza, “Special issue on rehabilitation robotics: From bench to
bedside to community care”, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation
Engineering, vol. 15, pp. 325-326, 2007

M.C. Carrozza, G. Cappiello, S. Micera, BB. Edin, L. Beccai, C. Cipriani, “Design of a
cybernetic hand for perception and action,” Biological Cybernetics, vol. 95(6), pp. 629
– 644, 2006.

MC. Carrozza, A. Persichetti, C. Laschi, F. Vecchi, F. Lazzarini, P. Vacalebri, P.
Dario, “A Wearable Biomechatronic Interface for Controlling Robots with Voluntary
Foot Movements”, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol. 12, pp.: 1-11,
2007.

L. Beccai, S. Roccella, L. Ascari, P. Valdastri, A. Sieber, MC. Carrozza, P. Dario,
“Experimental analysis of a soft compliant tactile microsensor to be integrated in an
anthropomorphic artificial hand,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (in
press).

S. Micera, MC. Carrozza, L. Beccai, F. Vecchi, P. Dario, “Hybrid bionic systems for
the replacement of hand function,” in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 94(9), pp.1752 –
1762, 2006.

S. Roccella, MC. Carrozza, G. Cappiello, J-J. Cabibihan, C. Laschi, P. Dario, H.
Takanobu, M. Matsumoto, H. Miwa, K. Itoh, A. Takanishi, “Design and Development
of Five-Fingered Hands for a Humanoid Emotion Expression Robot,” International
Journal of Humanoid Robotics, 2006 (accepted).

P. Dario, MC. Carrozza, E. Guglielmelli, C. Laschi, A. Menciassi, S. Micera, F.
Vecchi, “Robotics as a “Future and merging Technology: biomimetics, cybernetics and
neuro-robotics in European projects”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine,
Vol.12, No.2, June 2005, pp. 29-43.

The CRIM Lab profile
The CRIM Lab (formerly MiTech Laboratory) has been established in 1991. The CRIM
Lab has a mission and a vision, that is to be a leader in the research and development of
bio-inspired and/or bio-applied micro- and nano-robots and systems. The role of biology in
the mission and strategy of CRIM is twofold: the micro-machines that CRIM studies,
models, and develops can be bio-applied (this is the case, e.g., of advanced tools for
minimally invasive therapy or of micro-sensors for health monitoring), or they can be bio-
inspired. As regards bio-applied machines, the CRIM Lab addresses the biomedical field,
where “biomedical” is considered at large including not only systems and components for
advanced surgery and therapy, but also systems for improving health by monitoring food

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and environment. The latter approach, based on bio-inspiration, is aimed at modelling and
developing bio-inspired micro-machines in order to better understand the behaviour of
lower animal forms (e.g. invertebrates and simple vertebrates), thus allowing to approach
traditional problems in motion generation, control, sensing and communication by
exploiting a different–and often more effective–solution. In this sense, bio-inspiration is
extraordinarily useful to educate creative researchers. More than 2 millions of animal
species, which swim, crawl, walk, fly, exist: when analyzed from an engineering viewpoint
they allow the researcher to develop a competence on basic physical phenomena and also
to create very effective engineering solutions for many health-related applications.

The main scientific problems addressed by the CRIM Lab are the following:

motion biomechanics, both for the micro-machines developed for specific
applications, and for the animal forms from which these machines take inspiration
for navigating, walking, flying;

micromanipulation phenomena;

the problems related to the actuation, sensing, control, communication and energy
generation and conversion of these machines;

the problems related to interfacing the developed machines to a human operator,
ranging from traditional teleoperation problems to restoration of perceptive and
action capabilities in a world dominated by different scale laws;

the analysis of human operator performance, from the understanding of human
factors and perceptual-motor mechanisms that characterize it, to its evaluation,
modelling and automation.

study of the biomechanics of biological organisms (e.g. arthropods, annelids,
molluscs), carried on both with internal resources and in collaboration with
neuroscientists and zoologists, in order to improve the engineering knowledge of
the motion, control, and sensing mechanisms of these animals and to extract design
rules for innovative components and systems;

modelling, simulation and fabrication of miniaturised bio-inspired machines, either
autonomous or controlled by innovative human-machine interfaces (such as brain-
robot interfaces);

development of enabling micro- and nano-technologies for fabricating this micro-
and nano-machines, by employing innovative solutions for aspects related to the
powering and control.

As paradigmatic test-benches of the above scientific lines, four bio-inspired platforms are
actually under investigation at CRIM Lab:
1. an artificial octopus, which is the paradigm of emerging cognitive capabilities in
animals, and which is also an extremely interesting machine in terms of mechanical
design and control, by considering the extraordinary abilities of manipulation and
locomotion which it possesses;
2. an artificial lamprey, which is a prototypal vertebrate and whose understanding
can help to understand and model rhythmic motion in more evolved vertebrates (up
to humans);
3. an artificial ant, which will be approached not only for its abilities of manipulation
and locomotion, but in particular for studying communication and swarm behaviour
in the micro-scale;

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4. an artificial spider, with particular reference to the vision system of jumping
spiders, which can be used as source for a bio-inspired solution applicable to small-
scale systems such as endoscopes.
The research SSSA–CRIM team is composed of 2 professors, 4 assistant professors, 6
Post-Doc fellows, 26 PhD students, 6 Research assistants and 5 Technicians.

Previous experience of SSSA-CRIM Lab
CRIM Lab possesses outstanding records of publications, high level research and patents.
In particular, CRIM Lab developed more than 10 international patents, and has been or is
still involved in more than 10 national projects, more than 23 projects funded by the
European Commission, 2 European Competence Centres, 3 European Networks of
Excellence and several international projects and cooperation. The list of major past and
current research projects in the field of medical robotics and computer-assisted surgery is
reported as end-note3. European Projects Coordinated by SSSA-CRIM in the last decade
are more than 10, 6 on them on biomedical topics. The coordination activities of SSSA-
CRIM and in general of SSSA have always been very smooth and effective. Since the year
2002, the Research Division of SSSA has grown an administrative department specialized
in the management of European Project of the 5th, 6th and now 7th FPs. This has made the
coordination activity of European projects administratively smooth together with
scientifically effective.

Short profile of the key member from SSSA-CRIM Lab
Prof. Paolo Dario is Full Professor of Biomedical Robotics at Scuola Superiore
Sant’Anna. He received his Dr. Eng. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Pisa, Italy, in 1977. He also teaches courses at the School of Engineering of
the University of Pisa and at the “Campus Biomedico” University in Rome. He has been
Visiting Professor at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, at the École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, and at Waseda University, Tokyo,
Japan. He was the founder of the ARTS (Advanced Robotics Technologies and Systems)
Laboratory and is currently the Coordinator of the CRIM (Center for the Research in
Microengineering) Laboratory of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, where he supervises a
team of about 70 researchers and PhD. students. He is also the Director of the Polo
Sant’Anna Valdera of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. His main research interests are in
the fields of medical robotics, bio-robotics, mechatronics and micro/nano engineering, and
specifically in sensors and actuators for the above applications, and in robotics for
rehabilitation. He is the coordinator of many national and European projects, the editor of
two books on the subject of robotics, and the author of more than 200 scientific papers (90
on ISI journals). He is Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor and member of the Editorial Board
of many international journals. He has been a plenary invited speaker in many international
conferences. Prof. Dario has served as President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation
Society in the years 2002-2003, and he is currently Past-President, Co-Chair of the
Technical Committees on Bio-robotics and of Robo-ethics of the same Society. Prof. Dario
is an IEEE Fellow, a Fellow of the European Society on Medical and Biological

3
SAMA (FP3- BRE20579), MUSYC (BMH4-97-2524), MIAS (BMH4-96-0865), VOEU (IST-1999-13079), MEDEA (FP4-
BMH4972399), MINOSC (QLRT-2000-02150), IVP (IST-2001-35169), BIOLOCH (IST-2001-34181), EMIL-EMILOC-OPTIMUS
(supported by IMC-KIST Korea), ApprEndo (supported by MIUR Ministry, Italy), EndoCAS (supported by MIUR Ministry, Italy),
microSURF (Pisa Bank Fundation), VECTOR (FP6-IST-033970), ARES (FP6-NEST- 15653), NINIVE (FP6-STReP-33378)

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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Engineering, and a recipient of many honors and awards, such as the Joseph Engelberger
Award. He is also a member of the Board of the International Foundation of Robotics
Research (IFRR). He is the General Chair of the 1st IEEE RAS/EMBS Conference on
Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob 2006), and the General Chair of the
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2007).

Prof. Arianna Menciassi is Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Scuola
Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy. She received her Laurea Degree in Physics (with
Honors) from the University of Pisa in 1995. In the same year, she joined the CRIM
(Center for Research in Microengineering) Lab of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa
as a Ph.D. student in bioengineering, with a research program on the micromanipulation of
mechanical and biological micro-objects. In 1999, she received her Ph.D. degree: the main
results of this activity have been awarded with the Best Manipulation Paper Award at the
International Conference on Robotics and Automation in the year 2001. Starting from June
2006, she is Associate Professor of biomedical robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.
She teaches the Course of BioMechatronics at the University of Pisa for the Master Degree
in Bioengineering, and she supervises several Master and Ph.D. students in the CRIM Lab.
Her main research interests are in the fields of biomedical micro- and nano-robotics,
microsystem technologies, nanotechnologies, micromechatronics. She is working on
several European projects and international projects for the development of micro- and
nano-robotic systems for medical applications. Arianna Menciassi is co-author of more
than 80 international scientific papers, and she is co-inventor of several international and
national patents. She is also co-author of 5 book chapters on medical devices and micro-
technologies.

Selection of recent scientific papers from SSSA-CRIM Lab

L. Phee, D. Accoto, A. Menciassi, C. Stefanini, M.C. Carrozza, P. Dario: “Analysis and
Development of Locomotion Devices for the Gastrointestinal Tract”, IEEE
Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 49, No. 6, (June 2002), pp. 613-616.

A. Menciassi, P. Dario: “Bio-inspired solutions for locomotion in the gastrointestinal
tract: background and perspectives”, Philos. Transact. Roy. Soc. A Math. Phys. Eng.
361(1811), (October 15 2003), pp. 2287-2298.

G. La Spina, C. Stefanini, A. Menciassi, P. Dario: “A novel technological process for
fabricating microtips for biomimetic adhesion”, Journal of Micromechanics and
Microengineering, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 15 (8), pp. 1576-
1587, 2005.

C. Stefanini, A. Menciassi, P. Dario, “Modeling and experiments on a legged
microrobot locomoting in a tubular, compliant and slippery environment”, International
Journal of Robotics Research 25 (5-6), pp. 551-560, 2006.

W. Liu, A. Menciassi, S. Scapellato, P. Dario, Y. Chen, “A biomimetic sensor for a
crawling minirobot”, Robotics and Autonomous Systems 54 (7), pp. 513-528, 2006.

A. Menciassi, D. Accoto, S. Gorini, P. Dario, “Development of a biomimetic miniature
robotic crawler ”Autonomous Robots 21 (2), pp. 155-163, 2006.

P. Valdastri, P. Corradi, A. Menciassi, T. Schmickl, K. Crailsheim, J. Seyfried, P.
Dario, “Micromanipulation, communication and swarm intelligence issues in a swarm
microrobotic platform” Robotics and Autonomous Systems 54 (10), pp. 789-804, 2006.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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M. Quirini, A. Menciassi, S. Scapellato, C. Stefanini, P. Dario, "Design and Fabrication
of a Motor Legged Capsule for the Active Exploration of the Gastrointestinal Tract"
IEEE/ASME Transactions on mechatronics, Vol. 13, No. 2, april 2008.

A. Menciassi, M. Quirini, P. Dario, “Microrobotics for future gastrointestinal
endoscopy”, Minimally Invasive Therapy. 2007; 16:2; 91-100.

A. Moglia, A. Menciassi, MO. Schurr, P. Dario, “Wireless capsule endoscopy: from
diagnostic devices to multipurpose robotic systems”, Biomedical Microdevices 9 (2):
235-243 Apr. 2007.

P. Valdastri, P. Corradi, A. Menciassi, T. Schmickl, K. Crailsheim, J. Seyfried, P.
Dario, “Micromanipulation, communication and swarm intelligence issues in a swarm
microrobotic platform”, Robotics and Autonomous Systems 54 (10), pp. 789-804,
2006.

P. Dario, P. Ciarletta, A. Menciassi, B. Kim, “Modelling and Experimental Validation
of the Locomotion of Endoscopic Robots in the Colon”, International Journal of
Robotics Research 23 (4-5), (apr.-may 2004), pp. 549-556.

The RETIS Lab profile
The Real-Time Systems (RETIS) Group at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) is one
of the world’s leading research teams in the area of embedded real-time systems, time
critical scheduling algorithms, advanced operating systems and adaptive resource
management. The group was established in 1993 and is currently composed of 30 people
(http://retis.sssup.it/).

Previous experience of SSSA-RETIS Lab
The RETIS group has been involved in many European research projects related to several
aspects of real-time systems, including scheduling, operating systems support for
embedded systems, development tools for real-time applications, and real-time control
software. Some of the projects include FIRST – “Flexible Integrated Real-time Systems
Technology” (IST-2001-32467), FABRIC – “Federated Applications Based on Real-time
Interacting Components” (IST-2001-37167). RETIS also implemented real-time
components in the Linux kernel within the OCERA EU project– “Open Components for
Embedded Real-time Applications” (IST-2001-35102). Such a work has being extended
within the FRESCOR EU project (FP6/2005/IST/5-034026), to coordinate adaptation of
reservations on multiple resources (e.g., CPU, disk and network). The results of such
research efforts resulted in the AQuOSA framework (http://aquosa.sf.net), an open source
software consisting of a set of patches, module and libraries for the Linux kernel that
provide adaptive resource reservations to Unix applications. Giorgio Buttazzo, who
coordinates the RETIS lab, is also responsible for the Adaptive Real-Time activity in the
European Network of Excellence ARTIST2, coordinating ten European research groups
working in this area. Another relevant activity of the RETIS group is the development and
maintenance of a novel real-time kernel, called SHARK (http://shark.sssup.it/) for
integrating tasks with hard and soft real-time constraints.

Short profile of the key member from SSSA-RETIS Lab
Prof. Giorgio Buttazzo is Full Professor of Computer Engineering at the Scuola Superiore
Sant'Anna of Pisa. He participated to several European Projects on Real-Time Systems,

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and currently coordinates the cluster on Adaptive Real-Time Systems in the ARTIST2
Network of Excellence on Embedded Systems Design. He founded and coordinates the
RETIS Laboratory, one of the world leading research groups on real-time systems. He has
been Program Chair and General Chair of the major international conferences on real-time
systems. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Real-Time Systems and Associate Editor
of the Journal of Embedded Computing. He is member of the IEEE Technical Committee
on Real-Time Systems and of the Euromicro Executive Board on Real-Time Systems. He
has authored 6 books on real-time systems and over 200 papers in the field of real-time
systems, robotics, and neural networks. He is Senior Member of IEEE.
Prof. Giuseppe Lipari is Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at Scuola
Superiore Sant'Anna He is IEEE member since many years, and associate editor of IEEE
Transactions on Computers. He is involved in many EU research projects (FRESCOR, RI-
MACS, ARTIST 2) and national projects (ART-DECO, SensorNet). His research interests
are in real-time systems, real-time operating systems, scheduling algorithms, embedded
systems, and wireless sensor networks.
Enrico Bini is Assistant Professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa. He received
the PhD in Computer Engineering from the same institution in October 2004. In 2000 he
received the Laurea degree in Computer Engineering from University of Pisa. In 1999 he
studied at Technische Universiteit Delft, in the Nederlands, by the Erasmus student
exchange program. In 2001 he worked at Ericsson Lab Italy in Roma. In 2003 he was a
visiting student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, collaborating with prof.
Sanjoy Baruah. His research interests cover scheduling algorithms, real-time operating
systems, embedded systems design and optimization techniques.
Selection of recent scientific papers from SSSA-RETIS Lab

G. Buttazzo, P. Marti, M. Velasco, “Quality-of-Control Management in Overloaded
Real-Time Systems”, IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 253-266,
February 2007.

G. Lipari, R. Pellizzoni, ”Holistic analysis of asynchronous real-time transactions with
earliest deadline scheduling”, Journal of Computer and System Sciences, March 2007.

G. Buttazzo, “Achieving Scalability in Real-Time Systems”, IEEE Computer, Vol. 39,
No. 5, pp. 54-59, May 2006.

G. Lipari and C. Scordino, “A Resource Reservation Algorithm for Power-Aware
Scheduling of Periodic and Aperiodic Real-Time Tasks”, IEEE Transactions on
Computers, December 2006.

L. Abeni, T. Cucinotta, G. Lipari, L. Marzario, L. Palopoli, “QoS Management through
Adaptive Reservations”, Real-Time Systems, 2005.

P. Pedreiras, P. Gai, L. Almeida, and G. Buttazzo, “FTT-Ethernet: A Flexible Real-
Time Communication Protocol that Supports Dynamic QoS Management on Ethernet-
based Systems”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informations, Vol. 1, No.3, August
2005.

L. Almeida, G. Buttazzo, T. Facchinetti, “Dynamic Resource Reservation and
Connectivity Tracking to Support Real-Time Communication among Mobile Units”,
EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, Vol. 2005, No. 5, pp.
712-730, December, 2005.

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G. Buttazzo, M. Caccamo, ”DC Thomas, Efficient Reclaiming in Reservation-Based
Real-Time Systems with Variable Execution Times”, IEEE Transactions on
Computers, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 198-213, February 2005.

L. Abeni and G. Buttazzo, “Resource Reservation in Dynamic Real-Time Systems”,
Real-Time Systems, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 123-167, July 2004.

E. Bini and G. Buttazzo, Schedulability Analysis of Periodic Fixed Priority Systems
IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. 53, Issue 11, pp. 1462-1473, November 2004.

E. Bini and G. Lipari, “A methodology for designing hierarchical scheduling systems”,
Journal of Embedded Computing, April 2004.

G. Lamastra, G. Lipari, L. Abeni, “Task Synchronisation in Reservation-Based Real-
Time Systems”, IEEE Transactions on Computers, 2004.

The description of the bidder research experience is completed with the list of the main
international recent and active research project in which the three SSSA laboratories are
involved, both as partners and coordinator (see Table 2).

Table 2 List of the main international, recent and active, research project for SSSA laboratories.
Project Name Laboratory/ies Period
BIOLOCH (Biomimetic structures for Locomotion in the Human
body) CRIM Lab 2002-2005
EMILOC (Endoscopic Microcapsule Locomotion and Control) CRIM Lab 2005-2006
OPTIMUS (OPTimization and valIdation of a Mobile capsule for
endoScopy) CRIM Lab 2006-2009
I-SWARM (Intelligent Small World Autonomous Robots for Micro-
Manipulation) CRIM Lab 2004-2007
ARES (Assembling Reconfigurable Endoluminal Surgical system). CRIM Lab 2006-2008
VECTOR (Versatile Endoscopic Capsule for gastrointestinal
TumOr Recognition and therapy) CRIM Lab 2006-2010
VIMPA (Vibrating Microengines for Power generating and
Microsystem Actuation) CRIM Lab 2005-2008
ASSEMIC (Advanced Methods and Tools for Handling and
Assembly in Microtechnology) CRIM Lab 2004-2007
ARAKNES (Array of Robots Augmenting the KiNematics of
Endoluminal Surgery) CRIM Lab 2008-2012
REPLICATOR (Robotic Evolutionary Self-Programming and Self-
Assembling Organisms) CRIM Lab 2008-2012
DustBot (Networked and Cooperating Robots for Urban Hygiene) CRIM Lab ARTS Lab 2006-2009
NINIVE (Non Invasive Nanotransducer for In Vivo gene therapy) CRIM Lab 2006-2009
NEUROBOTICS (The fusion of NEUROscience and roBOTICS) ARTS Lab CRIM Lab 2004-2007
CYBERHAND (Development of a CYBERnetic HAND prosthesis) ARTS Lab 2002-2005
SMARTHAND (The Smart Bio-adaptive Hand Prosthesis) ARTS Lab 2006-2009
SafeHand (Design and development of Cybernetic Prosthetic
Hands) ARTS Lab 2006-2007

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RobotCub (ROBotic Open architecture Technology for Cognition,
Understanding and Behaviour) ARTS Lab 2004-2008
RPPHand (Revoluzionaring Prosthetics Project) ARTS Lab 2006-2008
NANOBIOTACT (Nano engineering biomimetic tactile sensors) ARTS Lab 2006-2009
URUS (Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Settings) ARTS Lab 2006-2009
FIRST (Flexible Integrated Real-time Systems Technology) RETIS Lab 2001-2004
OCERA (Open Components for Embedded Real-time Applications) RETIS Lab 2001-2004
FABRIC (Federated Applications Based on Real-time Interacting
Components) RETIS Lab 2001-2004
FRESCOR (Framework for Real-time Embedded Systems based on
COntRacts) RETIS Lab 2005-2008
ACTORS (Adaptivity and ConTrol Of Resources in embedded
Systems) RETIS Lab 2008-2011
IRMOS (Interactive Realtime Multimedia Applications on Service
Oriented Infrastructures) RETIS Lab 2008-2011
ArtistDesign (Network of Excellence on Design for Embedded
Systems) RETIS Lab 2008-2012
PREDATOR (Design for Predictability and Efficiency) RETIS Lab 2008-2011

KEY PERSONNEL

All the team members’ Curricula Vitae are attached to this proposal.

LIST OF DELIVERABLE ITEMS

All the deliverables of this proposal will be fully compliant to the list stated in Section 4.4
(page 10) of the Statement of Work.

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

The workplan of the pESApod project is structured around 4 Workpackages (WP) that are
briefly introduced below. WP1 concerns all the activities related to the coordination of
the project work, the management of its resources and the reporting of all work activities.
This coordination will specifically ensure that the efforts of different human resources and
skills are integrated towards common joint activities and that their contributions are
harmonized. The management activities are thus aimed at ensuring an optimal use of
project resources and to guarantee the adequate clarity and efficiency in the relationship
between the bidder and the Agency, as established by the standard requirements for
Management, Reporting, Meetings and Deliverables for contracts to be placed by the
Agency (see Appendix 3 to AO 1-5515/08/NL/HE pages: 29-33).

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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The design specifications of the pESApod platform are defined in WP2. Soon after the
Successful Kick Off meeting (KO) all the requirements for both the hardware and software
modules of the pESApod platform will be defined. WP2 includes also the design and
prototyping phase of both the hardware and software modules, aimed to obtain a
preliminary test of usability of the hardware and software proposed solutions.
After the Critical Design Review meeting (CDR) and the implementation of all
amendments requested by the Agency, the Contractor starts the WP3, that is aimed to
manufacture, assemble and test the pESApod platform.
After the Test Readiness Review (TRR) the Contractor starts in WP4 the preparative for
Challenge participation. Moreover WP4 includes the participation at Challenge and the
shipment of the material needed to/from the airport nearest to the Challenge venue.

Timing of the different WPs (Gantt chart)

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Page 25



WORK PACKAGE DESCRIPTION FORM No. PSS-A 20
PROJECT: pESApod PHASE: W.P. REF.: WP1
WP TITLE Management, Reporting, Meetings and Deliverables SHEET 1 OF 1
CONTRACTOR Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
MAJOR CONSTITUENT
(e.g. Subsystem) Reporting

START EVENT Tender Evaluation
Board Response
PLANNED
DATE
19th week
(2008) ISSUE REF. Issue 2
END EVENT Summary Report
Delivery
PLANNED
DATE
44th week
(2008) ISSUE DATE 27/4/2008
W.P. MANAGER Dr. Stefano Roccella
Task 1.1 Project Coordination and Management
As established in the Appendix 3 to AO 1-5515/08/NL/HE, the project coordination and management is
aimed to control all technical and scientific progresses during the project, to ensure that the project schedule
is met and to review all reports before being transmitted to the Agency. The project management will be
carried out by Dr. Stefano Roccella and will start on 19th week of 2008, one week before the successful KO
meeting, as the proposal evaluation response will be provided to the bidder. In details, the main project
management activities are:
- contract negotiation with the Agency;
- monitoring the accomplishment of the work-plan and the compliance with the negotiated costs
breakdown;
- SSSA team responsible in the preparation of all the meetings with the Agency (KO by
videoconference, CDR, TRR at Contractor’s Premises);
- travel organization for CDR meeting and Challenge Event;
- monitoring of the overall project schedule, and application of the appropriate corrective actions
when required;
- guaranteeing that the delivery of planned results is achieved on time;
- provide all the deliverables established in the Statement of Work (Appendix 1 to AO 1-
5515/08/NL/HE);
- guaranteeing efficiency in communication and relationship with the Agency;
- guaranteeing that all team members have received, read, approved and will be comply with the
“Terms and Conditions for Participation in ESA LRC” (D10 Signed “LRC TERMS AND
CONDITIONS ACCEPTANCE” );
- on time submission of all technical and safety documentation requested by ESA and the Local
Support Contractor for the proper preparation of the pESApod platform;
- verify the insurance coverage for civil liability for all the team members;
- risk register updating.

Task 1.2 Reporting to the Agency
The Reporting activities will start on 20th week by delivering the minute of successful KO meeting and will
end on 44th week with the Summary Report Delivery (D2). All the Reporting activities will be compliant
with what established in Reporting Section of Appendix 3 to AO 1-5515/08/NL/HE. This task will be aimed
to provide:
- minute of all meetings (in both electronic and paper versions);
- the Document List, including reports, specifications, plans and minutes;
- Action Item List (AIL), recording all actions agreed with the Agency.
Moreover, the reporting activities will include:
- the creation and maintenance of a publicly accessible blog (D1 Blog of the activity) of the
activities, that will be updated weekly and will describe the progress of the work, by drawings,
pictures and movies;
- all the short reports during the Challenge Events (42nd-43rd weeks) with the daily highlights (D3);
- the creation and the maintenance of a media coverage logbook (D4) of activities related to the
participation to the challenge, including records of media coverage (i.e. clippings, recordings of
media broadcast).

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 26



WORK PACKAGE DESCRIPTION FORM No. PSS-A 20
PROJECT: pESApod PHASE: W.P. REF.: WP2
WP TITLE Design of robotic means SHEET 1 OF 3
CONTRACTOR Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
MAJOR CONSTITUENT
(e.g. Subsystem) Subsystem

START EVENT Successful KO PLANNED DATE
20th week
(2008) ISSUE REF. Issue 2
END EVENT Amendments
Implementation
PLANNED
DATE
28th week
(2008) ISSUE DATE 27/4/2008
W.P. MANAGER Dr. Stefano Roccella
The design and prototyping phase will start at 20th week, soon after the KO meeting, and will end at 28th
week, 1 week after the CDR. So the inputs of WP2 are both the Statement of Work and the minutes of the
successful kick-off meeting. Moreover in WP2 the Contractor will perform a safety assessment (D5: Safety
Assessment Form) so to demonstrate the pESApod platform is compliant with the requirements defined in
the Annex1 of the Statement of Work. The WP2 is structured in the following 4 tasks.

Task 2.1 Definition of design specifications for hardware modules
For designing the pESApod platform a task-oriented design flow will be taken into account. The first step in
the design flow is the specifications definition. By starting from the challenge requirements in the Annex 1 of
the Statement of Work (i.e. functional, performance, operational and implementation requirements,
environment and resource constraints) and the indications received during the KO meeting, detailed technical
specifications for both the hardware and software modules of pESApod platform are defined. In particular
this task concerns the specifications for the hardware modules while Task 2.2 is for software modules. In
detail, Task 2.1 will provide quantitative and qualitative technical specifications for mechanism, actuation,
transmission, sensors, electronics board, batteries and hardware modules of the communication network (i.e.
Crossbow IRIS).
The main specifications to be defined for mechanism are:

encumbrance and weight of all modules;

motion range of passive and active degrees of freedom;

joints, legs and body structure (e.g. tube-like links);

leg-segments length;

materials to be used.
The main specifications to be defined for actuation and transmission are:

maximum joint torque and angular speeds: power requirements;

gear reduction ratio;

motor drivers power and current requirements.
The main specifications to be defined for the sensors, electronics board, batteries and lighting group are:

resolution of all optical encoders;

range, sensitivity, accurateness, precision and bandwidth of flexible contact sensors (FSR);

range, sensitivity, accurateness, precision and bandwidth of inertial platform (IMU);

resolution and optics for stereo camera and frontal cameras;

lightning capability, power, encumbrance, weight and power consumption of lightning groups;

electric wires path and diameters;

gain, filtering, analog-to-digital conversion resolution for conditioning electronics;

computational capabilities of the control for electronics board and laptop;

energy capacity, weight, voltage supply, peak power and encumbrance for batteries.
The main specifications to be defined for the hardware modules of the communication network are:

radio bandwidth;

power consumption;

weight and encumbrance.
The hardware modules specifications definition will be supported by commercial software for simulation and
technical computing ( i.e. MATLAB®) already available among the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna facilities.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 27



WORK PACKAGE DESCRIPTION FORM No. PSS-A 20
PROJECT: pESApod PHASE: W.P. REF.: WP2
WP TITLE Design of robotic means SHEET 2 OF 3
CONTRACTOR Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
MAJOR CONSTITUENT
(e.g. Subsystem) Subsystem

START EVENT Successful KO PLANNED DATE
20th week
(2008) ISSUE REF. Issue 2
END EVENT Amendments
Implementation
PLANNED
DATE
28th week
(2008) ISSUE DATE 27/4/2008
W.P. MANAGER Dr. Stefano Roccella
Task 2.2 Definition of design specifications for software and control modules
The software and control modules are mainly divided in two blocks, as described in the technical proposal:

the teleoperation station control and communication software;

the robotic means control and communication software.
The teleoperation station control and communication software is mainly responsible to interface the user with
the pESApod robot and its main specification to be defined are:

the structure and the architecture of the Graphical User Interface (GUI):
o controls and indicators to be inserted;
o virtual representation strategy of pESApod;
o alarm flags;

the protocol and the algorithm for user-pESApod communication.
The robotic means control and communication software is mainly responsible to make pESApod able to
execute the commands sent by user, to manage the communication network and to send any sensor date (i.e.
joint angles, touch sensors, inertial platform and visual feedback by cameras) requested by the user. This
software is divided in two blocks:

the high level controller aimed to:
o convert the user commands in desired joint angles by means a central pattern generator;
o establish the communication network;

the low level controller aimed to:
o actuate the DC motors to track the desired joint angles.
The main specifications for the high level controller are:

different motion strategies to be implemented (i.e. 1-leg movement, 3-leg movement);

different motion commands settable by the user (i.e. “Move forward”, “Move backwards”).
The main specifications for the low level controller are:

control signal updating frequency;

minimum performances of the joint position controller in terms of bandwidth, steady state error,
parametric and disturbance sensitivity;
The software modules specifications definition will be supported by commercial software for simulation and
technical computing ( i.e. MATLAB®) already available among the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna facilities.

Task 2.3 Design and prototyping
The design and prototyping phase will start as soon as the pESApod and the teleoperation station main
specifications will be available. The design phase will be supported by commercial software already available
at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. In detail, the mechanical design will be supported by appropriate
commercial 3D CAD/CAM software (i.e. SolidWorks, CATIA, Pro/Engineer) while all the control and
communication software routines will be developed in executable code by appropriate developing
environments (i.e. C/C++ compilers, nesC compiler, QUARTUS II). The design phase will be iteratively
validated by hardware and software prototyping. In detail, the encumbrance and the couplings of the
mechanical parts will be verified by printing the components with a 3D fast prototyping machine (see Section
University Support/Facilities for more details). The executable code prototypes will be tested on ad hoc
software simulator of the pESApod.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 28



WORK PACKAGE DESCRIPTION FORM No. PSS-A 20
PROJECT: pESApod PHASE: W.P. REF.: WP2
WP TITLE Design of robotic means SHEET 3 OF 3
CONTRACTOR Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
MAJOR CONSTITUENT
(e.g. Subsystem) Subsystem

START EVENT Successful KO PLANNED DATE
20th week
(2008) ISSUE REF. Issue 2
END EVENT Amendments
Implementation
PLANNED
DATE
28th week
(2008) ISSUE DATE 27/4/2008
W.P. MANAGER Dr. Stefano Roccella
Task 2.4 Amendments Implementation
As requested, all the outputs of the design phase will be collected in a Design and Analysis Report (D6),
that will be presented by the Contractor to the Agency at ESTEC during the CDR meeting. The design report
will be discussed, so that the Contractor will implement all the amendments requested by the Agency
reviewers. An Approved Design and Analysis Report (D7) will be provided by the user 1 week after the
CDR meeting.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 29



WORK PACKAGE DESCRIPTION FORM No. PSS-A 20
PROJECT: pESApod PHASE: W.P. REF.: WP3
WP TITLE Manufacturing, Assemby, Integration and Test SHEET 1 OF 1
CONTRACTOR Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
MAJOR CONSTITUENT
(e.g. Subsystem) Subsystem

START EVENT Successful CDR PLANNED DATE
27th week
(2008) ISSUE REF. Issue 2
END EVENT Challenge Event PLANNED DATE
40th week
(2008) ISSUE DATE 27/4/2008
W.P. MANAGER Dr. Stefano Roccella
The manufacturing, assembly, integration and test phase will start at 27th week, soon after the CDR meeting,
and will end at 40th week, as the consent to ship will be provided by the Agency. The input of WP3 is the
Approved and Analysis Report. The WP3 is structured in the following 3 tasks.

Task 3.1 Platform manufacturing
The manufacturing process of the pESApod non commercial hardware and software modules will be entirely
performed at SSSA. All the mechanical components, designed in WP2, will be manufactured at the
mechanical workshop by means of CAD/CAM systems and CNC machinery. All the ad hoc electronic boards
will be developed and assembled at the electronic workshop (see Section University Support/Facilities for
more details). For the software modules the student members will receive all the suggestions and the needed
technical support by the professors and assistant professors as well. Moreover they will use developing
software platforms already available at SSSA (see Section University Support/Facilities for more details).

Task 3.2 Platform assembly and integration
The hardware and software modules assembly and integration will be performed in about 3 weeks. During
this phase the main activities involving all team members are:

mechanical components assembly;

integration of the actuation system on the mechanical structure;

integration of the sensory apparatus on the mechanical structure;

integration of the electronics for both control and signal conditioning;

camera and lightning groups integration;

control software modules integration;

network modules and communication software integration;

teleoperation station integration.

Task 3.3 Platform test
As requested in the Statement of Work the pESApod platform and the teleoperation station will be tested. In
order to address this issue, at the Contractor premises an ad hoc scenario will be developed. This scenario
will permit to perform a preliminary evaluation mainly focused on the following pESApod platform
capabilities:

remote control;

power consumption limited at 2000 W;

stable movement in presence of steep slopes, boulders, terraces;

steering capability;

specimen collection.
In order to prove the system performances during the TRR, the SSSA team members will organize:

adequate multimedia material (audio/video recording);

a demonstration session at the ad hoc developed scenario.
The Test Program for Robot functionality demonstration (D8) will be provided to Agency reviewers at
least 2 weeks before the TRR. Moreover, as requested, at the TRR the SSSA team will provide the Draft
ESA standardised Data Sheet of the Robotic System (D9).

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 30



WORK PACKAGE DESCRIPTION FORM No. PSS-A 20
PROJECT: pESApod PHASE: W.P. REF.: WP4
WP TITLE Challenge participation SHEET 1 OF 1
CONTRACTOR Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
MAJOR CONSTITUENT
(e.g. Subsystem) Competition

START EVENT Test Readiness
Review
PLANNED
DATE
40th week
(2008) ISSUE REF. Issue 2
END EVENT Challenge Event PLANNED DATE
43rd week
(2008) ISSUE DATE 27/4/2008
W.P. MANAGER Dr. Stefano Roccella
WP4 starts as the Contractor receives the consent to ship at the 40th week. This WP is aimed to the physical
participation to the Challenge Event and in particular to the final competition. The main activities are the
following:

shipment of the material needed (robotics means and any supporting material) from the
Contractor’s premises to the airport nearest to the Challenge venue;

participation to Challenge Event:
o unpack the shipped material;
o set-up the pESApod platform and the teleoperation station;
o perform preliminary trials;
o participation to the final competition of the Challenge Event;

re-packing of all materials and shipment from the Challenge venue to the Contractor premises.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 31



COST PRICE DATA
As requested, we illustrate the costs breakdown of the whole pESApod proposal by means
of the PSS-A2 form (see Figure 7) and the relative Exhibit “A” (see Figure 8) and the PSS-
A8 form (see Figure 10). Moreover we provide a detailed costs breakdown regarding
Section 3 of the PSS-A2 form (see Figure 9). All the costs are related to the purchase of the
mechanical and electrical components, of raw materials, as well as the travel and
subsistence needed for the participation to the CDR meeting. No costs regarding manhours
for the assembly, manufacturing and testing of pESApod were taken into account, as they
are provided by our institution to its students as a study facility (see Section University
Support/Facilities for more details).

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 32



Issue 4
Page No. No. of Pages 1
RFQ/ITT No. COMPANY NAME:
Proposal/Tender No.: Name and Title:
Economic Condition: Type of Price: Signature
Total
EURO
€
A -€
2 Total Internal Special Facilities Cost B -€
OTHER COST ELEMENTS Base amounts in NC OH%
20,00 1.800,00€
20,00 11.328,00€

20,00 27.168,00€
a) procured by company
b) procured by third party
20,00 1.680,00€
20,00 120,00€
C D E 42.096,00€
(A+B+E) F 42.096,00€
%
G -€
H -€
7. Other J -€
(to be specified)
(F+G+H+J) K 42.096,00€
) % L -€
(K+L) M 42.096,00€
11. Profit ( ) N -€
P -€
13. Financial Provision for escalation, if applicable ( justification and details to be stated on Exhibit A) Q -€
(M+N+P+Q) R 42.096,00€
S -€
(R-S) T 42.096,00€
If insufficient space is available to identify all required information, please use additional sheet or insert lines
42.096,00€
12. Cost without additional charge (to be itemised on Exhibit A)
14. Total
15. Reduction for company contribution (if applicable)
16. TOTAL PRICE FOR ESA
-€
42.096,00€
-€
-€
42.096,00€
-€
-€
9. Overheads on Subcontractors (Base in NC on which % applies:
10. Sub-total
% on Base Amount in NC:
8. Total Cost of All Work Packages 42.096,00€
-€
Cost items to which Base in NC to which
% applies % applies
-€
-€
5. General & Admin. Expenses
6. Research & Develop. Exp.
42.096,00€
42.096,00€
GENERAL EXPENSES
3.9 Travels
3.10 Miscellaneous
3 Total Other Direct Cost
4. SUB TOTAL COST
100,00€ 20,00€
1.400,00€ 280,00€
3.6 External Major Products
3.7 External Services
3.8 Transport/Insurance
3.2 Mechanical parts
3.3 Semi-finished products
3.5 Hirel parts
3.4 Electrical & electronic components
1.680,00€
120,00€

22.640,00€ 4.528,00€ 27.168,00€
9.440,00€ 1.888,00€ 11.328,00€
-€
3.1 Raw materials 1.500,00€ 300,00€ 1.800,00€
OH amounts in NC
No. of units Unit rates in NCINTERNAL SPECIAL FACILITIES
1 Total Direct Labour Hours and Cost -€
Type of unit
LABOUR
Direct Labour cost centres or categories in Manhours in NC*
AO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Firm Fixed
Dr. Stefano Roccella
COMPANY PRICE BREAKDOWN FORM
1
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
Form No. PSS A2
The mechatronics platform pESApod,
SUPPLIES AND/OR SERVICES TO BE FURNISHED
the pretty ESA hexapod
Manpower Gross National Currency
effort Hourly Rates (NC)
Figure 7 PSS-A2 form for pESApod

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 33



Page No. No. of Pages
COMPANY NAME:
Proposal/Tender No. Doc.
Name and Title:
Economic Condition Type of Price Firm Fixed
Signature
SUPPLIES AND/OR SERVICES TO BE FURNISHED
Purchase National Currency
Currency (see main PSSA2)
1 EUR € 120,00
Dr. Stefano Roccella
The mechatronics platform pESApod,
the pretty ESA hexapod
Cost EI. No. ITEM DESCRIPTION Purchase Amount
6 Degree of Freedom Joystick € 120,00
Please refer to GENERAL NOTES of the PSS A2 Instructions!
Issue 4 .
RFQ/ITT No. AO/1-5515/08/NL/HE Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
COMPANY PRICE BREAKDOWN FORM EXHIBIT "A" TO PSS A2

Figure 8 Exhibit “A” to PSS-A2.

Robotic Means - Costs Breakdown Description Unit Cost Units No. Total Cost Total Cost + HO (20%) PSSA2 Category
Mechanics
Ball bearings Radial and Angular Contact ball bearings 12,00€ 50 600,00€ 720,00€ mechanical parts
Aluminium Bars (5000 mm) Φ40-50 mm, 2 mm thickness tubes 300,00€ 1 300,00€ 360,00€ raw material
Aluminium Sheet (2000 mm) 1000x15 mm sheets 1.200,00€ 1 1.200,00€ 1.440,00€ raw material
Screws and Nats (miscellaneous) M3-M12 50,00€ 1 50,00€ 60,00€ mechanical parts
Springs (6x2) 10-30 N/mm steel springs 20,00€ 12 240,00€ 288,00€ mechanical parts
Actuators and Sensors
Actuation Group for Body(2x6) 60-90W DC motor+ Gear + 1024 c. Encoder 450,00€ 12 5.400,00€ 6.480,00€ mechanical parts
Actuation Group for Legs (1x6) 40-50W DC motor+ Gear + 1024 c. Encoder 350,00€ 6 2.100,00€ 2.520,00€ mechanical parts
Actuation Group for End Effector (2x1) 20-30W DC motor+ Gear + 256 c. Encoder 200,00€ 2 400,00€ 480,00€ mechanical parts
Actuation Group for Camera (3x1) 5-10W DC motor+ Gear + 1024 c. Encoder 150,00€ 3 450,00€ 540,00€ mechanical parts
Actuation Group for TMOTE ejection (1x2) 5-10W DC motor+ Gear + 256 c. Encoder 100,00€ 2 200,00€ 240,00€ mechanical parts
IMU - Inertial Measurement Unit 3 DoF accelorometer + 3 Dof gyro 1.100,00€ 1 1.100,00€ 1.320,00€ electronics
Stereocamera 2 1/3" progressive scan CCDs - 3.8 mm focal leng. 1.250,00€ 1 1.250,00€ 1.500,00€ electronics
Contact Sensor (for 6 Legs) linear flexible contact-force sensor (FSR) 30,00€ 6 180,00€ 216,00€ electronics
Frontal Cameras (2) 1/3" or 1/2" progressive scan CCDs + Optics 450,00€ 2 900,00€ 1.080,00€ electronics
LED Lighting Group High brightness LED rings 120,00€ 4 480,00€ 576,00€ electronics
Electronics and Control
Motor Driver for Body (2x6) PWM ServoAmplifier (60-90W) 380,00€ 12 4.560,00€ 5.472,00€ electronics
Motor Driver for Legs (1x6) PWM ServoAmplifier (40-50W) 350,00€ 6 2.100,00€ 2.520,00€ electronics
Motor Driver for End Effector (2x1) PWM ServoAmplifier (20-30W) 280,00€ 2 560,00€ 672,00€ electronics
Motor Driver for Camera (3x1) PWM ServoAmplifier (5-10W) 150,00€ 3 450,00€ 540,00€ electronics
Motor Driver for TMOTE ejection (1x2) PWM ServoAmplifier (5-10W) 150,00€ 2 300,00€ 360,00€ electronics
Board FPGA FPGA + high connectivity development board 220,00€ 3 660,00€ 792,00€ electronics
DAC - board (for 25 DC motors) PCB for Digital-Analog Conversion 330,00€ 1 330,00€ 396,00€ electronics
Signal Conditioning - board (for FSR sensors)PCB for Signal Conditioning 330,00€ 1 330,00€ 396,00€ electronics
Laptop Laptop for Local Controlling 900,00€ 1 900,00€ 1.080,00€ electronics
Power Supply Superior Lithium Polymer Battery(SLPB) 500,00€ 8 4.000,00€ 4.800,00€ electronics
Networking
Crossbow IRIS Low power, high data-rate wireless net node 220,00€ 11 2.420,00€ 2.904,00€ electronics
Teleoperation Station - Costs
Breakdown Description Unit Cost Units No. Total Cost
Total Cost +
HO (20%) PSSA2 Category
Electronics and Control
Joystick 6 Dof 100,00€ 1 100,00€ 120,00€ miscellaneous
Widescreen Monitor 24'' widescreen LCD 700,00€ 1 700,00€ 840,00€ electronics
Laptop Hign End Compact Mobile Work Station 1.200,00€ 1 1.200,00€ 1.440,00€ electronics
Crossbow IRIS Low power, high data-rate wireless net node 220,00€ 1 220,00€ 264,00€ electronics
Total 33.680,00€ 40.416,00€

Figure 9 Detailed costs breakdown for Section 3 of PSS-A2 form.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 34



Issue 4
Subject:
(*) National Currency (NC) :
Company SSSA SSSA SSSA SSSA
WP Title Management,
Reporting,
Meetings and
Deliverables
Design of
robotic means
Manufacturing,
Assembling,
Integration and
Test
Challenge
participation
WP Number 1 2 3 4
Total WBS-Level
Labour hours as per PSS A2 (*) 0 0 0 0 0
Total Labour Hours 0 0 0 0 0
1. Total Labour Cost € - € - € - € - € -
2. Internal Special Facilities € - € - € - € - € -
3.1-3.4 Material Costs € - € - € 40.296,00 € - € 40.296,00
3.5 High Rel Parts Costs € - € - € - € - € -
3.6 External major products Cost € - € - € - € - € -
3.7 External Services Cost € - € - € - € - € -
3.8 Transport/Insurance Cost € - € - € - € - € -
3.9 Travel and Subsistance Cost € 1.680,00 € - € - € - € 1.680,00
3.10 Miscellaneous Cost € - € - € 120,00 € - € 120,00
3. Total Other Costs € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
€ -
4. Subtotal Cost € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
€ -
5.- 7. General expenses € - € - € - € - € -
€ -
8. Total Cost of WPs € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
€ -
9. Overhead on Subcontractors € - € - € - € - € -
10. Subtotal (8+9) € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
11. Profit € - € - € - € - € -
12. Cost without additional charge € - € - € - € - € -
€ -
13. Financial Provision for escalation NC 0 0 0 0 € -
€ -
14. Total NC € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
EUROs € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
€ -
15. Reduction for company contribution NC € - € - € - € - € -
(if applicable) EUROs € - € - € - € - € -
€ -
16. Total Price NC € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
EUROs € 1.680,00 € - € 40.416,00 € - € 42.096,00
(*) for PSS A8 of a single company. (**) The EURO is to be used as the NC where the cost accounting system is in EURO
Manpower and Price Summary
(**) Conversion Rate:EUR
pESApod

Figure 10 PSS-A8 form for pESApod project.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 35



TYPE OF PRICE
As defined by Clause I, Part I, Annex I to the General Condition for ESA Contracts, we
state that the price of this proposal is a Firmed Fixed Price.

TRAVEL AND SUBSISTENCE PLAN
In order to reduce the costs involved in travel expenses, the Contractor proposes that only
three team members (the Team Principal Coordinator, a team member involved in
mechanical design and a team member involved in electronic and control design) will
participate to the CDR meeting at ESTEC. Low cost airlines and accommodation will be
taken into account for the reasons given above. So, all the estimated costs are referred to
three people. Details on the estimated costs regarding the CDR are reported in the table
following. Details regarding the Challenge will be provided after the CDR meeting, as
requested.


Travel and subsistence expenses for CDR at ESTEC

Estimated cost
in Euro
Brief description
(e.g. Return fare with Plane Paris-
Stockholm, Stockholm Paris or
Hotel 1 days or subsistence 1.5 days)
Transport (train, car, plane
etc.)
(for 3 people)
€ 1000,00 - Pisa-Amsterdam (Schipol Airport)
by flight (round trip).
- Schipol-ESTEC by train and bus.
Accommodation
(for 3 people)
€ 200,00 2 nights in youth hostel
Subsistence
(for 3 people)
€ 200,00 3 days subsistence
Travel and subsistence expenses for Challenge Event at TBD location
(this estimate needs to be submitted at a later stage after the challenge venue is
revealed at CDR)

Estimated cost
in Euro
Brief description
(e.g. Return fare with Plane Paris-
Stockholm, Stockholm Paris or
Hotel 1 days or subsistence 1.5 days)
Transport (train, car, plane
etc.)
Assume amount
of XXX Euros
per person
University location to challenge
venue
Accommodation Assume amount
of XXX Euros
per person
Hotel at challenge venue
Subsistence

Total cost
for CDR meeting
at ESTEC
€ 1400,00 Per CDR meeting total cost

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
Page 36



CONTRACT CONDITIONS

We, hereby, declare that we are fully compliant with the AO and that we accept your General
clauses and conditions for ESA contracts (ESA/C/290, rev. 6 as resulting from ESA/C(2003)103)
and special conditions as reported in Appendix 3 to AO/1-5515/07/NL/HE. With reference to
ESA/C/290, rev.6 and Appendix 3 to AO/1-5515/07/NL/HE, hereby we state that all the
contract conditions are accepted.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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University Support/Facilities

The main critical facilities available at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna laboratories to be
used for supporting the design, the prototyping, the manufacturing and test phases of
pESApod platform are listed below.

For the pESApod mechanical modules development (see Figure 11-Figure 14):
o a universal milling machine;
o 2 high precision 5 axis CNC machinery: 1 for micro components (maximum
dimension at 40 mm) and 1 for macro components (maximum dimension at 1200
mm);
o 2 lathes: 1 semiautomatic and 1 manual;
o a micro-wire and micro-sink Electro Discharge Machining;
o a Focused Ion Beam;
o a workshop drill;
o a workshop bandsaw;
o 3D printer (UV curable acrylics);
o micro injection molding (hard thermoplastics);
o measurement and testing machines:

a high precision balance;

an Instron Testing Machine;

microactuators test bench;

surface roughness profiler;
o 3 technicians expertise in machining and assembly.

For the pESApod custom electronics board development (see Figure 14 and Figure 15):
o electronic workshop equipment;
o 2 technicians expertise in electronic board assembly;
o silicon lithographic processes:

a mask aligner;

oxidation furnace;

wet bench;
o hybrid clean room processes:

sputtering;

wire bonder;

electroplating.

For the whole pESApod platform design and its software modules deployment, the
following software are already available at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna:
o Pro/Engineer, CATIA, SolidWorks;
o ANSYS, Adams (mechanical design);
o Orcad, Labview (electronics board design);
o Matlab (for technical computing and control system simulation);
o QUARTUS II.

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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Figure 11 Machining facilities.

Figure 12 CNC machining facilities.
Universal milling machine
Workshop drill & bandsaw
Semiautomatic & manual
lathes
Micro CNC machining center (5
axis)
Sink and wire micro electro-erosion
machining

Appendix 4 toAO/1-5515/08/NL/HE
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Figure 13 Mechanical prototyping facilities.

Figure 14 Measurement and testing facilities.
3D printer (UV curable acrylics) Micro injection molding (hard
thermoplastics)
Microactuators test bench
High precision balance
Surface Roughness
Profiler Instron testing machine

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Figure 15 Silicon lithographic processes.

Figure 16 Hybrid clean room processes.
Wire bonder
Sputtering
Electroplating
Mask aligner
Wet bench
Oxidation furnace