MCAElab
About MCAE-Lab
The Mechanical Computer Aided Engineering Laboratory (MCAE-Lab) is a research group of the Department of Mechanical, Energy, Management and Transportation Engineering (DIME) at the University of Genova. Our mission is to advance design methods and tools for industrial engineering, bridging analytical modeling, integrated CAD/CAE virtual prototyping and experimental validation of mechanical and mechatronic systems.
What we do
We design, model and experimentally evaluate compliant mechanisms, robotic grippers and end-effectors, automatic machines and energy-efficient robotic systems.
How we work
We combine pseudo-rigid-body and beam-based analytical formulations with parametric CAD/CAE environments, multibody simulation and rapid prototyping, in collaboration with academic and industrial partners.
Where we are
DIME - University of Genova, Via all'Opera Pia 15/A, 16145 Genova, Italy. The lab collaborates with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and international research groups.
Faculty
Giovanni Berselli
Full Professor - Lab Head
Full Professor of Design Methods for Industrial Engineering at the University of Genova, where he coordinates the PhD Degree in Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering. Affiliated Researcher with the Advanced Robotics Department of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). His research focuses on robot hands and grippers, compliant mechanisms and soft actuators for safe human-robot interaction, and energy-aware industrial robotics. He teaches Industrial Technical Drawing (BSc), Design of Automatic Machines and Robots and the English-taught Design of Automatic Machinery and Robots (MSc) at the University of Genova.
Mario Baggetta
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor at the University of Genova (DIME). His research centers on the kinetostatic design of compliant mechanisms and flexural pivots, robotic grippers and end-effectors, and CAD/CAE-based virtual prototyping of mechatronic systems. He serves as Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and teaches Machine Drawing (BSc) and Integrated CAD/CAE Mechanical Design (MSc) in the Mechanical Engineering degrees.
The team also includes PhD students, research fellows and MSc thesis students - see the People page for the full list.
Network & collaborations
Italian Institute of Technology
Long-standing collaboration with the Advanced Robotics Department of IIT on robot hands, grippers and soft end-effectors.
Industrial partners
Joint research and technology-transfer projects with manufacturers of automatic machines and robotic systems, including EU-funded programmes on energy-efficient factories.
International research groups
Exchanges, visiting periods and co-supervised theses with academic partners in Europe and worldwide on compliant mechanisms and robotics.