The
positive synergy of the classic
Electromagnetics with the Materials
Science, Computer Science,
Sensors, Medicine, Mechanics and
Electronics originates the Pervasive
Electromagnetics, a
cross-discipline with the
potentiality to provide the physical
layer of the emerging Internet
of Things that enables
the Internet to get into the Real
World of physical objects.Things
equipped with electronic labels,
having both identification and
sensing capability, could be turned
into digital entities readable from
remote. The
Radiofrequency Identification (RFID)
technology offers the natural
substrate to achieve such features,
provided that the basic physics
governing the sensing and
electromagnetic interaction
phenomena is fully exploited. Thanks
to multidisciplinary research, the
Pervasive Electromagnetics Lab aims
to develop new radio devices for
short-range sensing, ready to be
seamlessly embedded into objects,
products, buildings as well as over
and even inside the human body with
application to Personal Healthcare
and Industry
4.0
RADIO6ENSE
is the University spinoff of the Pervasive
Electromagnetics Lab.
With the
progressive increase in life
expectancy, it is very likely that
each of us, over the course of our
existence, will have to resort to
one or more biomedical prostheses
to correct body defects due to
aging, accidents, or congenital
dysfunction. Conventional medical
devices, spanning from dental
implants up to the much more
complex orthopedic fixations,
prostheses, and cardiac
valves, which are used over
a large scale in the great
majority of medical practice, are
entering the era of Digital
transformation too.
This research line is part
of the international trend of
transformation of conventional
prostheses into cybernetic devices
(Cyber Prostheses), able to
combine the fundamental mechanical
activity with the continuous
generation and wireless
communication of data. On
these assumptions, in the near
future, it will be possible to
better understand our body and
develop new digital personal
monitoring services similar to
those that are now enabled by
smartwatches and ultimately
improve the quality of life in the
long run.
LASER-INDUCED GRAPHENE FOR INTERNET-OF-THINGS
Graphene's
outstanding properties
attracted the attention of the
entire scientific community since
its first production in 2004.
Nevertheless, common manufacturing
methods, like mechanical
exfoliation, chemical vapour
deposition or graphene oxide
reduction, require long and
complex procedures.
Laser scribing, instead, is
a novel manufacturing
technique to obtain graphene
flakes starting from a polymeric
precursor with high carbon
content, like Polyimide (PI),
Polyethyleneimine (PEI) and
Polyether ether ketone (PEEK). The
process is easy, fast, relatively
low cost and thus extremely
promising for the large-scale
development of graphene-based
devices. In fact, thanks to its biocompatibility,
the applications wherein
Laser-Induced Graphene (LIG)
can be involved range from the biomedical
sector, namely implanted
prostheses or wearable devices, to
food, i.e., amine or
ethylene wireless sensors, in
addition to any other
implementation in the Internet-of-Things
(IoT).
FLEXIBLE AND STRETCHABLE ELECTRONICS
The skin
is the primary interface
of the human body with the
external environment. On its
surface, a multitude of data
describing the state of
health of an individual can
be collected using bio-integrated
wireless-sensing epidermal
membranes, acting as a
second skin over the body.
These "skin-like"
membranes are becoming
increasingly ultra-thin,
low profile, lightweight, flexible,
and stretchable so
that they can conformally
laminate onto the skin
surface by soft contact in a
manner that they are
mechanically invisible to
the user. The electronic
complexity of these devices
is very low since all the
electronics, sensors, and
communication components
should be tightly integrated
within the membrane, but
still, their sensing
capabilities are striking
(e.g., temperature,
hydration, pH, electrolytes,
etc).
The combined use
of Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAV) and
Radiofrequency
Identification (RFID)
devices is an emerging topic
of environmental monitoring.
We are studying two possible
topologies of RFIDrones:
the Reader-Drone hosting an
RFID reader and interacting
with fixed sensors displaced
over an infrastructure and
the Tag-Drone where a
sensor-RFID tag is equipped
with flight capability and
interacts with a fixed base
station for data exchange
and assisted localization.
Body-worn radios
exploiting the LPWAN
LoRa protocol can
cover kilometric ranges and
generate stable off-body
links even in the
harshest environments. This
new generation of radios can
enable body-centric Unmanned
Aerial Systems (UASs) but
faces two challenges:
I) the design of wearable or
epidermal antennas;
II) the characterization of
off-body links.
The applications
envisaged for this new
generation of on-body radios
range from emergency
communications through UAVs
to long-range
telemonitoring of health
parameters, even in
unconnected areas such as
mountain canyons or snowy
plains.
FOOD MONITORING
Food
poisoning
disproportionately affects
society, especially the
youngest individuals.
Nevertheless, resource wastage
threats the world population
as well.
Actually, the proposed
advanced technologies for food
monitoring are hindered by the
need for complex architectures
or human involvement. Wireless
monitoring, instead,
exploits simple and low-cost
components to transduce
physical stimuli, such as
bacteria growth, into
electrical signals. These, combined
with algorithms of machine
learning, have been yet
demonstrated to be helpful
both in preventing spoilage
and food waste.
MONITORING OF RESPIRATORY FUNCTION
The monitoring
of the respiratory
function has
already profited from
the operation of
temperature sensors put
close to the airways as
well as from the
sensorization of
facemasks, widely used
in the case of
respiratory viruses. Abnormal
breathing can be a
symptom of an unhealthy
status. For
example, one of the most
common symptoms of
respiratory pandemics,
like COVID-19,
is cough. Its monitoring
is useful for tracing
the progress of the
disease and evaluating
its severity.
Conventional
diagnostic exams involve
cumbersome and intrusive
instrumentations that
are overall
uncomfortable for the
users. Instead, wearable
and wireless
technologies such as Radio
Frequency
Identification (RFID)
could enable
platforms to monitor
patients remotely.
RFID NETWORKS AND MULTI-CHIP SYSTEMS
Some
experiments recently
showed the possibility
of setting up a
tag-to-tag
communication by
exploiting the
electromagnetic
coupling mechanism
among antennas.
Theoretical and
experimental
investigations are
being developed to
understand how to
fabricate grids of
interacting RFID tags
according to theubiquitous
computingparadigm.
SPIROHUB
introduces an
innovative
E-Health
device
designed for respiratory
rate
monitoring
and vital
parameter
analysis,
based on
epidermal RFID
devices and
near-patient
data
processing.
Leveraging
non-invasive
wireless
sensors and AI
technologies,
SPIROHUB aims
to enable
real-time data
collection and
analysis,
empowering point-of-care
diagnostic
by breath
analysis,
especially
with a focus
on
polysomnography
and
sleep-related
breathing
disorders.
Rome Technopole
The Rome
Technopole aims to
create an innovation
ecosystem that drives
innovation. The focus is
on three thematic
areas: energy
transition; digital
transition; health &
biopharma.
In the Technopole
framework, the Pervasive
Electromagnetics Lab
pursues three research
lines by developing
smart labels for plastic
waste reduction, breath
monitoring, and point-of-care
sensors.
Skin-mounted
electronics is the new
frontier for unobtrusive
body-centric monitoring
systems. It enables to move
the electronics and sensors
from clothes and personal
accessories directly to the
human skin for the wireless
and continuous assessment
of people's health and
well-being.
CYBER
AND PHYSICAL VULNERABILITIES OF MEDICAL
DEVICES - OBSERVATORY
The collaboration
will focus on the evaluation,
feasibility, and subsequently
the testing, and finally, the
operation of an Information
Sharing Platform
capable of enabling the
sharing of structured
information specifically for cyber
and physical threats in the
medical sector. In the
future, this platform could be
configured as a service for
companies involved in the
technological development,
certification, maintenance,
and marketing of DM. They will
thus be able to access
information on the possible
vulnerabilities of the
relevant MDs and will then be
able to adopt 'Security
By Design'
strategies for new devices and
implement mitigation
techniques for devices already
on the market.
Scientific Advisor:
Prof. G. Marrocco
Pervasive Electromagnetic Lab:
PhD student F.
Lestini
PhD student F. Nanni
Collab.
Prof. P. Loreti
Prof. G. Bianchi
PhD Student E. Raso
The course provides the electromagnetic
basis for the current and next generation wireless
services including radio and video broadcasting, radar
tracking, mobile and personal communications, networks
of wireless sensors, wireless charging, radiofrequency
identification and satellite links. Starting from the
elementary concepts of radiation from basic antennas,
the course introduces the theory, the computer
modeling and the preliminary design methodologies of
several classes of radiating systems such as dipoles,
loops, patches, array, apertures and reflectors. The
lessons will moreover present many applications to
multimedia systems, smartphones and electronic
contact-less payments with a particular focus to the
emerging Internet of Things.
As a complement
to the theory, the students will the opportunity to
extensively train with an industrial computer tool for
the automatic modeling and design of radiating
devices.
Il corso introduce la descrizione, il design, le
tecnologie di produzione e di test di dispositivi
wireless indossabili (sistemi wearable) per
l'identificazione e la telemetria del corpo umano in
ambiente reale. Il corso introduce anche la possibile
vulnerabilità di tale collegamento di comunicazione del
corpo e le sue conseguenze per la sicurezza e la privacy
Il corso è in parte orientato alla progettazione /
laboratorio e offre agli studenti l'opportunità di
essere coinvolti in un progetto di design realistico
riguardante un sistema wearable wireless per
applicazioni di rilevamento elettromagnetico. L'attività
di progettazione si basa sull'utilizzo di CAD
elettromagnetici industriali e porterà alla
realizzazione e sperimentazione di prototipi funzionanti
mediante strumenti di prototipizzazione rapida e test
con stazioni di misura professionali.
Prof. G. Marrocco
Terapia,
Esposizione e
Compatibilità
Elettromagnetica
Il corso si propone di fornire allo studente i
principi di base e i modelli che descrivono
l'interazione dei campi elettromagnetici con il corpo
umano, nonché le tecnologie e gli strumenti
biomedicali adottati per la diagnosi e la terapia.
Particolare attenzione sarà inoltre rivolta alla
compatibilità elettromagnetica, volta alla sicurezza
individuale ed alla certificazione dei dispositivi. Il
corso avrà una forte connotazione medica: ogni
argomento trattato avrà origine e fine
nell'applicazione al corpo umano (diagnosi, terapia).
Seminari e incontri con esperti del mondo industriale
arricchiranno l'offerta formativa.
Prof.ssa C. Occhiuzzi
Identificazione e
Localizzazione
Il corso ha l’obiettivo di far conoscere le
principali tecniche di localizzazione e
identificazione a RF utilizzate ormai in tutti i campi
delle telecomunicazione e dell’’ingegneria, così come
in tutte le applicazioni Internet of Things. Il corso,
dopo una fase introduttiva, prevede attività tecnico
praticheper
approfondire le tematiche di identificazione e
localizzazione.
Prof. M. Leonardi, Prof. G. Marrocco, Ph.D. S.
Amendola, Ph.D. G. M. Bianco
Electromagnetic
Fields
This course aims to provide the basic
principles and models for the representation of
electromagnetic transmission and propagation phenomena
up to the description of the most common classes of
guiding/radiating elements and of the entire wireless
communication link.
La nostra installazione CYBER
HUMAN mostra protesi sensorizzate per
medicina di prossima generazione.
Our paper has been chosen for the front cover of
the IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and
Microwaves in Medicine and Biology
(March 2023 Volume 7 Number 1)