Who we are
Research Units
Team UniNa
Aleksandr Sakhnevych
Dr. Aleksandr Sakhnevych is Professor of Applied Mechanics and Technologies for Smart Vehicles at the University of Naples Federico II, and is also co-founder of the university spin-offs MegaRide, RIDEsense, and VESevo, which transform academic research into innovative solutions for the motorsport and automotive industries. As Principal Investigator of the HoMo-AD project, he leads the development of advanced model-based control strategies that integrate real-time tire limit estimation and passenger state monitoring, aiming to enable next-generation driving assistance systems with enhanced safety, performance, and comfort.
Lorenzo Ponticelli
Dr. Lorenzo Ponticelli is PhD student at the University of Naples Federico II. His research focuses on control logic framework definition, development of advanced algorithms for model-based vehicle dynamics sensing, experimental campaign coordination, data analysis, simulation, digital twin validation and project synthesis. Recently, he started working on the design and implementation of multi-objective controllers for nonlinear systems.
Francesco Timpone
Prof. Francesco Timpone is Full Professor of Vehicle Dynamics at the University of Naples Federico II, where his research centers on the physical and analytical modeling of tire-road interaction, as well as the dynamic behavior of vehicle subsystems and mechanical transmissions. Within the HoMo-AD project, he contributes his expertise in vehicle dynamics and tire modeling to support the development of a high-fidelity, parameterized vehicle model, essential for enabling predictive and adaptive driving assistance strategies.
Mario Barbaro
Dr. Mario Barbaro is a PhD student at the University of Naples Federico II. His research focuses on the development and calibration of tire models for handling and ride-comfort applications, the design and parameterisation of vehicle state estimators for non-measurable quantities, and the modelling of constrained systems. Recently, he started working on the integration of suspension constraints into vehicle state estimation.
Geraldino Mandragora
Dr. Geraldino Mandragora is a PhD student at the University of Naples Federico II. His research focuses on the design of advanced sensing architectures for human monitoring, the development of high-bandwidth data logging systems (both hardware and software), artificial vision pipelines, multi-sensor fusion, and data analysis. He is a co-author of scientific publications on model-based and vehicle state estimation.
Team PoliBa
Francesco Bottiglione
Francesco Bottiglione is Full Professor of Applied Mechanics at the Polytechnic University of Bari. His research focuses on road vehicle dynamics and control, tribology, nonlinear and friction dynamics, and biomechanics. Within the HoMo-AD project, he leads the Poliba team’s activities aimed at integrating human factors into advanced vehicle control strategies, through a multifaceted approach that combines modeling and experimental validation.
Mariapia Musci
Dr. Mariapia Musci is a PhD student at the Polytechnic University of Bari. Her research focuses on passenger characterisation using biometric and biomechanical data, overseeing the acquisition and analysis of physiological and motion signals collected through wearable sensors. Her expertise includes setting up the experimental environment, configuring and calibrating biomechanical sensors, and conducting data acquisition sessions. She is the author and co-author of scientific publications on biomedical data management.
Gabriele Rini
Dr. Gabriele Rini earned his PhD at the Polytechnic University of Bari, where he is now a research fellow. His research focuses on active vehicle control and motion planning for autonomous vehicles. He conducted research on traction control, torque vectoring, and active suspension systems to enhance handling and comfort. His PhD centred on motion planning aimed at mitigating motion sickness. As part of his doctoral research, he visited TU Delft, collaborating with the Human Factors group on the development of human-centred motion planning strategies to enhance passenger comfort and reduce motion sickness in automated vehicles.
Francesco De Astis
Dr. Francesco De Astis, PhD student at Polytechnic University of Bari. His research focuses on mitigating motion sickness in autonomous vehicles using optimal control and advanced optimization techniques.
Sergio De Bellis
Dr. Sergio Andrea De Bellis, is a PhD student at Polytechnic University of Bari. His research focuses on the development of estimators within the automotive field, with particular emphasis on creating computational tools for the predictive evaluation of tire wear. His expertises include state estimation techniques, vehicle dynamics modeling and simulation, tire-road interaction analysis, real-time data management and, the integration of multi-sensor data sources.