The makerobot prototype will be presented at RomeCup 2025 at the Microsoft stand
Thanks to the Ital.IA Lab project, promoted in collaboration with Microsoft Italia, the digital manufacturing laboratory at the Palestra dell'Innovazione has a new assistant: a small intelligent robot designed to guide anyone, regardless of their technical background, through an immersive experience in digital manufacturing. The aim? To break down the barriers to accessing making technologies. The assistant comes in two forms: a virtual platform, accessible online, and an autonomous physical robot, a makerobot called ‘iFab’, capable of moving around the laboratory to provide assistance, show the machinery, answer questions and guide visitors.
A human-technological ecosystem tailored to the community
The project ‘A smarter fab lab with AI’ involves a multidisciplinary team of students, makers and experts coordinated by the Foundation, with the aim of building a model that can be replicated in other fab labs and educational contexts. Through a dedicated knowledge base, built by digitising and structuring the fab lab's technical documentation, the virtual assistant, developed with Microsoft Copilot Studio, is able to respond accurately and naturally to questions about machinery, materials, procedures and safety. The experience is completed by iFab, created directly in the laboratory with 3D printing and laser cutting, equipped with a screen, sensors, voice interfaces and an autonomous navigation system based on computer vision and path planning algorithms. The robot can reach the machines and position itself like a real ‘human assistant’, providing information and answers in real time.
Official preview at RomeCup 2025
The prototype of the assistant will be previewed at RomeCup 2025, on 7 and 8 May at the Roma Tre University, at the Microsoft stand.
The team
- Daniele Vigo, fab lab coordinator, conceived and coordinated the project
- Emanuele Coletta was responsible for the robot's electronics and physical control
- Davide Belli designed and assembled the mechanical structure
- Serena Trovalusci developed the position control system
- Olmo Ceriotti designed the virtual assistant on Copilot Studio
- Giulia Nardini and Federico Gerardi worked on the computer vision system
- Emanuele Alfano integrated the AI technologies and developed the user interface
- Luca Santoni, Andrea Scalone, Francesco Biamonte, Mamadou Keita, Mohamed Kaba Sekouba and Cristina Bianchini built and structured the assistant's knowledge base, translating the Fab Lab's experience into language that artificial intelligence can understand.
