The FIRST Lab’s mission is to conduct applied interdisciplinary research at the intersection of “mechatronics, robotics and automation” and “agro-forestry”. In particular, under the Autonomous Province of Bolzano’s S3 Strategy, this project and laboratory of the Free University of Bolzano lies within the domain of “Alpine Technology” and has natural connections with both energy- and food-technologies, which the province considers strategic research areas.

Research activities include:

Basic and applied research, as well as third-party services, in the field of applied mechanics, mechatronics, automation and mobile robotics for outdoor activities.
The development of autonomous- and semi-autonomous-robots.
The development of technologies for monitoring operations (e.g., apple orchards, greenhouses, riverbeds, lakes, slopes); automated inspection; and sample collection.
Collaborative research with SMEs to foster the technology transfer of any products/processes developed in the above-mentioned research areas.

The Lab is housed at the B5 industrial building of the NOI – Techpark of Bolzano (https://noi.bz.it/it).

A strong cooperative working relationship has been established in particular with the Agroforestry Innovation Lab (reference person prof. F. Mazzetto).

Moreover, cooperation is foreseen with other planned laboratories that will be housed in B5 : the Applied Thermo-Fluid Dynamics Lab (reference person prof. M. Righetti), and the Bioenergy and Biofuels Lab (prof M. Baratieri) .

The project and laboratory have been funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020 – Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano.