Alberto Cavallo was born in Napoli, Italy, on 16th March 1964. In 1989 he obtained the Laurea degree at the Università di Napoli Federico II with Laude, discussing the thesis "Robust Stability Analysis for Linear Time-Invariant Systems", and in 1993 he completed his PhD discussing the thesis "A solution to tracking problems via sliding manifolds". Alberto Cavallo is currently Associate Professor both of Advanced Automatic Control and System Identification at the Seconda Università di Napoli. His research interests have dealt with many aspects of the theory of automatic control, including robust control techniques with aeronautical and aerospace applications, with parametric uncertainties and H-2 and H-infinity indices, high-order sliding-manifold control, active control of sound and vibration, modelling and control of smart actuators, control of systems with hysteresis, system identification, fuzzy control, modeling and control of water-resource systems and decision-support systems for hydraulic applications. He has published more than 70 journal and conference papers, and is also local team-leader for several national and international research projects connected with aeronautic applications of automatic control.He is the author of the book Using MATLAB, SIMULINK and Control System Toolbox: A Practical Approach (Prentice Hall), and has written more than 50 papers for journals and conference proceedings. Giuseppe De Maria was born in Napoli, Italy, in December 1948. In 1973 he received the Laurea degree in electronic engineering from the Università di Napoli. He was Associate Professor of Automatic Control at the University of Napoli Federico II. Since 1992 he has been full Professor of Automatic Control at the Faculty of Engineering of the Seconda Università di Napoli. His research interests include robust control, control of mechanical systems, industrial and advanced robotics, control of aerospace and aeronautical systems, and active noise and vibrationcontrol of flexible structures. At present, his research interests are focused on the control of smart materials, in particular piezoceramics and magnetostriction, with the aim of realising artificial muscles. Concerning this field of research he is responsible of national and European research contracts. He is the workpackage leader of the project MESEMA (Magnetostrictive Equipment and Systems for even more electric Aircraft) in the 6thFramework Programme of European Community. Ciro Natale was born in Caserta, Italy, on 12th December 1969. He received the Laurea degree and the Research Doctorate degree in Electronic Engineering from the Università di Napoli in 1995 and 2000, respectively. From 2000 to 2004 he has been Research Associate at the Department of Information Engineering of the Seconda Università di Napoli, where he currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Automatic Control and Industrial Robotics. From November 1998 to April 1999 he was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. His research interests include modeling and control of industrial manipulators, force and visual control, cooperative robots. More recently, his activities are focused on modelling and control of flexible structures, active noise and vibration control and modelling, and identification and control of smart materials. He has published more than 50 journal and conference papers and he is author of the book: Interaction Control of Robot Manipulators: Six-degrees-of-freedom Tasks (Springer 2003). Salvatore Pirozzi was born in Napoli, Italy, on 21st April 1977. He received the Laurea and the Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from the Seconda Università di Napoli, Aversa, Italy, in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He is currently a Research Associate at the Seconda Università di Napoli. His research interests include modelling and control of smart actuators and sensors for advancedfeedback control systems as well as identification and control of vibrating systems.
