An innovative, portable and intelligent device designed to help every citizen monitor their environment and make informed real-time decisions on how to move around the city and choose the healthiest routes. It’s called RESPIRO (Real-time Environmental Sensing for Personal Intelligent Risk Optimization) and it was developed by the University of Milano-Bicocca, in collaboration with ROAD – Rome Advanced District and XearPro srl. RESPIRO is not just a sensor—it's a complete, user-friendly environmental monitoring platform.
RESPIRO detects air pollutants including CO₂, carbon monoxide, fine and ultrafine particles, as well as temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. All data is georeferenced in real time, offering a detailed snapshot of the air quality surrounding the user.
The project was presented this morning at the Gazometro Ostiense in Rome, headquarters of the ROAD innovation district, an initiative supported by Eni, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Acea, Autostrade per l’Italia, Bridgestone, Cisco Italia, and Nextchem. The event opened with speeches by Giovanna Iannantuoni, Rector of the University of Milano-Bicocca, and Claudio Granata, ROAD President and Director of Stakeholder Relations & Services at Eni, followed by a roundtable discussion with researchers from both Milano-Bicocca and ROAD.
Thanks to its low-cost, compact, and wearable design, RESPIRO can be clipped onto a backpack, bag, or jacket. Through real-time monitoring and GPS tracking, its LED display gives users instant readings of environmental parameters, while the dedicated Bluetooth-connected app sends smart notifications when the air quality poses a risk. It also provides valuable data for researchers and citizen scientists, enabling wide-scale environmental monitoring.
The project is linked to scientific initiatives carried out in Piazza della Scienza in Milan, home to several Bicocca departments, and coordinated by POLARIS Research Centre.
RESPIRO sensors are currently being used by volunteers, students, technicians, and faculty from Bicocca to monitor air quality across the neighbourhood. A parallel data collection campaign will also take place in Rome’s Ostiense district, supported by ROAD and the University of Roma Tre.
“In a world where air quality is increasingly central to political, social, and scientific debate,” says Rector Giovanna Iannantuoni, “our university is committed to doing its part, proposing a model of urban regeneration in Piazza della Scienza and promoting cutting-edge tools like RESPIRO. It’s a powerful ally for health, sustainable mobility, and citizen science.”
“With RESPIRO and our partnership with the University of Milano-Bicocca, we now have the first tangible outcome of ROAD’s activities—less than two years since its founding,” states Claudio Granata, President of ROAD. “Testing the device simultaneously in Milan and Rome will significantly expand our dataset for air quality analysis. ROAD was created to foster collaboration between private and public R&D departments, enable the transition process for businesses, and support the development of new skills.”
Editor’s Note
As part of Spoke 1 (“Urban Generation”) of the MUSA project (Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action)—a national innovation ecosystem led by the University of Milano-Bicocca and funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research via the National Recovery and Resilience Plan—OpenAir Lab was launched as a participatory sustainability research space.
Within the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DISAT), researchers in Environmental, Cellular and Developmental Biology (led by Rossella Bengalli, with Maurizio Gualtieri and Paride Mantecca) and Atmospheric Chemistry (including Andrea Doldi, Ezio Bolzacchini, and Luca Ferrero) have developed a novel approach to study the health impact of air pollution.
Using smart sensors, a campaign was launched to monitor personal exposure to airborne particles (PM10, PM2.5) and gases (CO, CO₂). At the same time, Piazza della Scienza, recently redesigned with urban regeneration goals, has become an open-air lab for testing how such changes can improve air quality.
Advanced instrumentation such as ELPI+ (for measuring nanoparticle size distributions down to a few nanometres) is used to evaluate how deeply airborne particles penetrate the respiratory system and how they may affect other organs.
The researchers also collect and analyse metals and trace elements—known to have oxidative effects—on biological systems. A key innovation is the use of a biosensor system, which exposes human lung cells to real urban air from Piazza della Scienza, allowing real-time analysis of cytotoxicity, inflammation, and oxidative stress caused by airborne pollutants.