Publications related to Development of Miniature Manipulators for Applications in Biology and Nanotechnologies

VDMNav: Software Architecture for Aerodynamically Constrained Navigation on Small Fixed-Wing Drones

Navigation of drones is predominantly based on sensor fusion algorithms. Most of these algorithms make use of some form of Bayesian filtering with a majority employing an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), wherein inertial measurements are fused with a Global N ...

2024

VDM-based navigation for Delta-wing UAVs: Models, calibration, implementation

Pasquale Longobardi

Autonomous navigation of small UAVs is typically based on the integration of inertial navigation systems (INS) together with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). However, GNSS signals can face various forms of interference affecting their continuous ...

EPFL2024

Soft Robot Shape Estimation With IMUs Leveraging PCC Kinematics for Drift Filtering

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes, Francesco Stella

The control possibilities for soft robots have long been hindered by the need for reliable methods to estimate their configuration. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) can solve this challenge, but they are affected by well-known drift issues. This letter pr ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2024

Small-scale robotic devices for medical interventions in the brain

Lorenzo Francesco John Noseda, Mahmut Selman Sakar

This article summarizes the recent advancements in the design, fabrication, and control of microrobotic devices for the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders. With a focus on diverse actuation methods, we discuss how advancements in materials science ...

2024

Solar-assisted clean steam generator, a cleaner production approach for sustainable healthcare facilities

Fernando Porté Agel, Ahmad Arabkoohsar, Mohammad Jamshidmofid

Healthcare sector buildings, particularly hospitals, significantly contribute to global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Hospitals require a substantial amount of steam, including the essential hygienic or " clean steam, " that is currently ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Is the powersave governor really saving power?

David Atienza Alonso, Luis Maria Costero Valero, Darong Huang

A frequency scaling governor is critical for the performance management of cloud servers, as it enhances energy efficiency and helps to control operational temperatures, thereby ensuring system reliability. However, our in-depth analysis of the application ...

2024

ROSMOSE: A Web-based Optimization Tool to Aid Decision-making for the Design and Operation of Industrial and Urban Energy Systems

François Maréchal, Cédric Terrier, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Michel Lopez, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos

Energy efficiency is crucial for the sustainable operation of all industrial and urban sectors. However, practicing engineers have seldom access to open-source tools that can readily evaluate and compare scenarios in terms of energy consumption, cost, and ...

2023

A modelling framework for modern heritage buildings energy simulation

Franz Graf, Giulia Marino, Giuseppe Galbiati

The latest European polices highlight the urgent need to rehabilitate the existing building stock, responsible for 40 % of the EU's total energy consumption. In this process, a key role is played by thermal simulations, assessing the effective energy perfo ...

Elsevier2023

Electrification and digitalization effects on sectoral energy demand and consumption: A prospective study towards 2050

François Maréchal, Fabian Heymann, Xiang Li

Energy transition is blurring the boundaries between the demand and supply sides with growing participation of prosumer resources. The intensifying pace of electrification and digitalization during the past decade tends to continue, leading to potential te ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

An Autonomous Robotic Platform to Manipulate Collective Behavior in Ants

Matthias Rüegg

Eusocial life is characterized by division of labour, collective decision making and self organization, and regarded as the highest form of social organisation in groups. Ants are a model organism for research in collective behavior and the evolution of eu ...

EPFL2023

Efficacy of temporal and spatial abstraction for training accurate machine learning models: A case study in smart thermostats

Rachid Guerraoui, Omid Ardakanian, Alexandre David Olivier Maurer

Smart thermostats are increasingly popular in homes and buildings as they improve occupant comfort, lower energy use in heating and cooling systems, and reduce utility bills by automatically adjusting room temperature according to measurements of their bui ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2023

Acoustic Levitation apparatus (Robotics Practicals)

Lorenzo Francesco John Noseda, Mahmut Selman Sakar, Amit Yedidia Dolev, Bora Yalcin

The following data contain the information and files, which are required to recreate and build the experimental setup that is described in the Laboratory manual. Further details can be found in the associated publication “A graduate laboratory experiment t ...

Zenodo2023

Energy-Efficient Electronic Functions Based on the Co-integration of 2D and Ferroelectric Materials

Sadegh Kamaei Bahmaei

The digital revolution has significantly transformed our world over the past decades, driven by the scaling of transistor dimensions and the exponential increase in computation power. However, as the CMOS scaling era approaches its end, the semiconductor i ...

EPFL2023

Comparative Exergy and Economic Assessment of Fossil and Biomass-Based Routes for Ammonia Production

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego

Due to the increasing concerns about the marked dependence on fossil resources and their intrinsic economic uncertainty, as well as motivated by more stringent environmental regulations, the pursuit of alternative energy resources for the synthetic fertili ...

Silesian University of Technology2023

DeepValve: Development and experimental testing of a Reinforcement Learning control framework for occupant-centric heating in offices

Dolaana Khovalyg, Amirreza Heidari

Space heating controls in offices usually follow static schedules detached from actual occupancy, which results in energy waste by unnecessarily heating vacant offices. The uniqueness of stochastic occupancy profile and thermal response time of each office ...

2023

Identifying aerodynamics of small fixed-wing drones using inertial measurements for model-based navigation

Jan Skaloud, Gabriel François Laupré

The success of drone missions is incumbent on an accurate determination of the drone pose and velocity, which are collectively estimated by fusing iner- tial measurement unit and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) mea- surements. However, during a G ...

2023

Taking a step back from glass towers facades to make them compatible with the 2050 targets

Bernard Paule, Sergi Aguacil Moreno

Skyscrapers or glass towers are an extremely common model throughout the world. In the current context of climate change and resource depletion, we need to develop new postures towards these objects, especially for existing buildings that are becoming obso ...

2023

Dynamic control of high-voltage actuator arrays by light-pattern projection on photoconductive switches

Herbert Shea, Amir Firouzeh, Vesna Bacheva, Edouard Franck Vincent Gustave Leroy, Aiste Balciunaite

The ability to control high-voltage actuator arrays relies, to date, on expensive microelectronic processes or on individual wiring of each actuator to a single off-chip high-voltage switch. Here we present an alternative approach that uses on-chip photoco ...

SPRINGERNATURE2023

Optimization and Real-Time Aspects of Aircraft Model-Based Navigation

Gabriel François Laupré

The Vehicle Dynamic Model (VDM) based navigation of fixed-wing drones determines the airborne trajectory in conjunction with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors. Without Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals, this method estimates navigati ...

EPFL2022

The Rebound Effects from Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvements

Michel Zimmermann

In energy policy, energy efficiency constitutes a central element in reducing domestic and, specifically, industrial en-ergy use. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of energy efficiency improvements in achieving its targets is known to be limited by rebound ...

EPFL2022