Publications by Dario Floreano

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We give an overview of the EPFL indoor flying project, whose goal is to evolve neural controllers for autonomous, adaptive, indoor micro-flyers. Indoor flight is still a challenge because it requires miniaturization, energy efficiency, and control of non-l ...

Elementary Motion Detectors (EMD) are well-established models of visual motion estimation in insects. The response of EMDs are tuned to specific temporal and spatial frequencies of the input stimuli, which matches the behavioural response of insects to wid ...

We connect transistors and proteins in two ways. The first is by showing that they have much in common as fundamental devices of electronics and life. The second is by describing how an evolvable wiring of electronic devices can parallel the wiring of proteins into genetic regulatory networks. We then transform this connection into a methodology for the study of the evolutionary properties of circuits. The approach is based on the use of analog electronic circuit simulators. We present an example of impleme

We describe a 2 mg artificial elementary eye whose structure and functionality is inspired by compound eye ommatidia. Its optical sensitivity and electronic architecture are sufficient to generate the required signals for the measurement of local optic flo ...

Intense winds are a challenge for vertical take-off and landing drones with wings. In particular, in the hovering regime, wings are sensitive to wind currents that can be detrimental to their operational and energetic performances. Tail-sitters are particu ...

Reliable information is a crucial factor influencing decision-making, and thus fitness in all animals. A common source of information comes from inadvertent cues produced by the behavior of conspecifics. Here we use a system of experimental evolution with ...

Robots using classical control have revolutionised assembly lines where the environment and manipulated objects are restricted and predictable. However, they have proven less effective when the manipulated objects are deformable due to their complex and un ...

The present invention concerns a method of manoeuvring a vertical take-off and landing, unmanned aerial drone (100) comprising at least an aerodynamic surface (101), wherein, during a flight of the drone, the aerodynamic surface generates lift and/or drag ...

Drones have shown to be useful aerial vehicles for unmanned transport missions such as food and medical supply delivery. This can be leveraged to deliver life-saving nutrition and medicine for people in emergency situations. However, commercial drones can ...

A stretchable pump for providing electrohydrodynamic pumping of a ionisable fluid, said soft pump comprising a stretchable polymeric structure comprising at least one elongated channel, therein; and a first set of at least two electrodes operatively dispos ...

Most autopilots of existing Miniature Unmanned Air Vehicles (MUAVs) rely on control architectures that typically use a large number of sensors (gyros, accelerometers, magnetometers, GPS) and a computationally demanding estimation of flight states. As a con ...

The plant root system shows remarkably complex behaviors driven by environmental cues and internal dynamics, whose interplay remains largely unknown. A notable example is circumnutation growth movements, which are growth oscillations from side to side of t ...

Recent work suggests that wings can be used to prolong the jumps of miniature jumping robots. However, no functional miniature jumping robot has been presented so far that can successfully apply this hybrid locomotion principle. In this publication, we pre ...

Teams of fixed wing micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) could provide a wide area coverage and relay data in wireless ad-hoc networks. In such applications fixed wing MAVs have to be able to regulate an inter-robot distance. Fixed wing MAVs have reduced maneuvera ...

Aerial robots provide valuable support in several high-risk scenarios thanks to their capability to quickly fly to locations dangerous or even inaccessible to humans. In order to fully benefit from these features, aerial robots should be easy to transport ...

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of universal soft grippers that can handle objects of varying form factors (including flat objects), surface conditions (including moistened or oily objects), and mechanical properties ( ...

We aim at developing ultralight autonomous microflyers capable of navigating within houses or small built environments. Our latest prototype is a fixed-wing aircraft weighing a mere 10 g, flying around 1.5 m/s and carrying the necessary electronics for air ...

Although the technology for fully autonomous swarms of robots is rapidly progressing, the human operator will continue to play an important role during any swarming mission due to safety, monitoring and control constraints. In this paper, we present the se ...

Dario Floreano

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From Wheels to Wings with Evolutionary Spiking Neurons

Spatial Encoding of Translational Optic Flow in Planar Scenes by Elementary Motion Detector Arrays

Connecting Transistors and Proteins

An artificial elementary eye with optic flow detection and compositional properties

Wind Defiant Morphing Drones

The Evolution of Information Suppression in Communicating Robots with Conflicting Interests

Slip Anticipation for Grasping Deformable Objects Using a Soft Force Sensor

Method for wind harvesting and wind rejection in flying drones

Towards edible drones for rescue missions: design and flight of nutritional wings

Stretchable electrohydrodynamic pump

A Minimalist Control Strategy for Small UAVs

Conditions for the emergence of circumnutations in plant roots

The EPFL jumpglider: A hybrid jumping and gliding robot with rigid or folding wings

Evolutionary Swarms of Flying Robots

Distributed Formation Control of Fixed Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles for Uniform Area Coverage

Foldable and Self-Deployable Pocket Sized Quadrotor

A Soft Gripper with Granular Jamming and Electroadhesive Properties

A 10-gram Microflyer for Vision-based Indoor Navigation

Extension of a Ground Control Interface for Swarms of Small Drones

Extension of a ground control interface for swarms of Small Drones