Publications by Dario Floreano

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Cargo drones are designed to carry payloads with predefined shape, size, and/or mass. This lack of flexibility requires a fleet of diverse drones tailored to specific cargo dimensions. Here we propose a new reconfigurable drone based on a modular design th ...

We report on an actuator based on dielectric elastomers that is capable of antagonistic actuation and passive folding. This actuator enables foldability in robots with simple structures. Unlike other antagonistic dielectric elastomer devices, our concept u ...

Displaced communication, whereby individuals communicate regarding a subject that is not immediately present (spatially or temporally), is one of the key features of human language. It also occurs in a few animal species, most notably the honeybee, where t ...

In this paper, we introduce Vision Tape (VT), a novel class of flexible compound-eye-like linear vision sensor dedicated to motion extraction and proximity estimation. This novel sensor possesses intrinsic mechanical flexibility that provides wide-range ad ...

In biomedical signal analysis, artificial neural networks are often used for pattern classification because of their capability for nonlinear class separation and the possibility to efficiently implement them on a microcontroller. Typically, the network topology is designed by hand, and a gradient-based search algorithm is used to find a set of suitable parameters for the given classification task. In many cases, however, the choice of the network architecture is a critical and difficult task. For example,

Soft robotics may provide many advantages compared to traditional robotics approaches based on rigid materials, such as intrinsically safe physical human-robot interaction, efficient/stable locomotion, adaptive morphology, etc. The objective of this study is to develop a compliant structural actuator for soft a soft robot using dielectric elastomer minimum energy structures (DEMES). DEMES consist of a pre-stretched dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) bonded to an initially planar flexible frame, which defor

Service robotics, as it has been intended so far, views the accomplishment of a service mission mainly as the result of the action of a single robot. Swarm robotics tackles the very same problem from a different stance, \ie as the result of a team effort of simple units. The project described here shows this particular approach. It defines first one simple unit (s-bot) capable of independently moving about on the ground and of dynamically establishing rigid or semi-rigid connections with other fellow units

A major challenge in swarm robotics is efficiently deploying robots into unknown environments, minimising energy and time costs. This is especially important with small aerial robots which have extremely limited flight autonomy. This paper compares three d ...

A lightweight, textile fabricated, haptic device consisting of an electrostatic adhesive clutch is introduced, which can constrain body movement when activated at low power (≈1 mW). The clutch electrodes are composite structures, prepared by coating copper ...

With a gene required for each phenotypic trait, direct genetic encodings may show poor scalability to increasing phenotype length. Developmental systems may alleviate this problem by providing more efficient indirect genotype to phenotype mappings. A novel classification of multi-cellular developmental systems in evolvable hardware is introduced. It shows a category of developmental systems that up to now has rarely been explored. We argue that this category is where most of the benefits of developmental sy

Most human-robot interfaces, such as joysticks and keyboards, require training and constant cognitive effort and provide a limited degree of awareness of the robots’ state and its environment. Embodied interactions, that is the bidirectional link between t ...

Recently there has been a growing movement of researchers that believes innovation and novelty creation, rather than pure optimization, are the true strengths of evolutionary algorithms relative to other forms of machine learning. This idea also provides one possible explanation for why evolutionary processes may exist in nervous systems on top of other forms of learning. One particularly exciting corollary of this, is that evolutionary algorithms may be used to produce what Pugh et al have dubbed Quality D

It is clear to all, after a moments thought, that nature has much wemight be inspired by when designing our systems, for example: robustness, adaptability and complexity, to name a few. The implementation of bio-inspired systems in hardware has however been limited, and more often than not been more a matter of artistry than engineering. The reasons for this are many, but one of the main problems has always been the lack of a universal platform, and of a proper methodology for the implementation of such sys

Tensegrity robotic joints, inspired by the musculoskeletal systems of vertebrate animals, have gained interest due to their unique interplay of tension and compression forces, offering a high strength-to-weight ratio and inherent adaptability. However, the ...

It has often been found that students appreciate hands-on work, and find that they learn more with courses that include a project than those relying solely on conventional lectures and tests. This type of project driven learning is a key component of “Inqu ...

The evolution of altruism is a fundamental and enduring puzzle in biology. In a seminal paper Hamilton showed that altruism can be selected for when rb − c>0, where c is the fitness cost to the altruist, b is the fitness benefit to the beneficiary, and r i ...

Because of their ability to naturally float in the air, indoor airships (often called blimps) constitute an appealing platform for research in aerial robotics. However, when confronted to long lasting experiments such as those involving learning or evoluti ...

We describe an evolutionary approach to active vision systems for dynamic feature selection. After summarizing recent work on evolution of a simulated active retina for complex shape discrimination, we describe in detail experiments that extend this approach to an all-terrain mobile robot equipped with a mobile camera. We show that evolved robots are capable of selecting simple visual features and actively maintaining them on the same retinal position, which largely simplifies the "recognition'' task, in or

The demand for bendable sensors increases constantly in the challenging field of soft and micro-scale robotics. We present here, in more detail, the flexible, functional, insect-inspired curved artificial compound eye (CurvACE) that was previously introduc ...

Avian flapping strategies have the potential to revolutionize future drones as they may considerably improve agility, increase slow speed flight capability, and extend the aerodynamic performance. The study of live birds is time-consuming, laborious, and, ...

Dario Floreano

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Reconfigurable Drone System for Transportation of Parcels With Variable Mass and Size

A Foldable Antagonistic Actuator

The evolution of behavioral cues and signaling in displaced communication

Vision Tape - a flexible compound vision sensor for motion detection and proximity estimation

Evolutionary Selection of Features for Neural Sleep/Wake Discrimination

Effect of mechanical parameters on dielectric elastomer minimum energy structures

SWARM Robotics: A Different Approach to Service Robotics

Energy-Time Efficiency in Aerial Swarm Deployment

All‐Fabric Wearable Electroadhesive Clutch

Evolutionary morphogenesis for multi-cellular systems

Embodied Flight with a Drone

Gaining Insight into Quality Diversity

POEtic Tissue: An Integrated Architecture for Bio-inspired Hardware

Evolutionary Codesign and Fabrication of Tensegrity Joints with Integrated Pneumatic Artificial Muscles

Inquiry-Based Learning with RoboGen: An Open-Source Software and Hardware Platform for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

A Quantitative Test of Hamilton's Rule for the Evolution of Altruism

Flying over the Reality Gap: From Simulated to Real Indoor Airships

Active Vision and Feature Selection in Evolutionary Behavioral Systems

Hardware Architecture and Cutting-Edge Assembly Process of a Tiny Curved Compound Eye

Robotic Avian Wing Explains Aerodynamic Advantages of Wing Folding and Stroke Tilting in Flapping Flight