Publications by Dario Floreano

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Wing-propelled diving birds flap their wings to move through air and water, yet the wing morphology and kinematics that enable this behavior remain poorly understood because of the difficulty of collecting in situ data. The impact of flapping frequency, wing size, and stiffness on locomotion in—and transition between—the two media are still unknown. We compared data from diving birds against experiments using a flapping-wing robot capable of flying, swimming, plunge diving, and exiting the water. We show th

Swarms of flying robots can be used in disaster areas to autonomously create communication networks for rescuers and victims. Flying robots have the advantage of rapidly overcoming difficult terrain and providing unobstructed wireless communication. To allow for a swarm composed of cheap, transportable and robust robots, we avoid using positioning sensors which typically depend on the environment (GPS, cameras) or are expensive and heavy (lasers, radars). Instead, robot behaviors depend on local communicati

We aim at developing autonomous miniature hov- ering flying robots capable of navigating in unstructured GPS- denied environments. A major challenge is the miniaturization of the embedded sensors and processors allowing such platforms to fly autonomously. ...

In this paper, we suggest a new approach for reverse engineering gene regulatory networks, which consists of using a reconstruction process that is similar to the evolutionary process that created these networks. The aim is to integrate prior knowledge int ...

Avian perching maneuvers are one of the most frequent and agile flight sce narios, where highly optimized flight trajectories, produced by rapid wing and tail morphing that generate high angular rates and accelerations, reduce kinetic energy at impact. Whi ...

Co-evolution (i.e. the evolution of two or more competing populations with coupled fitness) has several features that may potentially enhance the power of adaptation of artificial evolution. In particular, as discussed by Dawkins and Krebs [3], competing populations may reciprocally drive one another to increasing levels of complexity by producing an evolutionary “arms race”. In this paper we will investigate the role of co-evolution in the context of evolutionary robotics. In particular, we will try to und

This paper describes a new evolutionary mechanism developed specifically for cellular circuits. Called morphogenetic system, it is inspired by the mechanisms of gene expression and cell differentiation found in living organisms. It will be used as the phylogenetic (evolutionary) mechanism in the POEtic project. The POEtic project will deliver an electronic circuit, called the POEtic circuit, with the capability to evolve (Phylogenesis), self-repair and grow (Ontogenesis) and learn (Epigenesis). The morphoge

Most birds can navigate seamlessly between aerial and terrestrial environments. Whereas the forelimbs evolved into wings primarily for flight, the hindlimbs serve diverse functions such as walking, hopping, and leaping, and jumping take-off for transitions ...

Edible electronics leverages the electronic properties of food-derived materials to deliver safer technologies that can be degraded (or digested) in the environment (or body) at the end-of-life. Sensors will be central to future smart edible robots, and ed ...

In the simplest scenario of two co-evolving populations in competition with each other, fitness progress is achieved at disadvantage of the other population's fitness. The everchanging fitness landscape caused by the competing species (named the "Red Queen effect") makes the system dynamics more complex, but it also provides a set of advantages with respect to single-population evolution. Here we present results from an experiment with two mobile robots, a predator equipped with vision and a much faster pre

Recent works in aerial robotics show that the self-organized and cohesive flight of swarms can emerge from the exchange of purely local information between neighboring agents. However, most of the current swarm models are not capable of flight in densely c ...

The aerodynamic designs of winged drones are optimized for specific flight regimes. Large lifting surfaces provide maneuverability and agility but result in larger power consumption, and thus lower range, when flying fast compared with small lifting surfac ...

Modern UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) suffer from restrictions in flight range and time due to battery capacity limitations. One way to overcome these limitations is to harvest energy from overhead power lines. A growing body of scientific literature has ...

Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have penetrated multiple domains over the past years. In GNSS-denied or indoor environments, aerial robots require a robust and stable localization system, often with external feedback, in order to fly safely. Motion ca ...

Edible electronics present new opportunities for food-integrated sensing and monitoring, yet powering such devices safely and effectively remains a major challenge. Here, we introduce a fully edible thermoelectric-electrochromic platform capable of converting heat from food into a visually perceptible color change, such that this platform can be used for real-time temperature monitoring. TEGs are fabricated from vanillin-crosslinked chitosan and alginate hydrogels functionalized with potassium chloride used

A methodology for evolving the control systems of autonomous robots has not yet been well established. In this paper we will show different examples of applications of evolutionary robotics to real robots by describing three different approaches to develop neural controllers for mobile robots. In all the experiments described real robots are involved and are indeed the ultimate means of evaluating the success and the results of the procedures employed. Each approach will be compared with the others and the

The teleoperation of nonhumanoid robots is often a demanding task, as most current control interfaces rely on mappings between the operator’s and the robot’s actions, which are determined by the design and characteristics of the interface, and may therefor ...

We describe a set of preliminary experiments to evolve spiking neural controllers for a vision-based mobile robot. All the evolutionary experiments are carried out on physical robots without human intervention. After discussing how to implement and interface these neurons with a physical robot, we show that evolution finds relatively quickly functional spiking controllers capable of navigating in irregularly textured environments without hitting obstacles using a very simple genetic encoding and fitness fun

The inherent compliance of soft robots often makes it difficult for them to exert forces on surrounding surfaces or withstand mechanical loading. Controlled stiffness is a solution to empower soft robots with the ability to apply large forces on their envi ...

Division of labour is one of the most prominent features of social insects. The efficient allocation of individuals to different tasks requires dynamic adjustment in response to environmental perturbations. Theoretical models suggest that the colony-level ...

Dario Floreano

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Leaping out of the water: Aerial-aquatic locomotion with flapping wings

Communication-based Swarming for Flying Robots

Optic-Flow Based Control of a 46g Quadrotor

Replaying the Evolutionary Tape: Biomimetic Reverse Engineering of Gene Networks

Agile perching maneuvers in birds and morphing-wing drones

Co-evolving predator and prey robots: Do 'arm races' arise in artificial evolution?

A Morphogenetic Evolutionary System: Phylogenesis of the POEtic Circuit

Fast ground-to-air transition with avian-inspired multifunctional legs

A Sprayable Electrically Conductive Edible Coating for Piezoresistive Strain Sensing

God Save the Red Queen! Competition in Co-Evolutionary Robotics

Distributed Predictive Drone Swarms in Cluttered Environments

Bioinspired wing and tail morphing extends drone flight capabilities

A Lightweight Device for Energy Harvesting from Power Lines with a Fixed-Wing UAV

UWB-based system for UAV Localization in GNSS-Denied Environments: Characterization and Dataset

From Food to Power: Hydrogel Thermoelectrics for Ingestible Electronics

How to Evolve Autonomous Robots: Different Approaches in Evolutionary Robotics

Data-driven body–machine interface for the accurate control of drones

Evolution of Spiking Neural Controllers for Autonomous Vision-based Robots

Lighter and Stronger: Cofabricated Electrodes and Variable Stiffness Elements in Dielectric Actuators

Task-dependent influence of genetic architecture and mating frequency on division of labour in social insect societies