Publications related to Easily Deployable Underwater Acoustic Navigation System for Multi-Vehicle Environmental Sampling Applications

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

Performance and accuracy of cross‐section tracking methods for hydromorphological habitat assessment in wadable rivers with sparse canopy conditions

Giovanni De Cesare, Paolo Perona, Robin Schroff

This article investigates the performance and accuracy of continuous Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) position tracking for hydromorphological surveys, based on a comprehensive river restoration monitoring campaign. The a ...

2024

Aerodynamic modeling of a delta-wing UAV for model-based navigation

Jan Skaloud, Pasquale Longobardi

This study aims to identify an optimal, as well as practical, parametric structure for a delta-wing UAV aerodynamic model for the purpose of model-based navigation. We present a comprehensive procedure for characterizing the aerodynamics of this platform, ...

2024

Edible Soft Actuators based on Konjac Glucomannan for Underwater Operation

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Ryo Kanno, Bokeon Kwak, Markéta Pankhurst

Soft robots are being increasingly developed and deployed for underwater applications such as exploration, monitoring, and rescue owing to their innate compliance, mechanical and chemical stability, and waterproof properties. However, they are still predom ...

2024

TSLAM: a tag-based object-centered monocular navigation system for augmented manual woodworking

Yves Weinand, Julien Gamerro, Andrea Settimi, Hong-Bin Yang

TimberSLAM (TSLAM) is an object-centered, tag-based visual self-localization and mapping (SLAM) system for monocular RGB cameras. It was specifically developed to support a robust and augmented reality pipeline for close-range, noisy, and cluttered fabrica ...

2024

Less Conservatism, Stronger Robustness: Iterative Robust Gain-Scheduled Path Following Control of Autonomous Bus With Unstructured and Changing Dynamics

Denis Gillet, Jianwei Li, Man Shi

Path-following control is a critical technology for autonomous vehicles. However, time-varying parameters, parametric uncertainties, external disturbances, and complicated environments significantly challenge autonomous driving. We propose an iterative rob ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2024

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

Ionospheric Variations Induced by Thunderstorms in the Central Region of Argentina during the RELAMPAGO–CACTI Campaign

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

The ionosphere can be perturbed by solar and geomagnetic activity, earthquakes, thunderstorms, etc. In particular, electromagnetic pulses produced by thunderstorms can generate wave structures in the ionospheric plasma, which are known as atmospheric gravi ...

2023

The imprint of galaxy mergers on satellite planes in a cosmological context

Oliver Müller

Flattened and kinematically correlated planes of dwarf satellite galaxies have been observed in the Local Volume. The slinging out of satellites during host galaxy mergers has been suggested as a formation mechanism for these peculiar structures. We statis ...

2023

Reliable strategies for implementing model-based navigation on fixed-wing drones

Jan Skaloud, Gabriel François Laupré, Lucas Pirlet

A relatively novel approach of autonomous navigation employing platform dynamics as the primary process model raises new implementational challenges. These are related to: (i) potential numerical instabilities during longer flights; (ii) the quality of mod ...

2023

Data Downloaded via Parachute from a NASA Super-Pressure Balloon

Richard Massey, David Richard Harvey, Mathilde Jauzac, Lun Li

In April 2023, the superBIT telescope was lifted to the Earth's stratosphere by a helium-filled super-pressure balloon to acquire astronomical imaging from above (99.5% of) the Earth's atmosphere. It was launched from New Zealand and then, for 40 days, cir ...

MDPI2023

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

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

GNSS/INS Kalman Filter Integrity Monitoring with Uncertain Time Correlated Error Processes

Omar Garcia Crespillo

Safety-critical navigation applications require that estimation errors be reliably quantified and bounded. Over the last decade, significant effort has been put to guarantee a bounded position estimation by using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) ...

EPFL2022

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

Dario Floreano, Przemyslaw Mariusz Kornatowski, Leonardo Cencetti, Fabrizio Schiano

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 ...

2022

Towards real-world biomechanical analysis of performance and functional capacity using wearable sensors

Salil Apte

Today, wearable heart rate monitors are an integral part of runners' training sessions, with heart rate data routinely used to assess effort intensity and stress on the body. As athletes translate their physical capacity into performance on the field throu ...

EPFL2022

Wikipedia Reader Navigation: When Synthetic Data Is Enough

Tiziano Piccardi, Robert West, Akhil Arora, Alberto Garcia Duran

Every day millions of people read Wikipedia. When navigating the vast space of available topics using hyperlinks, readers describe trajectories on the article network. Understanding these navigation patterns is crucial to better serve readers' needs and ad ...

ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY2022

Vision-based Flocking in Aerial Robot Swarms

Fabian Maximilian Schilling

Aerial robot swarms have the potential to perform time-critical and dangerous tasks such as disaster response without compromising human safety. However, their reliance on external infrastructure such as global positioning for localization and wireless net ...

EPFL2022

L'usage et l'expérience du temps de déplacement dans la perspective du report modal

Ludy Juliana González Villamizar

For several decades - and still today - mobility policies in industrialised countries have sought to reduce travel time to meet the expectations of infrastructure users for speed. However, despite major investments to achieve this objective of improving ac ...

EPFL2022