Empa and EPFL establish a joint research lab
Joint professorship for robotics between EPFL and Empa
Empa researcher Mirko Kovac has been Professor of Sustainability Robotics at EPFL's School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering since September 1. The professorship and the associated Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics, which are jointly funded by EPFL and Empa, combine Empa's expertise in materials, engineering and testing infrastructures – including the DroneHub currently under construction at NEST on the Empa campus in Dübendorf – and EPFL's expertise in environmental sensing. This new cooperation thus gives researchers and students the opportunity to work at both institutions depending on the issue at hand.
Mirko Kovac has headed the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics at Empa, which is run jointly with Imperial College London, since the end of 2018. He has already been Adjunct Professor at EPFL since September 2023 and Full Professor at Imperial College London, where he heads the Aerial Robotics Lab and the Center of Excellence in Infrastructure Robotics Ecosystems. With his teams in London and Dübendorf – and henceforth also in Lausanne – he is developing next-generation drones that interact with the environment outside of lab conditions in a constantly changing environment. For example, by placing sensors in treetops or collecting water samples from various depths in the world's oceans and lakes. This is important data for analyzing the health of these ecosystems in order to better protect them.
A new field of robotics is emerging
Sustainability Robotics is the name of this new discipline. The autonomous systems are inspired by the natural world, for example insects. In future, drones could not only open up new fields for environmental sciences, but they could also have the potential to revolutionize the construction industry, for example by printing 3D materials for the construction or repair of buildings while flying (termed Aerial Additive Manufacturing, or AAM), and even protect human lives. The latter, for instance, by providing an overview of the situation before the fire department enters the sea of flames.
Mirko Kovac currently has his hands full, as construction work for the DroneHub in the NEST experimental building on the Empa campus in Dübendorf is in full swing. Thanks to a cage that shields the research platform from the outside world, the "aviary" for his drones enables Kovac's team to carry out unrestricted test runs with robots and drones in open air. The open-air laboratory serves as a bridge between indoor and outdoor spaces and between the built and natural environment. Here, Kovac's international team will not only research the extent to which drones and other robots can take on tasks in the field of building inspection, maintenance and repair that are either too dangerous or cumbersome for humans, but also develop a diverse portfolio of robots and drones to collect environmental data in forests and wetlands.
An aviary for drone research
A unique feature of the DroneHub is the so-called AAM wall, which allows researchers to install and flexibly exchange a wide variety of surface materials in order to simulate a whole range of scenarios. Special climbing and flying robots will be able to detect any damage to these surfaces and repair them independently. A unique feature about this setting is that the flying robots not only scan the surfaces, they are also able to detect maintenance and construction work directly from the air. The researchers see these and similar robots as the future of building maintenance. Other areas of application will include measurements and data collection in natural environments. To this end, objects such as artificial and natural trees will be added to the DroneHub to enable tests on the interaction between measuring drones and the biosphere. The DroneHub is due to open in November.
Prof. Dr. Mirko Kovac
Sustainability Robotics / Imperial College London
Phone +41 58 765 46 89
mirko.kovac@empa.ch
Dr. Michael Hagmann
Communications
Phone +41 58 765 4592
redaktion@empa.ch
