Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing: Distributed Unmanned Aerial Systems for in-situ manufacturing of the built environment
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Dept of Aeronautics
Abstract
Additive Building Manufacturing (ABM) is transforming the construction industry through the 3D printing of buildings and building components. A number of countries are now demonstrating ABM can substantially reduce construction time, material and transport costs, improve worker safety standards and alleviate construction's impact on urban traffic congestion and the environment. ABM also provides geometrical variety at no additional cost. In contrast to most manufacturing sectors, variety is a necessity within construction to satisfy different client requirements and adapt to unique terrain, boundary and laws governing each physical site.
However, current ABM systems are difficult to deploy on construction sites due to their large size and fixed 3D Print build volumes that are not sufficiently flexible to deal with the complexities of most building scenarios, or provide adequate measures for human safety. These ABM technologies are unable to undertake maintenance and repair work, or construct buildings in many urban or elevated sites. They are also not able to be utilised for post-disaster reconstruction activities where their manufacturing speed would be of great assistance.
To address this limitation, this research proposal aims to develop the world's first Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing (Aerial ABM) System consisting of a swarm of aerial robots (Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)) that can autonomously assess and manufacture building structures. Aerial ABM offers major improvements to human safety, speed, flexibility, and manufacturing efficiency compared to existing ABM and standard building construction technologies. We have already developed and demonstrated pilot results using UAS that can extrude 3D Print material during flight and we have developed simulation environments that allow for autonomous planning and execution of manufacturing with swarms of UAS working in collaboratively.
Using the resources of the EPSRC grant, we will co-develop and demonstrate a working Aerial ABM system that will manufacture structural elements such as walls and a freeform building pavilion. This will require innovation and major technical contributions in Hardware, Autonomy as well as in Materials and Structures. Building on the consortium's world-leading expertise in these areas and support from industrial partners (Skanska, Ultimaker, BuroHappold, Dyson and BRE), we aim at delivering the following main research contributions through this grant:
Aerial ABM Hardware
- A novel Aerial ABM robot design with autonomous vision based stabilisation, navigation and mapping of a dynamically changing environment that is optimised for flight and 3D Printing tasks.
Aerial ABM Autonomy
- A framework for autonomous manufacturing that utilises swarm intelligence for collaborative robot-to-robot operations, dynamic task sharing/allocation, adaptive response to context and dynamic environment content involving functions such as new methods of collision avoidance.
- Develop new modes of communication and control that enable the safe co-existence and cooperation of human workers, other robots and Aerial ABM robots on construction sites. Novel research in human-robot interaction, feedback and haptic interface functionalities will enable manufacturing flexibility suitable for construction sites that are always unique in size, shape and contextual complexity.
- An integrated design and real-time structural analysis software that delivers optimal structural integrity from minimal material weight within building design strategies that leverage this free-form manufacturing process to create innovative building design possibilities.
Aerial ABM Materials and Structures
- Development of new high-performance 3D-printable composite material and deposition procedures for the additive manufacture (3D Printing) of free-form light-weight building structures utilising autonomous UAS.
However, current ABM systems are difficult to deploy on construction sites due to their large size and fixed 3D Print build volumes that are not sufficiently flexible to deal with the complexities of most building scenarios, or provide adequate measures for human safety. These ABM technologies are unable to undertake maintenance and repair work, or construct buildings in many urban or elevated sites. They are also not able to be utilised for post-disaster reconstruction activities where their manufacturing speed would be of great assistance.
To address this limitation, this research proposal aims to develop the world's first Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing (Aerial ABM) System consisting of a swarm of aerial robots (Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)) that can autonomously assess and manufacture building structures. Aerial ABM offers major improvements to human safety, speed, flexibility, and manufacturing efficiency compared to existing ABM and standard building construction technologies. We have already developed and demonstrated pilot results using UAS that can extrude 3D Print material during flight and we have developed simulation environments that allow for autonomous planning and execution of manufacturing with swarms of UAS working in collaboratively.
Using the resources of the EPSRC grant, we will co-develop and demonstrate a working Aerial ABM system that will manufacture structural elements such as walls and a freeform building pavilion. This will require innovation and major technical contributions in Hardware, Autonomy as well as in Materials and Structures. Building on the consortium's world-leading expertise in these areas and support from industrial partners (Skanska, Ultimaker, BuroHappold, Dyson and BRE), we aim at delivering the following main research contributions through this grant:
Aerial ABM Hardware
- A novel Aerial ABM robot design with autonomous vision based stabilisation, navigation and mapping of a dynamically changing environment that is optimised for flight and 3D Printing tasks.
Aerial ABM Autonomy
- A framework for autonomous manufacturing that utilises swarm intelligence for collaborative robot-to-robot operations, dynamic task sharing/allocation, adaptive response to context and dynamic environment content involving functions such as new methods of collision avoidance.
- Develop new modes of communication and control that enable the safe co-existence and cooperation of human workers, other robots and Aerial ABM robots on construction sites. Novel research in human-robot interaction, feedback and haptic interface functionalities will enable manufacturing flexibility suitable for construction sites that are always unique in size, shape and contextual complexity.
- An integrated design and real-time structural analysis software that delivers optimal structural integrity from minimal material weight within building design strategies that leverage this free-form manufacturing process to create innovative building design possibilities.
Aerial ABM Materials and Structures
- Development of new high-performance 3D-printable composite material and deposition procedures for the additive manufacture (3D Printing) of free-form light-weight building structures utilising autonomous UAS.
Planned Impact
The three main impact beneficiaries are the construction sector, society at large and the environment. The Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing (Aerial ABM) system proposed in this application can provide substantial benefits by enabling autonomous capabilities of collaborative working with human workers, situational awareness in unknown environments and low-risk manipulation in dangerous settings. These capabilities will benefit the three beneficiaries as follows:
CONSTRUCTION
Construction companies such as Skanska are economically penalised for time over-runs. Our technology has the potential to reduce manufacture time and complexity while expanding capabilities by providing autonomous behaviours and sensing to predict, measure, qualify and expedite construction. This can provide major cost savings and increased profits.
Transportation accounts for 20% of construction costs [1]. Aerial ABM can significantly reduce transportation volumes as only raw material is delivered to site.
UK Government Construction Strategy mandates all construction projects to utilise 3D Building Information Models (BIM) technology by 2016 [2]. Aerial ABM is able to increase building efficiency by integrating BIM more effectively with the construction on site.
SOCIETY
Health and Safety:
"The construction industry is the most dangerous sector in Britain....448 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Over the same period, more than 760 construction workers have been killed on British sites." notes the UK Health and Safety Executive in 2014 after seeing an additional 3200 deaths from other construction related matters [3]. An Aerial ABM system can significantly reduce construction's 31% share of all UK worker fatalities [4] by reducing risk to construction workers in hazardous and labour-intensive tasks while allowing continued human participation in safer construction activities.
Increasing Housing Opportunities:
The UK is heading for a housing crisis where people cannot afford to buy or rent as a result of a shortage in housing and high costs of building. A RICS report forecasts house prices to rise 4.5%/yr for the next 5yrs [1]. Charities such as Shelter [5] advocate that the UK must reduce the cost and time of construction in order to make housing and other building services more attainable. Aerial ABM can help reduce the cost and time of urban construction, through a scalable and digital manufacturing process that saves construction time and resources.
Humanitarian:
A fast, effective means to undertake post-disaster re-construction and repair can save human lives directly and indirectly. Aerial ABM robots can commence work well before human workers can operate safely and they can do so in areas that are hard to access by ground. The technology can offer Governments and NGOs versatile, rapidly deployable, and low-cost solutions for emergency response and transitional shelter construction.
ENVIRONMENT
Aerial ABM enables almost zero percent waste construction while its on-site operation reduces transportation volumes. The insights from this project on novel structural and material engineering can also inform building designs requiring less material and lower logistic mass flows. These benefits reduce the embodied energy of buildings and enable reductions in construction's 47% share of the UK's carbon emissions.
[1] BIM Taskgroup, HM Government BIS, 2014
[2] BRE, Construction Site Transport, The Next Big Thing: Why Transport Is Important What You Can Do About It, 2003.
[3] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-3040143/Housing-shortage-triggering-worrying-upsurge-property-prices-expectations-2-5-rise-2015.html
[4] Daniel Boffey, The needless death of Richard Laco and what it tells us about Britain's perilous building sites, The Observer, 2014
[5] http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/building_more_homes/building_more_homes
CONSTRUCTION
Construction companies such as Skanska are economically penalised for time over-runs. Our technology has the potential to reduce manufacture time and complexity while expanding capabilities by providing autonomous behaviours and sensing to predict, measure, qualify and expedite construction. This can provide major cost savings and increased profits.
Transportation accounts for 20% of construction costs [1]. Aerial ABM can significantly reduce transportation volumes as only raw material is delivered to site.
UK Government Construction Strategy mandates all construction projects to utilise 3D Building Information Models (BIM) technology by 2016 [2]. Aerial ABM is able to increase building efficiency by integrating BIM more effectively with the construction on site.
SOCIETY
Health and Safety:
"The construction industry is the most dangerous sector in Britain....448 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Over the same period, more than 760 construction workers have been killed on British sites." notes the UK Health and Safety Executive in 2014 after seeing an additional 3200 deaths from other construction related matters [3]. An Aerial ABM system can significantly reduce construction's 31% share of all UK worker fatalities [4] by reducing risk to construction workers in hazardous and labour-intensive tasks while allowing continued human participation in safer construction activities.
Increasing Housing Opportunities:
The UK is heading for a housing crisis where people cannot afford to buy or rent as a result of a shortage in housing and high costs of building. A RICS report forecasts house prices to rise 4.5%/yr for the next 5yrs [1]. Charities such as Shelter [5] advocate that the UK must reduce the cost and time of construction in order to make housing and other building services more attainable. Aerial ABM can help reduce the cost and time of urban construction, through a scalable and digital manufacturing process that saves construction time and resources.
Humanitarian:
A fast, effective means to undertake post-disaster re-construction and repair can save human lives directly and indirectly. Aerial ABM robots can commence work well before human workers can operate safely and they can do so in areas that are hard to access by ground. The technology can offer Governments and NGOs versatile, rapidly deployable, and low-cost solutions for emergency response and transitional shelter construction.
ENVIRONMENT
Aerial ABM enables almost zero percent waste construction while its on-site operation reduces transportation volumes. The insights from this project on novel structural and material engineering can also inform building designs requiring less material and lower logistic mass flows. These benefits reduce the embodied energy of buildings and enable reductions in construction's 47% share of the UK's carbon emissions.
[1] BIM Taskgroup, HM Government BIS, 2014
[2] BRE, Construction Site Transport, The Next Big Thing: Why Transport Is Important What You Can Do About It, 2003.
[3] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-3040143/Housing-shortage-triggering-worrying-upsurge-property-prices-expectations-2-5-rise-2015.html
[4] Daniel Boffey, The needless death of Richard Laco and what it tells us about Britain's perilous building sites, The Observer, 2014
[5] http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/building_more_homes/building_more_homes
Organisations
- Imperial College London, United Kingdom (Lead Research Organisation)
- Atkins UK, United Kingdom (Collaboration)
- Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Collaboration)
- University of Victoria, Canada (Collaboration)
- Sabanci University (Collaboration)
- Skanska UK Ltd, United Kingdom (Collaboration)
- Italian Institute of Technology (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia IIT) (Collaboration)
- UK Atomic Energy Authority, Abingdon (Collaboration)
- Ultimaker BV (Project Partner)
- BRE Trust, United Kingdom (Project Partner)
- Buro Happold Limited, United Kingdom (Project Partner)
- Cementation Foundations Skanska Ltd, United Kingdom (Project Partner)
- Dyson Appliances Ltd, United Kingdom (Project Partner)
Publications
Braithwaite A
(2018)
Robotics Research
Chen Y
(2017)
A biologically inspired, flapping-wing, hybrid aerial-aquatic microrobot
in Science Robotics
Chermprayong P
(2019)
An Integrated Delta Manipulator for Aerial Repair: A New Aerial Robotic System
in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
Dai Anna
(2020)
Fast Frontier-based Information-driven Autonomous Exploration with an MAV
in arXiv e-prints
Dams B
(2017)
Remote three-dimensional printing of polymer structures using drones
in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Construction Materials
Emil Adiels
(2018)
Advances in Architectural Geometry 2018
Goldberg B
(2018)
Power and Control Autonomy for High-Speed Locomotion With an Insect-Scale Legged Robot
in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Hai-Nguyen Nguyen
(2019)
A Passively Adaptive Microspine Grapple for Robust, Controllable Perching
| Title | 3d Printing on an Inflatable Structure |
| Description | Within the Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing (Aerial ABM) project, Aerial Robotics Lab has run a number of workshops together with Architecture Association and brought roboticists and architects together to create the first 3D printed dome using aerial robots. A first version of the proposed dome structure was completed in December 2016. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | No impact yet |
| Description | - First successful demonstration of Aerial Additive Manufacturing using multiple drones. - Application of existing multi-agent control system for use in Aerial Additive Manufacturing - Novel shear-thinning materials that can be used for Aerial Additive Manufacturing. - Dynamic landing on moving vehicles with autonomous, vision based drones that use origami-inspired impact protection structures for safe and robust landing. - Impact resilient drones that can operate close to infrastructure elements for monitoring and repair tasks. - Aerial robots that use tensile perching methods to stabilise in flight and around complex infrastructure systems. - Software system for stable and precise manipulation of infrastructure systems. |
| Exploitation Route | - The developed building materials could be used for robotic construction for ground or climbing vehicles. - The developed perching drones can be used for sensor placement, surface sampling, manipulation and surface sensing tasks. - The developed systems can be used for field testing and industrial case studies related to infrastructure management, digital ecology as well as to industry 4.0 workflows. - The developed software can be used for autonomous operation with ground vehicles. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy,Transport,Other |
| Description | The project has inspired a new approach of building manufacturing and infrastructure repair that has been demonstrated and communicated to the wider public, students and the government. Scientific publications, talks at conferences and workshops have been used to share the project achievements with the scientific community internationally. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Construction,Creative Economy,Education,Energy,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg visit the new Brahmal Vasudevan Multi-Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena at Imperial College London |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Gave evidence to a government review |
| Impact | Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg was the first Minister to visit the brand new Brahmal Vasudevan Multi-Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena at Imperial College London. Dr. Mirko Kovac presented the activities and the projects of the Aerial Robotics Lab. PhD students in the lab gave a demonstration of drones in action, showcasing the 16 high speed 3D aerial tracking cameras that record in real-time the dynamics of robots in the air. The visit, held on Friday 24 November, came in advance of a government announcement that police will be given new powers to prevent the unsafe or criminal use of drones under planned legislation. The measures are intended to allow drone users to continue flying safely and legally, helping to place the UK at the forefront of the fast-growing drone industry. This will also pave the way for the devices to be harnessed for a range of uses by businesses and public services. The government plan to publish the draft Drone Bill for consultation in spring 2018. |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-powers-for-police-to-address-illegal-and-unsafe-use-of-drones |
| Description | Citation of project by Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/POST-PN-479#fullreport |
| Description | Manufacturing Robotics - The Next Robotic Industrial Revolution |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/sites/default/files/Manufacturing%20White%20Paper.pdf |
| Description | Members of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee visit |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a advisory committee |
| Impact | Committee Chair Norman Lamb was joined by fellow MPs Bill Grant, Stephen Metcalfe and former Universities and Science Minister Sam Gyimah, as well as Committee staff members. The visit was part of their inquiry into recreational and commercial drone use. MPs were welcomed by the Provost, Professor Ian Walmsley, who introduced them to Dr Mirko Kovac, Director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory. He then presented on Imperial's work on drone technology and the challenges facing his team and the wider sector. Dr Kovac outlined his research on the usage of drones for digital infrastructure systems, including diagnostics and repairs, both in the air and underwater. In response to questions from Sam Gyimah and Stephen Metcalfe, Dr Kovac explained that the use of drones for these purposes is widely accepted in the scientific community. |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/191908/mps-visit-imperials-aerial-robotics-lab/ |
| Description | Members of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee visited the Brahmal Vasudevan Multi Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Gave evidence to a government review |
| Impact | Committee Chair Norman Lamb was joined by fellow MPs Bill Grant, Stephen Metcalfe and former Universities and Science Minister Sam Gyimah, as well as Committee staff members. The visit was part of their inquiry into recreational and commercial drone use. MPs were welcomed by the Provost, Professor Ian Walmsley, who introduced them to Dr Mirko Kovac, Director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory. He then presented on Imperial's work on drone technology and the challenges facing his team and the wider sector. Dr Kovac outlined his research on the usage of drones for digital infrastructure systems, including diagnostics and repairs, both in the air and underwater. In response to questions from Sam Gyimah and Stephen Metcalfe, Dr Kovac explained that the use of drones for these purposes is widely accepted in the scientific community. |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/191908/mps-visit-imperials-aerial-robotics-lab/ |
| Description | Misuse of civilian drones - POSTNOTE Number 610 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Gave evidence to a government review |
| Impact | Drones are increasingly used for photography, agriculture, delivery and emergency response. However, travel disruption at UK airports due to drone sightings has renewed debate about their use. This note looks at civilian drones and their applications, focusing on potential misuse and possible responses. |
| URL | http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PN-0610/POST-PN-0610.pdf |
| Description | Robotic and Autonomous Systems for Resilient Infrastructure |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/sites/default/files/UK_RAS_wp_infrastructure_final_web_retina.pdf |
| Description | Applied Off-site and On-site Collective Multi-Robot Autonomous Building Manufacturing |
| Amount | £1,201,253 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S031464/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Description | Augmented Reality-Aided Telepresence for Remote Inspection and Monitoring with Aerial Robots |
| Amount | £163,901 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | Automating Concrete Construction (ACORN) |
| Amount | £1,243,062 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S031316/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Description | EPSRC ORCA Hub - Partnership Fund |
| Amount | £163,901 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | EPSRC program grant |
| Amount | £4,448,296 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R009953/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2018 |
| End | 01/2023 |
| Description | ISCF - Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Hub |
| Amount | £14,635,591 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R026173/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 04/2021 |
| Description | Robotic Ecosystems for Future Infrastructures |
| Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2018 |
| End | 08/2023 |
| Description | SAT - Semi Autonomous Teleoperation |
| Amount | £500,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 102909 |
| Organisation | Innovate UK |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2017 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | Transforming Construction - Research Leadership. Applied Off-site and On-site Collective Multi-Robot Autonomous Building Manufacturing |
| Amount | £1,201,254 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S031464/1 |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Title | AquaMAV testing in wing and water tunnels |
| Description | AquaMAV prototypes were tested in wind and water tunnels that are part of the national wind tunnel facility. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The required setup included the design of an automated catapult launcher for the water tank and an automated data collection unit for the wind tunnel. These tools are useful and available for other projects. |
| URL | http://www.nwtf.ac.uk/html/index.html |
| Title | Bioinspired technologies for construction and repair of the built environment |
| Description | Within the Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing (Aerial ABM) project, we take inspiration from biology to create novel printing, perching and flight technologies that are safer, more interactable and efficient. For example in smaller flying robots we take inspiration from house flies to create perching mechanisms based on mechanical intelligence of the body morphology. For larger robotic systems we rely on integration of complex control, sensing, and planning to enhance perching robustness. Inspired by ballooning spider, we have developed perching systems that enable stable motion of drones in 3D space based on strings and magnets. In order to develop efficient printing methods, we are inspired by nest creation methods employed by animals such as Swiftlet in nature. We have developed light weight deposition mechanisms and integrated them into flying drones that can turn Polyurethane foam materials into complex 3D structures that are more flexible in size and location. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | No impact so far. However, the work by Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing has been praised by a large number recognized academics and industrialists in the field, who are keen to collaborate with us on the existing or related future grants. This gives a very positive prospective for the societal and technological impacts of Aerial ABM within the near future. |
| URL | http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6288/895 |
| Title | Brahmal Vasudevan Multi Terrain Flight Arena on TerriNet infrastructure with wide reach to European audience. |
| Description | A large enclosed 10x6.2x5.5m flight arena (Arena), equipped with 16 Vicon T40 tracking cameras, capable of tracking multiple flying objects in 6 degrees of freedom, with millimetre accuracy. Tracking data can be used for closed-loop control of vehicles. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The Arena is the first of its kind in Europe, enabling engineers to test the next generation of aerial robotics for urban environments and extreme conditions. Researchers in the Arena are able to simulate different terrains in the air, the ocean and on land. The space also enables engineers to create extreme conditions such as fire, smoke and heat to simulate how the next generation of drones will perform in harsh environments. The research focus in Arena encompasses two main themes: (i) physical adaptation; (ii) cybernetics adaptation. The physical adaptation includes morphological changes in different environmental conditions for aerial and multi-terrain robots to land, perch, locomote or \"stay still\" in narrow and cluttered spaces. The cybernetical adaptation includes adjustments at the algorithmic level to maintain the stability, avoid the collisions and the track the safe and reliable trajectories. These activities are considered holistically with potential human interactions, neuroscience, and bio-inspiration. |
| URL | https://www.terrinet.eu/robotic_database_show_platform/?id=116 |
| Title | Brahmal Vasudevan Multi-Terrai Aerial Robotics Arena |
| Description | Imperial College London has recently opened the Brahmal Vasudevan Multi-Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena at the Department of Aeronautics. This flight arena is the first of its kind in Europe. The facility is dedicated to the design, development and testing of novel mobile robots for various unstructured and extreme environments. Hosted on the roof of the City and Guilds building, the Robotics Arena has been built based on a £1.25 million gift from Imperial alumnus Mr Brahmal Vasudevan, who graduated in Aeronautical Engineering in 1990. The arena can be configured for various terrains, including air/ground/water and it allows for the setup of simulated challenging environments, industrial scenarios and urban infrastructures. It is designed to allow for experiments including smoke and combustion and it is fully laser rated. The space is equipped with 16 high speed 3D aerial tracking cameras, that can be used to record in real-time the dynamics of robots in air and on ground. A further ten 3D tracking cameras will be positioned in a water tank, which will be used to test novel multi-terrain robots that can move in both air and water. The facility includes one Innovation Room that will be used for work group creative design and robot development. Located next to it is the Robotics Workshop containing 3D printers, micro-manufacturing equipment and a fume hood for component fabrication and assembly. Two outdoor spaces are accessible from the arena for open-air testing. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Particular well suited to design, develop and test mobile robots for unstructured and extreme environments, the space will be dedicated to the creation of future robots for smart cities, for supporting workers in hazardous environments, or for search and rescue missions. It will be used as teaching facility for undergraduates and PhDs and will constitute a showcase space for promoting robotics technologies at Imperial College London with international reach. |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/182375/uk-world-leader-drone-tech-says/ |
| Title | Robot Arena |
| Description | Imperial's Department of Computing has installed a robot arena (5x5x5m cage) with motion tracking and control desks in order to conduct multi-disciplinary research and testing in mobile robotics, involving the operation of drones and ground robots. The arena complements the one run by the Aerial Robotics Lab. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | We have been conducting intensive testing and we will be able to run demonstrations to showcase our research. |
| Title | Cementitious Materials - experiments for Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing |
| Description | This database contains data arising from experiments concerning the development of mortar mixes for Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | One paper has been written and will shortly be submitted for consideration once a target journal has been identified. One conference paper has been published as part of the 37th Cement and Concrete Science conference organised by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, UCL, 11-12 September 2017. |
| Title | Polyurethane foam database for Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing |
| Description | This research database contains experiments relating to the investigation of high and low density polyurethane foams. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Resulted in a published paper in the Institure of Civil Engineers' Construction Materials and a second paper is currently under consideration by the journal 'Additive Manufacturing'. |
| Description | Aerial Robotics Lab and the UK Atomic Energy Authority's Race (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) |
| Organisation | UK Atomic Energy Authority |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The collaboration between a team from UK Atomic Energy Authority's Race (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) and a team from Imperial College aimed at testing the use of drones in the maintenance of the next generation of nuclear power reactors. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Aerial Robotics Laboratory from Imperial College London designed a bioinspired nano aerial vehicle to fly into the reactor. The drone is a quadcopter with the size of the palm of a human hand to minimise turbulences. It is made out of transparent plastic and printed circuit material. To conserve its battery, the drone is able to attach itself with a magnet to the underside of a metal plate held by the robot. Then the drone uses a pulley and cord to lower itself down to the floor like a spider. |
| Impact | This multi-disciplinary collaboration is continuing toward the development of robots that can go into places that are dangerous for humans. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Aerial Robots for exploration of hazardous environments: Robotic perching in Battersea Power Station |
| Organisation | Skanska UK Ltd |
| Department | Cementation Skanska |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Cementation Skanska, also a partner on the same EPSRC project, is in charge of reconstruction of the Battersea Power Station. While they are still in the stage of demolishing of the existing structures in the power station, we have arranged a number of sessions (including a half-day session in November 2016) for testing of our novel perching technologies inside partially demolished structures. Development of efficient perching technologies is one of the key milestone for Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing enabling attachment to elevated structures to make a stable platform for printing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner has been offering a suitable site for testing of aerial construction technologies that are being developed within the Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing project. They are members of the project steering committee where they provide technical feedback and advice for possible improvements. Furthermore, they also have a very useful input into risk assessment documents for our in-flight printing and perching tests that can enhance the safety aspects of aerial robotic constructions. |
| Impact | Creating new influential technologies requires expertise in design, implementation and testing. Cementation Skanska has provided a testing environment that can simulate the situation after natural disasters such as earthquake when a swarm of aerial 3D printers can fly to the disaster zone and start fast shelter printing to accommodate people. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Atkins Group |
| Organisation | WS Atkins |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | - Development of metrics and data methodologies usable for capturing on-site construction activity related to evaluating MMC performance - Introduction and review of measurement technologies to encourage data-driven approaches to increasing on-site productivity using MMC |
| Collaborator Contribution | - Providing access to a range of construction stakeholders - Guidance on practical feasibility of applying data capture technologies on-site |
| Impact | Project award to monitor and report on MMC performance across Homes England's MMC Pilot Projects |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Collaboration with Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) |
| Organisation | Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Staff time for meetings to discuss possible and active ORCA Hub projects. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Staff time for meetings to discuss end-user requirements for drones in infrastructure inspection and evaluation. Provide a testing site and materials for a demonstration of aerial inspection. |
| Impact | nil |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | New materials development for robots protection |
| Organisation | Sabanci University |
| Country | Turkey |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Impact absorbing, lightweight metamaterials with tunable stiffness and density for robotics. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partner propose a series of porous composite, elastomeric parts that i) could be triggered to decrease their density and ii) change their shape and stiffness with the application of pressure and vacuum. |
| Impact | Still in progress |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Visiting Faculty - Barbara Mazzolai (Italian Institute of Technology, IIT) |
| Organisation | Italian Institute of Technology (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia IIT) |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Barbara Mazzolai is Coordinator of the Center for Micro-BioRobotics (CMBR) at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and Deputy Director at IIT delegate to the Supervision and Organization of IIT Centers Network at the same institute. She collaborates with Mirko Kovac as expert in bioinspired design, soft robotics and smart materials to be integrated in the design and development of aerial robots. She has spent 6 months of sabbatical period at the Aerial Robotics Lab to work on joint publications and joint project proposals. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Joint publication in the Journal of the Royal Society, Interface (Sareh S, et al 2017, ISSN 1742-5662); Joint project proposal submitted to the EU H2020 Call ICT-25-2016-2017 (Hu-DroneS); advisory role on PhD students and Post docs. Distinguished BioRobotics Lecture at Imperial College (June 30, 2017) |
| Impact | Joint publication in the Journal of the Royal Society, Interface (Sareh S, et al 2017, ISSN 1742-5662); Joint project proposal submitted to the EU H2020 Call ICT-25-2016-2017 (Hu-DroneS); advisory role on PhD students and Post docs. Distinguished BioRobotics Lecture at Imperial College (June 30, 2017). The collaboration is multidisciplinary and includes: aerial robotics, soft robotics, material science, biology. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Organisation | University of Victoria |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Collaborator Contribution | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Impact | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Organisation | University of Victoria |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Collaborator Contribution | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Impact | Visiting Faculty - Prof. Afzal Suleman (University of Victoria) |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Title | AERIAL DEVICE CAPABLE OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND ASSOCIATED METHOD |
| Description | An aerial device (100) capable of controlled flight comprises a first body (110) comprising a lift generator for providing lift to the aerial device (100); a second body (208) comprising a substance dispenser (122) for controllably dispensing a curable substance for additive manufacture; an articulated coupling assembly (200) coupling the first body (110) to the second body (208); an actuator (212; 214; 216) operable to articulate the articulated coupling assembly (200) so as to move the second body (208), and thereby the substance dispenser (122), relative to the first body (110); and a controller operable to control the lift generator, the substance dispenser (122), and the actuator (212; 214; 216). |
| IP Reference | WO2016193667 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | Device and methodology are used within the EPSRC research grant on Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing |
| Title | AERIAL DEVICES CAPABLE OF CONTROLLED FLIGHT |
| Description | An aerial device (100) capable of controlled flight has a body (110), a rotor (120) arranged to rotate relative to the body; and a deployable sheet (130), the sheet having an undeployed configuration in which the sheet is folded against the body and a deployed configuration in which the sheet is at least partially unfolded away from the body. |
| IP Reference | WO2016193690 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | Aerial device origami-based system for safe landing will find application in areas with unstructured environments. |
| Title | Robotic Vehicle |
| Description | A robotic vehicle with legs and propellers to enable it to walk, fly, and or swim. |
| IP Reference | WO2016193666 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | Technology used and further developed in larger projects on multi-modal locomotion and aerial additive building manufacturing. |
| Title | Efficient octree-based mapping (supereight) |
| Description | This is an efficient volumetric mapping software suitable for robotic Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) as well as motion planning. See related ICRA 2018 publication. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Various researchers have been using it (see citations of ICRA 2018 paper). Different companies have been using/adapting it too, e.g. my start-up company SLAMcore (see www.slamcore.com) |
| URL | https://github.com/emanuelev/supereight |
| Title | Multi-sensor fusion for drones |
| Description | We have extended previous work, Open Keyframe-based Visual-Inertial SLAM (OKVIS), developed by myself. The framework forms the backbone of our autonomous drone flight software stack. Speficaally, we have developed a method and its implementation that can seemlessly transition between availability or unavailability of GPS, including RTK GPS. This will enable us to precisely navigate drones (centimetre precision). We have furthermore extended OKVIS to accept the Intel Realsense ZR300 RGB-D camera (plus inertial) feed. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | The framework forms the backbone of our autonomous drone flight software stack. It will enable our drones to navigate with global centimetre accuracy, when GPS is available. This is a necessity e.g. when attempting to use drones to 3D print structure. But applications go far beyond, from surveillance to delivery to military applications with drones. The fact that we have integrated OKVIS with an easily commercially availble and self-contained sensor (the Realsense ZR 300) will speed-up our test and development cycle and would boost software adoption once released (which we might in future). |
| Title | Multicopter model-predictive control |
| Description | We have developed both linear Model-Predictive Controllers (MPC) as well as Nonlinear MPCs for accurate control of multicopter system. The algorithms and software implementation form an essential part in our drone operations. The approach allows for enforcement of both hard and soft constraints of the flight envelope, such that we can achieve both high precision, robustness, and safety. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The algorithms and software implementation form an essential part in our drone operations. The approach allows for enforcement of both hard and soft constraints of the flight envelope, such that we can achieve both high precision, robustness, and safety. |
| Description | 2 ICRA 2019 Workshop Keynote talks Montreal, Canada |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | ICRA is one of the main robotics conferences. I gave to invited talks at * workshop on Dataset Generation and Benchmarking of SLAM Algorithms for Robotics and VR/AR * and workshop on High Accuracy Mobile Manipulation in Challenging Environments Which includes panel discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://icra2019.org/program/workshops-and-tutorials |
| Description | 2019 International Symposium on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An invitation-only symposium of the top AI and Robotics researchers from around the world to discuss current and future challenges in the field |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/events/2019/march/2019-international-symposium-on-robotics-and-artificial-i... |
| Description | 37th Cement and Concrete Science Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An international conference held at UCL, United Kingdom on the 11th - 12th September 2017, organised by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and Advanced and Innovative Materials Group (AIM). Engagement consisted of an oral presentation followed by questions supported by a conference paper. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/aim/conference-info/37ccs |
| Description | ARUP - collaboration forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - series of presentations to explore opportunities between UCL and ARUP for engagement |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Advances in 3D concrete printing and construction automation. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Hosted at Loughborough University, this was a two-day event on advances in 3D concrete printing and construction automation. This consisted of both an international workshop and a technical committee meeting. The event featured a number of expert speakers and provided various opportunities for networking. The speakers shared visions of the future industry from the recently funded 'Transforming Construction' initiatives that underpin the UK's Industrial Strategy: Construction Innovation Hub, and the 'Research Leaders' programme. International speakers presented the latest large-scale 3DCP case studies from across Europe. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Aerial Robots demo at BBC One Click TV Program |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this TV program, we presented an innovative concept for developing multi-modal aerial robotic systems with perching and stabilizing capabilities. At the site, there are over 100 audience and later the program was visible for general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | As well as finding out more about threats to bees, researchers have been inspired to create bee-like drones and to protect our natural pollinators with the help of school students. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | As well as investigating the impact of pesticides on bees, Imperial researchers in the Aerial Robotics Lab have also been inspired by bees when creating drones. The drones' designs are inspired by nature: the flying robots will sense and swoop on damaged infrastructure like bees monitoring and building their hive. They can also alert nearby drones to an issue to rally a team response. Like many flying animals, the drones will also be soft and flexible to minimise impact damage to the building or the drones themselves. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/191248/world-bee-day-buzz-around-imperials/ |
| Description | BBC Click Feature |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Kovac conducted an interview with the BBC for their 'Click' technology feature, with Rob Siddall providing background assistance. The topic of the segment was pollution monitoring, and the interview also featured footage of robot prototypes from the project being tested. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08hz447/click-air-quality |
| Description | BBC World News |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interview of Mirko Kovac for BBC World News as Robotics expert with audience of ca. 400 million people. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38505626 |
| Description | BBC World Service - Special edition BBC Click on Drones |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Special edition of BBC click with interview to Dr Mirko Kovac |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030vxy4 |
| Description | BtS Conference (Croatia) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Breaking the Surface Marine Robotics (BtS) serves as a prominent meeting place for experts and students of marine control engineering and signal processing and the marine robotics application areas. Dr Mirko Kovac presented the our latest aerial robotics technologies with highlights on the work on Aerial ABM at this meeting during October 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.marinetraining.eu/content/breaking-surface-2016-8th-international-interdisciplinary-field... |
| Description | Children Christmas Lecture at Imperial College |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Mirko Kovac was invited to be the speaker at the annual Children's Christmas Lecture at Imperial College. The event is one of the College's annual prestigious lectures, the aim of which is to demonstrate to children that science can be fun as well as interesting and hopefully they will go on to consider studying science at GCSE, A Level and beyond. The age range of the audience is 11-16, involving schools in London and children of Imperial staff and alumnus who attend as well as members of the general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/eventssummary/event_9-11-2016-10-57-45 |
| Description | Children Christmas Lecture at Surrey |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Mirko Kovac was invited speaker to the IET and University of Surrey 2017 Children's Christmas Lecture. The event is organised for schools, with target audience of children between 13 - 18 year olds who are interested in Science, Engineering and Technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/iet-christmas-lecture-2017-surrey-tickets-39319167689# |
| Description | Construction Site Robotics Symposium (ARUP, London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Organised by Arup, event brought together a range of leading thinkers to explore opportunities and implications of responding to a future of construction site robotics. Between 50-100 industry and academic participants attending the event generating following collaboration leads. This includes an EPSRC iCASE with ARUP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Drone Flying at Imperial Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We have displayed autonomously flying drones at the Imperial Festival, an annual science exhibition for the general public. The audience experienced the direct outcome of our research in a very tangible way: even kids could get the drones to performe actions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/festival |
| Description | EcoBuild |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - Expert panel debating the future role of robotics and artificial intelligence in construction |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Ecobuild Exhibition (Excel, London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Ecobuild was a four-day event at Excel Exhibition Centre in London bringing professionals and researchers in the field of construction together to exchange ideas and demonstrate potential implementations for our future built environment. Aerial Robotics Lab at Imperial has been invited to give a presentation on "Drones for construction and repair in future cities" as well as the opportunity to display novel technologies developed within Aerial Additive Building Manufacturing project to a wide range of audiences from industry to academia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | European Robotics Forum 2017 - Talk at Workshop on Aerial Robotics Inspection: from prototypes to Industrial Applications |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The European Robotics Forum is the most influential event of the robotics community in Europe. The event gather together academic researchers, industrial representatives and EU officers to present and discuss robotics trends, future initiatives and funding opportunities. The 2017 edition was held in Edinburgh, from March 22 to 24 (http://www.erf2017.eu). The Aerial Robotics Lab has been invited to participate and give a talk at the workshop organised by the Topic Group on Aerial Robotics. The presentations session was followed by a group discussion on aerial robotics challenges and future opportunities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.erf2017.eu |
| Description | European Robotics Forum: talk at Workshop on Aerial Robotics Inspection: from prototypes to Industrial Applications |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of the project activities during the Workshop on Aerial Robotics Inspection: from prototypes to Industrial Applications at the 2017 European Robotics Forum. Discussion and networking followed the presentation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.erf2017.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ERF2017-Schedule-v1.1.pdf |
| Description | Exhibition at Science Museum - London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | AquaMAV has been featured for a Topic Zone at London Science Museum from February 2017. Topic Zones are single-object displays that highlight a new technology and are displayed for four months, reaching an audience of about 100,000. Technology displayed must be both interesting and ground-breaking. Content is presented via digital interactive displays and visitors are invited to comment on the objects - with internal moderation. The aim is to encourage visitors to discuss cutting-edge science and technology. Two prototypes of AquaMAV are currently exposed in the Science Museum, one prototype is attached to the roof showing the flying modality and the other is in a tank showing the underwater modality. The robots will be exposed for 4 months during the event on Robots. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://antenna.sciencemuseum.org.uk/topiczone/articles/can-flying-diving-robots-help-keep-our-ocean... |
| Description | ICCV 2017 Workshop: 3D Reconstruction meets Semantics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop talk about current research results for international experts in computer vision |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://trimbot2020.webhosting.rug.nl/events/3drms/ |
| Description | ICRA 2017 talk at Workshop IC3 - Industry of the future: Collaborative, Connected, Cognitive. Novel approaches stemming from factory of the future & industry 4.0 initiatives (June 2 2017, Singapore) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | ICRA is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. We have submitted the proposal for a talk at the workshop on IC3 Industry of the future which has been evaluated and accepted for the event. During the talk, Dr Kovac has shown the results and the challenges related to the aerial robotics construction for the industry of the future. A group discussion with researchers, industrial representatives and policymakers has followed after the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://sssa.bioroboticsinstitute.it/workshops/IC3_icra2017 |
| Description | IEEE RAS Conference on Soft Robotics - RoboSoft 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | ORCA Hub featured during the RoboSoft2018 full day workshop on "Soft-bodied structures in nature and robotics: towards new trends and opportunities" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.robosoft2018.org |
| Description | IROS workshop: Learning for Localization and Mapping |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop talk in international conference about research results. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/site/learningforslam/ |
| Description | Imperial Festival (London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Imperial Festival was a two day event where the Aerial Robotics Lab demonstrated new technologies for flight, perching, printing using quadcopter platforms as well as other flying robots to university students and schools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/festival/ |
| Description | Imperial Festival 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ORCA Hub featured during the Imperial Festival (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/festival/) at the Aerial Robotics Lab stand and during the tours in the Aerial Robotics Arena |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/festival/ |
| Description | Industrial Strategy all staff event - Rising to the Grand Challenge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Exhibitor stand of the ORCA Hub at the Industrial Strategy all staff event - Rising to the Grand Challenge, held at the Conference Centre in Westminster. As a part of the event, we participated in the organised marketplace with different exhibitions created by partner organisations and the business industry. The stand has been visited by ministers, senior members, and BEIS staff keen on discussing the Industrial Strategy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited Speaker in IROS'16 workshop "State Estimation and Terrain Perception" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | World-leading researchers in the field of perception / Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) attended this event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Invited Talk "Soft Aerial Robotics for Digital Infrastructure Systems" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Future infrastructure systems will evolve into complex ecosystems where autonomous aerial, aquatic and ground-based robots will coexist with people and cooperate in symbiosis. To create this human-robot ecosystem, robots will need to respond more flexibly, robustly and efficiently than they do today. They will need to be designed with the ability to move safely close to humans and in contact with infrastructure elements to perform sensing and intervention tasks. Their behaviours will need to be carefully orchestrated to integrate smoothly into the environment and in industry 4.0 workflows. Taking inspiration from natural systems, aerial robotic systems can integrate multi-functional morphology, new materials, energy-efficient locomotion principles and advanced perception abilities that will allow them to successfully operate and cooperate in these complex and dynamic environments. This talk will describe design principles and technologies for the development of biologically inspired flying robots with adaptive morphology that can perform monitoring and manufacturing tasks for infrastructure and building systems. Examples will include flying robots with perching and aerial sensor-placement abilities, aerial-aquatic drones, drones with compliant landing systems for landing on autonomous cars, drones for aerial construction and repair, and origami-based drones for safe interactions with infrastructure elements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://web.fe.up.pt/~robot2019/index.php/invited-speakers |
| Description | Invited presentation - MOD's Defence Equipment & Support Executive Committee visit to Imperial College |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A talk on Bio-inspired Aerial Robotics for Future Smart Cities presented for discussion with Defence Equipment & Support Executive Committee. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk at Behang University, Beijing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Mirko Kovac has been invited to give a talk at Behang University, Beijing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk at ETH Zurich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | An invited talk to discuss the forefront of research in visual localisation and mapping. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at Khalifa University (2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Mirko Kovac has been invited to give a talk at Khalifa University during the MBZIRC competition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk at London CV Meetup |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An invited keynote in a London Meetup attended by leaders in Computer Vision and Robotics research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at the 44th Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision Colloquium Prague, April 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The 44th Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision Colloquium, Spring 2019 April 11, 2019 Czech Technical University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/cmp/events/colloquium-2019.04.11/ |
| Description | Invited talk at the Swedish Symposium on Image Analysis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The SSBA symposium is the premier Swedish event for researchers, industrial professionals and students to meet and learn about the latest developments in the areas of image processing, computer vision, pattern recognition and related fields. This year SSBA will be held at Lindholmen Conference Center, Göteborg, on March 19-20. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://ssba.org.se/ssba2019/ |
| Description | Keynote Lecture at International Conference of Micro Aerial Vehicles |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Mirko Kovac has been invited to give a Keynote Lecture at the 2017 International Conference of Micro Aerial Vehicles (http://www.imav2017.org) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.imav2017.org |
| Description | Keynote at BMVA Symposium on Geometry and Deep Learning London, July 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Visual geometry is one of the areas where applying deep learning is less obvious than in other computer vision problems and has only just started to make an impact. In this meeting, we aim to explore the key challenges in addressing the geometry related tasks with end-to-end learning. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://britishmachinevisionassociation.github.io/meetings/07-19-geometry-deep-learning.html |
| Description | Keynote lecture in International Conference of Micro Aerial Vehicles |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | International Conference of Micro Aerial Vehicles, Toulouse, FR |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Keynote presentation on New Connections: "Robotics and Construction" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A keynote presentation on New Connections: "Robotics and construction" in an Industry Showcase organised by Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Keynotes lectures in CNRS Journées Nationales du GdR Robotique |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 11.2018 CNRS Journées Nationales du GdR Robotique, Paris, FR |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Live interview on Aljazeera TV |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Live interview of Dr Mirko Kovac on Aljazeera TV as Aerial Robotics expert for the world news. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/aerialrobotics/status/787007134978437120 |
| Description | Local talk in London (Laura Margcheri) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Laura also talked about her experience at Imperial during a local event on March 8, showing the AcquaMAV. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/events/2602419949830206/ |
| Description | Mannheim Multihalle |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Lectures in Stuttgart and Berlin on Frei Otto's Mannheim Multihalle. Chris Williams was part of the original design team and is advising on the future use of and modifications to the structure. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multihalle |
| Description | McKinsey & Co. Advanced EMEA Industries Conference: Our Unmanned Future (Rome, Italy) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We were invited to present the vision of the Aerial Robotics Lab on "Our Unmanned Future", which included examples on using drones for construction and repair of the built environment. Over 400 professionals from high-impact industries such as Airbus and Ferrari and media professionals have presented and attended this event which had been instrumental in creating links for future project activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Meeting with BASF about polyurethane materials for repair tasks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | meetings and discussions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Members of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee visited the Brahmal Vasudevan Multi Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Committee Chair Norman Lamb was joined by fellow MPs Bill Grant, Stephen Metcalfe and former Universities and Science Minister Sam Gyimah, as well as Committee staff members. The visit was part of their inquiry into recreational and commercial drone use. MPs were welcomed by the Provost, Professor Ian Walmsley, who introduced them to Dr Mirko Kovac, Director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory. He then presented on Imperial's work on drone technology and the challenges facing his team and the wider sector. Dr Kovac outlined his research on the usage of drones for digital infrastructure systems, including diagnostics and repairs, both in the air and underwater. In response to questions from Sam Gyimah and Stephen Metcalfe, Dr Kovac explained that the use of drones for these purposes is widely accepted in the scientific community. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/191908/mps-visit-imperials-aerial-robotics-lab/ |
| Description | News Article (Blick) : Roboter hüpft wie Flugfisch über Wasserflächen. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Direkt aus dem Wasser in die Luft: Forschende präsentieren eine Art "Flugfisch"- Roboter, der von der Wasseroberfläche starten und gleiten kann. Nützlich wären solche Roboter beispielsweise zur Überwachung von Meeresgebieten. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.blick.ch/news/technik-roboter-huepft-wie-flugfisch-ueber-wasserflaechen-id15512271.html |
| Description | News Article (BusinessStandard) : Robots could build future cities by mimicking nature: Study. News story from "A review of collective robotic construction". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Cities of the future could be built and repaired by robots and drones mimicking the tactics of nature, according to a study. Using robots should reduce human risk, allow tasks to be completed faster and monitoring alongside construction. The robots could collect data on everything they are doing, helping to improve their practices, according to the study published in the journal Science Robotics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/robots-could-build-future-cities-by-mimicking-... |
| Description | News Article (Chemical&EngineeringNews) : Calcium carbide powers water-leaping robot. Researchers harness simple chemistry to propel this robot out of the water and into the air. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Robots that can navigate different types of terrain could help scientists collect information in hard-to-reach places. That navigation can be tricky, however. For example, launching a robot from the water into the air consumes a lot of energy. Taking inspiration from creatures such as the flying squid, researchers at Imperial College London have developed a robot that can propel itself through the air from an aquatic starting point (Sci. Rob. 2019, DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aax7330). Unlike previous water-leaping robots that rely on heavy compressed gas canisters or external power sources to achieve flight, the new glider uses a lightweight solid fuel-calcium carbide. A small pump on board draws water from the robot's surroundings, allowing the water to react with the calcium carbide to produce acetylene gas. When the gas is ignited, the robot launches into the air via a jet of water and combustion products. The robot can also glide through the air, extending its maximum range to 26 meters. It can carry enough fuel for 10 consecutive launches; when it lands, the chamber begins to refill until it reaches its optimal launch angle, at which point it takes off again. The time between launches-currently about 20 minutes-could be used to collect data or water samples. Raphael Zufferey, the engineer who co-led the new study, says the robot could be used to collect data around icebergs, during floods, or in polluted waters. Giuliana Viglione: This robot can launch itself from the water into the air. Robots like this one that can navigate over different terrains could help scientists collect data in hard-to-reach places. This leaping robot uses a solid fuel called calcium carbide. A small pump on board draws water from its surroundings, and the water then reacts with the calcium carbide to produce combustible acetylene gas. When the gas is ignited, the robot flies into the air, propelled by a jet of water and combustion products. Once airborne, the robot can glide up to 26 meters. When it lands, the chamber begins to refill with water to prepare for relaunch. It can do this 10 times in a row before needing to be refueled. The Imperial College London researchers who built the bot say it could be used to collect data or water samples in polar regions, during floods, or in polluted waters. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://cen.acs.org/analytical-chemistry/Calcium-carbide-powers-water-leaping/97/i37 |
| Description | News Article (FoxNews) : 'Flying fish' robot propels itself out of water and glides through the air. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A bio-inspired robot can use water from the environment to launch itself into the air, British researchers revealed. The robot can travel 85 feet through the air after taking off and researchers believe it could be used to collect samples in hazardous or otherwise cluttered environments, such as during a major flood. Researchers from the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College London devised a system that requires only 0.2 grams of calcium carbide powder in a combusion chamber, with the only moving part being a small pump that delivers water from the environment where the robot sits. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.foxnews.com/tech/flying-fish-robot-propels-water-glides-air |
| Description | News Article (FromPress) : Flying fish' drone actually explodes out of the water. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Drones that can both swim and fly are no longer in the distant future. Imperial College London's Aerial Robotics Lab built a concept for multimodal swimming robot it calls AquaMAV that can jump out of water. The scientists behind AquaMAV presented their findings in a paper published this week in Science Robotics. Source: https://pressfrom.info/us/news/science-and-technology/-323221-flying-fish-drone-actually-explodes-out-of-the-water. According to IEE Spectrum, the AquaMAV combines combustible power and water in order to propel itself. The drone contains calcium carbide powder. When mixed with water, the drone creates acetylene gas, which then gets funneled into a combustion chamber along with air and water. When ignited, the mixture then explodes, forcing the water out of the combustion chamber and propelling the drone into air. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://pressfrom.info/us/news/science-and-technology/-323221-flying-fish-drone-actually-explodes-ou... |
| Description | News Article (IEEE SPECTRUM) : Water Jet Powered Drone Takes Off With Explosions To take off from the water, this drone uses an explosion-powered water jet. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | At ICRA 2015, the Aerial Robotics Lab at the Imperial College London presented a concept for a multimodal flying swimming robot called AquaMAV. The really difficult thing about a flying and swimming robot isn't so much the transition from the first to the second, since you can manage that even if your robot is completely dead (thanks to gravity), but rather the other way: going from water to air, ideally in a stable and repetitive way. The AquaMAV concept solved this by basically just applying as much concentrated power as possible to the problem, using a jet thruster to hurl the robot out of the water with quite a bit of velocity to spare. In a paper appearing in Science Robotics this week, the roboticists behind AquaMAV present a fully operational robot that uses a solid-fuel powered chemical reaction to generate an explosion that powers the robot into the air. The 2015 version of AquaMAV, which was mostly just some very vintage-looking computer renderings and a little bit of hardware, used a small cylinder of CO2 to power its water jet thruster. This worked pretty well, but the mass and complexity of the storage and release mechanism for the compressed gas wasn't all that practical for a flying robot designed for long-term autonomy. It's a familiar challenge, especially for pneumatically powered soft robots-how do you efficiently generate gas on-demand, especially if you need a lot of pressure all at once? An explosion propels the drone out of the water There's one obvious way of generating large amounts of pressurized gas all at once, and that's explosions. We've seen robots use explosive thrust for mobility before, at a variety of scales, and it's very effective as long as you can both properly harness the explosion and generate the fuel with a minimum of fuss, and this latest version of AquaMAV manages to do both: |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drones/water-jet-powered-drone-takes-off-with-explosion... |
| Description | News Article (Infosurhoy) : flying fish robot uses gas to launch itself 26-metres-out-of-water-and-into-the-air. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Fish out of water for environmental researchers, using robots to collect much-needed water samples can be tricky. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://robotics.altmetric.com/details/66446214/news |
| Description | News Article (NyTechnik) : En kemisk reaktion får den motorlösa farkosten att flyga. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Den lilla glidflygaren kastar sig ur vattnet och kan färdas 26 meter. Drivkraften är en kemisk reaktion, och kalciumkarbiden räcker till 20 hopp. Nu ska den skalas upp. Glidflygplanet får plats i handflatan, och med sin storlek är flygförmågan på upp till 26 meter imponerande. Farkosten har dock ingen motor utan innehåller bara en rörlig del - en pump. Roboten utgår från vattenytan och drivkraften kommer från en kemisk reaktion mellan kalciumkarbid och vatten. Vatten pumpas in i en huvudkammare och en liten del överförs med häverteffekt till en mindre kammare som innehåller kalciumkarbidpulver. Den kemiska reaktionen bildar acetylengas som tvingas in i huvudkammaren och antänds. Kraften hos förbränningen skjuter ut det vatten som finns kvar vilket skickar upp farkosten i skyn. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.nyteknik.se/fordon/en-kemisk-reaktion-far-den-motorlosa-farkosten-att-flyga-6971542 |
| Description | News Article (PopularMechanics) : This Glider Is Powered by a Chemical Reaction-Not an Engine. Science is beautiful.. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Roboticists at Imperial College London and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology have developed a new type of glider that swiftly jumps from sea to air like a flying fish. The small aerial-aquatic glider, which can fit in the palm of your hands, uses a chemical reaction to propel itself out of the water. Water is pumped into a master chamber, and then siphoned into another, smaller chamber containing calcium carbide powder. This chemical reaction creates acetylene gas, which is forced into the main chamber and ignited. The force of this ignition quickly expels water in the chamber, sending the vehicle into the air. Similar robots-like the robotic bee that the team of scientists previously worked on-have used either tethered systems of power or are propelled by internal engines or compressed gas. This newest vehicle, however, has a very simple design with only one moving part: the pump. "It doesn't need any pistons or valves, which are typical for combustion processes or internal combustion engines," lead roboticist Mirko Kovac tells Popular Mechanics. "It uses the property of the fluid, the gas, the water, and this reaction to create the various stages of the combustion." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a29003643/glider-robot-chemical-reaction/ |
| Description | News Article (ScientificAmercian) : Drenchable Drones, Prickly Cells and Face-Tracked Chimps: Science GIFs to Start Your Week. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Drones and water usually do not mix. (Indeed, some of the most popular drone videos on YouTube feature "epic" water saves.) But a new drone developed by researchers in England is made to move from sea to sky-and back again. This fixed-wing flyer uses a burst of gas to launch out of the water. The researchers say the abilities of Japanese flying squid inspired their design. The amphibious glider can stay afloat, even if the sea is a little choppy (big waves are a problem, though). When it is ready to fly, a water-intake system lets it adjust its angle in preparation for takeoff-and it can fly up to 85 feet after launching from the drink. The researchers hope to bring their jump glider (or future evolutions of the prototype) into rough environments, such as natural disaster zones, to do sampling and monitoring. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/drenchable-drones-prickly-cells-and-face-tracked-chimps-s... |
| Description | News Article (TAGBLATT) : Roboter hüpft wie Flugfisch über Wasserflächen. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Direkt aus dem Wasser in die Luft: Forschende präsentieren eine Art <>- Roboter, der von der Wasseroberfläche starten und gleiten kann. Nützlich wären solche Roboter beispielsweise zur Überwachung von Meeresgebieten. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.tagblatt.ch/newsticker/schweiz/roboter-hupft-wie-flugfisch-uber-wasserflachen-ld.1151218 |
| Description | News Article (TechXplore) : Cities of the future could be built by robots mimicking nature. News story from "A review of collective robotic construction". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Cities of the future could be built by robots mimicking nature. A new review, published today in Science Robotics and co-authored by Imperial researcher Dr. Mirko Kovac, who directs the Aerial Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Aeronautics, looks at the state-of-the-art in robot construction and where we need to go next to make a robot-built environment a reality. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://techxplore.com/news/2019-03-cities-future-built-robots-mimicking.html |
| Description | News Article (The Hindu) : Can robots build future cities? Using robots should reduce human risk, allow tasks to be completed faster and monitoring alongside construction. News story from "A review of collective robotic construction". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Cities of the future could be built and repaired by robots and drones mimicking the tactics of nature, according to a study. Using robots should reduce human risk, allow tasks to be completed faster and monitoring alongside construction. The robots could collect data on everything they are doing, helping to improve their practices, according to the study published in the journal Science Robotics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/can-robots-build-future-cities/article26563528.ec... |
| Description | News Article (XINHUANET) : Engineers invent tiny "flying fish" robot floating on rough waves. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Engineers at Imperial College London have invented a tiny "flying fish" robot that can use water to create a gas and launch itself from the water's surface, the university said in a release on Wednesday. The study published in Science Robotics journal described a bio-inspired robot that can travel 26 meters through the air after take-off, which can be used to collect water samples in hazardous and cluttered environments, such as during flooding or when monitoring ocean pollution. The only moving part of the robot is a small pump that brings in water from the environment, such as a lake or an ocean. It has 0.2 grams of calcium carbide powder in a combustion chamber. The water and the powder combine to produce a burnable acetylene gas, and the gas, when ignited, could push the water out as a jet, propelling the robot into a glide, according to the study. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/12/c_138386536.htm |
| Description | News Article (cash) : Roboter hüpft wie Flugfisch über Wasserflächen. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Direkt aus dem Wasser in die Luft: Forschende präsentieren eine Art "Flugfisch"- Roboter, der von der Wasseroberfläche starten und gleiten kann. Nützlich wären solche Roboter beispielsweise zur Überwachung von Meeresgebieten. Der Start aus dem Wasser in die Luft ist für kleine Roboter eine knifflige Sache, weil er viel Energie benötigt. Das Team um Mirko Kovac von der Forschungsanstalt Empa und dem Imperial College London hat deshalb ein neues, besonders leichtes Antriebssystem entwickelt und mit einem Roboter getestet, wie die Empa am Donnerstag mitteilte. Das Antriebssystem benötigt nur 0,2 Gramm Calciumcarbidpulver in einer Brennkammer. Eine kleine Pumpe bringt das Umgebungswasser in einer Reaktionskammer mit dem Pulver zusammen. Dadurch entsteht brennbares Acetylengas. Wenn das Gas entzündet wird und sich ausdehnt, drückt es das Wasser als Antriebsstrahl heraus. Das ermöglicht den Start von der Wasseroberfläche und einen Gleitflug von rund 26 Metern, wie die Forschenden im Fachblatt "Science Robotics" berichteten. Wenn sich sein Wassertank dann wieder passiv füllt, kann er ein weiteres Mal "hüpfen". Das Forschungsteam testete den Roboter im Labor, in einem See und in einem Wellentank, wie die Empa schrieb. Auch bei Wellengang kann der Roboter demnach abheben. Interessant wäre der Einsatz eines solchen Antriebs beispielsweise bei Robotern, die bei Überschwemmungen Wasserproben sammeln oder die Umweltverschmutzung bei Korallenriffen oder um Offshore-Plattformen herum beobachten sollen: Der "Flugfisch" könnte selbstständig über die Wasserfläche gleiten und an mehreren Orten Proben entnehmen. Im Vergleich zu elektrisch angetriebenen Robotern würde der neu entwickelte Antrieb über grössere Distanzen deutlich Energie sparen. In einem nächsten Schritt wollen die Empa-Forschenden und ihre Kollegen nun Roboter aus verschiedenen Materialien entwickeln, sowie den Roboter in verschiedenen Umgebungen weiter testen. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.cash.ch/news/roboter-huepft-wie-flugfisch-ueber-wasserflaechen-1397757 |
| Description | News Article (futurism) : WATCH A ROBOT FISH FLY BY SHOOTING WATER OUT OF ITS REAR. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Fish Out Of Water For environmental researchers, using robots to collect much-needed water samples can be tricky. The bot might have trouble navigating around trash while collecting samples from polluted waters, for example, or avoiding ice. Now, researchers from Imperial College London have created a robot fish that can get around such obstacles - by propelling itself over them using a stream of water pushed out its rear end. Full Of Gas The researchers detail their creation of the flying robot fish in a paper published in the journal Science Robotics on Wednesday. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://futurism.com/the-byte/watch-robot-fish-fly-shooting-water-rear |
| Description | News Article (heise online) : Fliegender Roboterfisch: Roboter schießt sich aus dem Wasser. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Forscher in Großbritannien haben einen Roboter entwickelt, der sich aus Wasser in die Luft schießen und dann gleiten kann. Das ist äußerst praktisch. Ein Roboter, der gleichermaßen fliegen und schwimmen kann, wäre ideal, um etwa nach einem Unfall in einem Atomkraftwerk oder einem Chemiebetrieb in kurzer Zeit Proben an mehreren Orten zu entnehmen. Die größte Herausforderung dabei besteht darin, aus dem Wasser wieder in die Luft zu kommen. Britische Forscher haben jetzt eine Lösung präsentiert. Aus dem Wasser schießen Wie das Forschungsteam um Mirko Kovac vom Imperial College London in der aktuellen Ausgabe von Science Robotics berichtet, gelingt der Start aus dem Wasser mithilfe eines Düsenantriebs. Als Treibstoff führt der Roboter Calciumcarbid mit, das mit Wasser reagiert und Acetylen erzeugt. Das wiederum wird in einer Brennkammer elektrisch gezündet und presst einen Wasserstrahl durch eine Düse, der den Roboter in die Luft schleudert. Der geht dort in den Gleitflug über. Mit 53 Milligramm Calciumcarbid habe der 160 Gramm schwere Roboter auf diese Weise 26 Meter fliegend zurückgelegt, berichten die Wissenschaftler. Die 491 Milliliter große Brennkammer, die zu 40 Prozent mit Wasser gefüllt ist, werde dabei innerhalb von 0,2 Sekunden durch eine 6,8 Millimeter große Düse geleert. Danach gehe der Roboter, der wie ein Flugzeug gestaltet ist, in den Gleitflug über. Da die Schubkraft mehr als das 25-fache des Eigengewichts des Roboters betrage, gelinge der Start auch, bei unruhiger Wasseroberfläche, wie sich bei 22 Flugversuchen im Labor und im Freien gezeigt habe. Damit der Roboter sowohl den angetriebenen Flug wie auch den Gleitflug bewältigen sowie auf der Wasseroberfläche sinnvoll operieren kann, seien beim Design einige Kompromisse nötig gewesen, schreiben die Forscher. Je nach Operationsmodus sei etwa die optimale Position des Schwerpunktes unterschiedlich gewesen. Für einen einsatztauglichen Roboter müsste das Design angepasst werden. So könnte etwa die Zeit für das Füllen der Brennkammer mit Wasser durch ein Ventil verkürzt werden, was aber das Gewicht erhöhen würde. Ein Propeller würde die Reichweite im Flugmodus erhöhen. Um überhaupt erst einmal aus dem Wasser zu kommen, scheint der einfache und robuste Düsenantrieb aber eine sehr gut geeignete Methode zu sein. (mho) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Fliegender-Roboterfisch-Roboter-schiesst-sich-aus-dem-Wasser... |
| Description | News Article (hindustantimes) : Robots could build future cities by mimicking nature: Study. News story from "A review of collective robotic construction". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Cities of the future could be built and repaired by robots and drones mimicking the tactics of nature, according to a study. Using robots should reduce human risk, allow tasks to be completed faster and monitoring alongside construction. The robots could collect data on everything they are doing, helping to improve their practices, according to the study published in the journal Science Robotics. Many animals in groups take cues from and leverage their environment when constructing or repairing their homes. For example, termites, which live in large 'super-organism' colonies, rely on pheromones excreted during deposition of materials to coordinate construction. Analysing these methods of coordination can help researchers design algorithms for how groups of robots and drones could autonomously work together during construction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.hindustantimes.com/sex-and-relationships/robots-could-build-future-cities-by-mimicking-n... |
| Description | News Article (ibtimes) : Flying Fish Robot From London Could Become The Future Of Sea Travel. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | ove out RC boats; there's a new fish in town! Scientists at the Imperial College of London have developed a leaping, farting fish-bot that that can be used to monitor reefs or ice floes. In a report by the Daily Star, the flying-fish automaton can swim, glide and skip rough waters thanks to its high-powered propulsion system. Mirko Kovac, the director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at the Imperial College in London, said that the robot could transition from water to air in seconds. Kovac said that its locomotive principle is based on the "flying fish." According to the bot's blueprints from the journal Science Robotics, the 160-gram fish-bot can manage a flight distance of 26 meters "using 0.2 grams of fuel." It uses calcium carbide pellets with the water it's swimming in to produce acetylene gas. The combustible element turns the miniature "fish" into a gliding, farting jet that can operate in short intervals. Kovac added that the automaton could be useful as an observation tool. He said that the small device could "be used for reef monitoring or arctic sea monitoring." Scientist at the Imperial College of London believes that it could be the future of sea travel. Kovac noted that the method they presented would allow several amphibious vehicles to transition out of the water temporarily. The technology would allow seafarers to navigate under challenging terrains such as rocks and icebergs. It would render traditional aquatic vehicles obsolete if ever the technology pushes through the market. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.ibtimes.com/flying-fish-robot-london-could-become-future-sea-travel-2839144 |
| Description | News Article (innovationsreport) : < |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Ein bio-inspirierter Roboter nutzt Wasser aus der Umwelt, um ein Antriebsgas zu erzeugen und von der Wasseroberfläche zu starten. Der Roboter wurde von Forschern des <> entwickelt. Er kann nach dem Start rund 26 Meter weit fliegen und könnte zur Entnahme von Wasserproben in gefährlichen und unübersichtlichen Umgebungen wie bei Überschwemmungen oder bei der Überwachung der Meeresverschmutzung eingesetzt werden, berichtet das Team um Mirko Kovac, der auch das gemeinsame <> an der Empa leitet, in der neuesten Ausgabe des Fachmagazins <>. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/energie-elektrotechnik/flugfisch-roboter-kann-tauche... |
| Description | News Article (msn) : 'Flying fish' drone actually explodes out of the water. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Drones that can both swim and fly are no longer in the distant future. Imperial College London's Aerial Robotics Lab built a concept for multimodal swimming robot it calls AquaMAV that can jump out of water. The scientists behind AquaMAV presented their findings in a paper published this week in Science Robotics. According to IEE Spectrum, the AquaMAV combines combustible power and water in order to propel itself. The drone contains calcium carbide powder. When mixed with water, the drone creates acetylene gas, which then gets funneled into a combustion chamber along with air and water. When ignited, the mixture then explodes, forcing the water out of the combustion chamber and propelling the drone into air. The AquaMAV can fly up to 26 meters in the air, and creates so much force it can even propel itself out of choppy waters. Scientists believe it can be used to collect water samples during natural disasters such as floods or to monitor ocean pollution. You can watch the AquaMAV in action in the video below. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/flying-fish-drone-actually-explodes-out-of-the-water/ar-AA... |
| Description | News Article (suedostschweiz) : Roboter hüpft wie Flugfisch über Wasserflächen. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Direkt aus dem Wasser in die Luft: Forschende präsentieren eine Art <>- Roboter, der von der Wasseroberfläche starten und gleiten kann. Nützlich wären solche Roboter beispielsweise zur Überwachung von Meeresgebieten. Der Start aus dem Wasser in die Luft ist für kleine Roboter eine knifflige Sache, weil er viel Energie benötigt. Das Team um Mirko Kovac von der Forschungsanstalt Empa und dem Imperial College London hat deshalb ein neues, besonders leichtes Antriebssystem entwickelt und mit einem Roboter getestet, wie die Empa am Donnerstag mitteilte. Das Antriebssystem benötigt nur 0,2 Gramm Calciumcarbidpulver in einer Brennkammer. Eine kleine Pumpe bringt das Umgebungswasser in einer Reaktionskammer mit dem Pulver zusammen. Dadurch entsteht brennbares Acetylengas. Wenn das Gas entzündet wird und sich ausdehnt, drückt es das Wasser als Antriebsstrahl heraus. Das ermöglicht den Start von der Wasseroberfläche und einen Gleitflug von rund 26 Metern, wie die Forschenden im Fachblatt <> berichteten. Wenn sich sein Wassertank dann wieder passiv füllt, kann er ein weiteres Mal <>. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.suedostschweiz.ch/wirtschaft/2019-09-12/roboter-huepft-wie-flugfisch-ueber-wasserflaeche... |
| Description | News Article (swissinfo) : Roboter hüpft wie Flugfisch über Wasserflächen. News story from "Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Direkt aus dem Wasser in die Luft: Forschende präsentieren eine Art "Flugfisch"- Roboter, der von der Wasseroberfläche starten und gleiten kann. Nützlich wären solche Roboter beispielsweise zur Überwachung von Meeresgebieten. Der Start aus dem Wasser in die Luft ist für kleine Roboter eine knifflige Sache, weil er viel Energie benötigt. Das Team um Mirko Kovac von der Forschungsanstalt Empa und dem Imperial College London hat deshalb ein neues, besonders leichtes Antriebssystem entwickelt und mit einem Roboter getestet, wie die Empa am Donnerstag mitteilte. Das Antriebssystem benötigt nur 0,2 Gramm Calciumcarbidpulver in einer Brennkammer. Eine kleine Pumpe bringt das Umgebungswasser in einer Reaktionskammer mit dem Pulver zusammen. Dadurch entsteht brennbares Acetylengas. Wenn das Gas entzündet wird und sich ausdehnt, drückt es das Wasser als Antriebsstrahl heraus. Das ermöglicht den Start von der Wasseroberfläche und einen Gleitflug von rund 26 Metern, wie die Forschenden im Fachblatt "Science Robotics" berichteten. Wenn sich sein Wassertank dann wieder passiv füllt, kann er ein weiteres Mal "hüpfen". Das Forschungsteam testete den Roboter im Labor, in einem See und in einem Wellentank, wie die Empa schrieb. Auch bei Wellengang kann der Roboter demnach abheben. Interessant wäre der Einsatz eines solchen Antriebs beispielsweise bei Robotern, die bei Überschwemmungen Wasserproben sammeln oder die Umweltverschmutzung bei Korallenriffen oder um Offshore-Plattformen herum beobachten sollen: Der "Flugfisch" könnte selbstständig über die Wasserfläche gleiten und an mehreren Orten Proben entnehmen. Im Vergleich zu elektrisch angetriebenen Robotern würde der neu entwickelte Antrieb über grössere Distanzen deutlich Energie sparen. In einem nächsten Schritt wollen die Empa-Forschenden und ihre Kollegen nun Roboter aus verschiedenen Materialien entwickeln, sowie den Roboter in verschiedenen Umgebungen weiter testen. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/roboter-huepft-wie-flugfisch-ueber-wasserflaechen/45223598 |
| Description | Opening of the Brahmal Vasudevan Multi-Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | On October 20, 2017, the Aerial Robotics Lab has organised on official ceremony for the opening of the new Multi-Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena at Imperial College London. The development of the Arena is thanks to a £1.25 million gift from Imperial College alumnus Mr Brahmal Vasudevan. The Arena is the first of its kind in Europe, enabling engineers to test the next generation of aerial robotics for urban environments and extreme conditions. The researchers in the Arena can simulate different terrains in the air, the ocean and on land. The space also enables the engineers to create extreme conditions such as fire, smoke, and heat to simulate how the next generation of drones will perform in harsh environments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/182375/uk-world-leader-drone-tech-says/ |
| Description | Paper plane design and launch competition workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Attendees were introduced into aircraft design and how the principles apply to paper planes. They could the make their own designs for a flight distance competition. The planes were launched at the same speed and angle and the landing point marked for every attempt. Participants could learn about the effect of changes to the design by launching them consecutively in a repeatable way. A podium for the top three was held for additional engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Pint of Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I (Rob Siddall) spoke for 30 minutes and did a small live demonstration to an audience of around 50, about the Aquatic Micro Air Vehicles Research. The talk generated a great deal of interest, and I was invited to repeat it again later in the year by the organisers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/robotic-presents-and-bionic-futures |
| Description | Plenary talk at the World of Drones Congress 2017, Brisbane |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Aerial Robotics Lab has been invited to give a talk at the inaugural World of Drones Congress (WoDC) 2017, which has been held from 31 August to 2 September 2017 in Brisbane, Australia. Over 630 delegates from across the Asia Pacific and beyond attended and the congress featured a fascinating Expo with over 30 exhibitors from Australia, China and Japan. The program included the launch of Australia's very first state-wide Drones Strategy by the Premier of Queensland and the first Australian National Drone Safety Forum. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.worldofdrones.com.au |
| Description | Poster presentation at ICRA 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation during the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA): "Bioinspired aquatic micro air vehicle for environmental monitoring and disaster relief" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Gammon Construction Imperial visit |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo COEBIT |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 09/18. Presentation at COEBIT (Centre of Excellence for Bio-Inspired Technology) meeting |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Delegations from the french embassy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | with Prof. Nozha Boujemaa, Director of DATAIA Institute |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Imperial festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public event with Imperial Festival |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Italian AI experts and ministry representatives |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 31/01/19. Lab visit from committee of Italian AI experts and ministry representatives |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Microsoft |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Yearly tour for CEOs, Research Directors, and other leaders from their university partners |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Oxford animal flight group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 08/10/18. Visit to Oxford animal flight group for small symposium |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Paul Pounds |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Science museum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 22/10/18-26/10/2018. Science museum outreach: showcasing research, interacting with visitors, helping children design robots |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Trenton Jerde |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | editor for Nature Machine Intelligence |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo World of Drones Congress |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 13/12/18. Lab visit from Australian "World of Drones Congress" organisers (largest industrial drones conference in Australasia) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation and demo Zaman Ahmad |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Cyber Training Firm, Malaysia |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Press release in Telez |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | annoucement of EMPA collaberation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.telez.ch/neues-drohnenlabor_14813/# |
| Description | Radio interview for BBC Earth feature on bio-inspired drones: The birds, the bees and the robots |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Radio interview for BBC Earth feature on bio-inspired drones: How biology is influencing technology to help us better understand nature. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=the-birds-the-bees-and-the-robots |
| Description | Research Colloquium (ETH Zurich) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr Mirko Kovac presented our novel 3D printing and aerial construction technologies arising from Aerial ABM at the Research Colloquium on Building Technologies at ETH Zurich in January 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Research Talk (Livorno, Italy) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In April 2016, Dr Mirko Kovac talked about the use soft materials in aerial robots to enhance the flight performance as well as creating support structures inspired by birds in nature. The talk attracted a large number of audience and his team were invited to write a book chapter on Soft Aerial Robots. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.robosoftca.eu/information/events/soft-robotics-week-2016 |
| Description | Research Talk (Perugia, Italy) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr Mirko Kovac presented the progress on 3D printing materials within the Aerial ABM project at the International Conference on Smart and Multifunctional Materials, Structures and Systems in Perugia, Italy. This presentation initiated new discussions for possible collaboration with colleagues at the Italian Institute of Technology on 3D printing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://2016.cimtec-congress.org/ |
| Description | Research Visit to EMPA-Nest in Zurich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation and tour of EMPA nest facility, regarding potential collaborations between Imperial and ETH Zurich |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Robotics and Autonomous Systems in UK Manufacturing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The aim work of this workshop was to address the knowledge gap between RAS researchers, policy and the manufacturing communities. The specific objectives were to: -Identify to the state of the art in RAS and how these technologies can address real-world manufacturing challenges. -Identify areas of added value for RAS that can have long term impact on UK manufacturing. -Support new collaborations between technology and application communities. -Develop a strategy for RAS to support UK manufacturing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/events/manufacturing-workshop-AMRC |
| Description | Royal Society (London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The event was hosted by prof. Brian Cox at the Royal festival hall who was running a debate on Artificial Intelligence. Dr Mirko Kovac ran a 10 minutes presentation and live demo showing in-flight arm stabilization of a robotic arm methods for drones. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/festival/ |
| Description | Science Museum Autonomous Vehicles Interactive Exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Took part in the 5 day interactive Science Museum event on Autonomous vehicles. Several laboratory members worked through case studies on designing autonomous vehicles for practical use with the general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | TAROS 2018 Conference Presentation (invited) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As the winner of the Best UK PhD in robotics, Rob Siddall was invited to give a short talk detailing his thesis on Aerial-Aquatic Locomotion at the TAROS 2018 conference in Bristol. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talk (RACE, Culham, UK) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr Mirko Kovac presented latest technologies for aerial manipulation and construction at RACE in challenging environments Symposium, Culham, UK, during October 2017. The presentation has initiated a number of collaborative activities on the use of aerial robots in exploration and repair in challenging environments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.race.ukaea.uk/ |
| Description | Talk and presentation in TEDxBolognaWomen (Laura Margheri) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | TEDxBolognaWomen: http://www.tedxbologna.com/perspectives/ It was held on December 8, 2018. I talked about the multidisciplinary of biorobotics, from my experience etc and I showed a video of the AquaMAV among the examples. The outreach was mainly at national level (Italy), even if the video is globally online: |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8xP8lMsl3Q |
| Description | Talk at PwC School of Mines |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr Mirko Kovac participated in the panel discussion around the potential uses of drones/AI/robotics in Mining at the PwC annual conference "London School of Mines" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talk to a Secondary School (St George's Catholic College |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Talk at the annual awards ceremony for a secondary school in southampton, GCSE students and parents invited. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talk to a sixth form school group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A talk on robotics and question session with a large school group (Year 9 - A2 Level) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Technology Demonstration for SberBank |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Demonstrated the pipeline repair using aerial robots for the visiting group. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | UCL - Bryden Wood |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - discuss collaboration opportunities related to the development of autonomous on-site construction robotics for platform based methodologies |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | UCL - Ocado Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - discuss engagement with Ocado related to mobile robotics and autonomous systems for logistics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | UCL - Shimizu |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - discussion to explore opportunities for UCL and Shimizu to work together on a set of robotic construction challenges |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Unmanned Maritime Systems Conference, May 16-17 2018, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Mirko Kovac was invited speaker at the second annual Unmanned Maritime Systems Technology conference, held in London on the 16th and 17th May 2018, organised by the SMi Group. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.smi-online.co.uk/defence/uk/conference/Unmanned-Maritime-Systems#tab_overview |
| Description | Urban Explorers Children's Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Participated in the Urban Explorers childrens conference, talking with primary/secondary school children about robotics and the work of Imperial College Researchers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | lecture on biorobotics during a workshop organized by the IAAD (Laura Margheri) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Laura gave a lecture on biorobotics during a workshop organized by the IAAD (https://www.iaad.it/en/). She made a sort of review of bio-robots, including the AcquaMAV. It was a lecture for about 20-25 students, from Italy and Israel. It was held on February 11, 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.iaad.it/en/ |