Research

Robotics is the main research focus of our group. Our mission is to create new robots that are suitable to explore complex and difficult to access natural environments. The main purpose is to develop novel robotic solutions to:

• support data and samples collection for environmental studies;
• reduce our ecological footprint;
• mitigate the effects of natural disasters such as wildfire or floods.

All these applications have in common the same underlying challenge: how robots can break out of factories and succeed in the natural environment?

To answer this question, we seek inspiration from nature and study novel design and perception approaches that make our robotic systems adaptable, versatile and robust. Our research activities involve the development of new technologies for locomotion, perception, collection of samples and human-robot interaction. Key principles in this endeavor includes bioinspired design, soft architectures, unconventional fabrication techniques, and bioinspired sensing and mobility.