BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:EESS talk on "Aerial Robotics for Environmental and Infrastructure
  Science"
DTSTART:20210330T121500
DTEND:20210330T130000
DTSTAMP:20260406T121617Z
UID:81fb838bebafc05fd801069429c6e8711cb3421da4a47cb4c2278298
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Mirko Kovac\, Professor\, Head\, Materials and Technology C
 enter of Robotics\, EMPA and Director\, Aerial Robotics Laboratory\, Imper
 ial College London \nAbstract:\nEnvironmental and infrastructure sciences 
 rely heavily on accurate\, timely and complete data sets which are often c
 ollected manually at significant risks and costs. Robotics and mobile sens
 or networks can collect data more effectively and with higher spatial-temp
 oral resolution compared to manual methods while benefiting from expanded 
 operational envelopes and added data collection capabilities. In future\, 
 robotics will be an indispensable tool for data collection in complex envi
 ronments\, enabling the digitalisation of forests\, lakes\, off-shore ener
 gy systems\, cities and the polar environment. However\, such future robot
  solutions will need to operate more flexibly\, robustly and efficiently t
 han they do today.\n\nThis talk will present how animal-inspired robot des
 ign methods can integrate adaptive morphologies\, functional materials and
  energy-efficient locomotion principles to enable this new class of enviro
 nmental robotics. The talk will also include application examples\, such a
 s flying robots that can place sensors in forests\, aerial-aquatic drones 
 for autonomous water sampling\, drones with compliant landing systems for 
 landing on wind turbines\, drones for aerial construction and repair\, and
  impact-resilient drones for safe operations in underground and tunnel sys
 tems.\n\nShort biography:\nProf. Mirko Kovac is director of the Aerial R
 obotics Laboratory\, full professor at Imperial College London and Royal 
 Society Wolfson Fellow. He is also heading the Materials and Technology Ce
 ntre of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science 
 and Technology (Empa) in Zürich. His research group focusses on the devel
 opment of novel\, aerial robots for distributed sensing and autonomous man
 ufacturing in complex natural and man-made environments. Prof. Kovac's pa
 rticular specialisation is in robot design\, hardware development and mult
 i-modal robot mobility. \nBefore his appointment in London\, he was post-
 doctoral researcher at Harvard University and he obtained his PhD at th
 e Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He received h
 is undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal 
 Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in 2005. Since 2006\, he has pre
 sented his work in >70 international proceedings and journals\, has won se
 veral best paper awards and has delivered >30 keynote lectures. He also re
 gularly acts as advisor to government\, investment funds and industry on r
 obotics opportunities. 
LOCATION:ZOOM https://epfl.zoom.us/j/84677261593
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR