According to a press release, Empa and EPFL will in future be working together on the development of robotics with an emphasis on sustainability. In this context, Empa will bring to the table its expertise in the fields of materials and development, as well as its DroneHub - a sort of aviary for drone research - that is set to be opened in November at the modular research building NEST in Dübendorf in the canton of Zurich. For its part, EPFL will be contributing its expertise in environmental monitoring to the joint project. Within the framework of this partnership, researchers and students from the two universities will in future have the opportunity to work at the other institution depending on the issue in question.
Empa researcher Mirko Kovac has also been teaching as a Professor for Sustainability Robotics since the beginning of September. In addition, Kovac has headed up the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics, which Empa runs in conjunction with Imperial College London, since 2018. Therefore, his two teams in Dübendorf and London are now bolstered by the addition of a third based in Lausanne.
The drone aviary at NEST allows test runs with robots and drones in the open air thanks to a cage that shields the facility from the outside world. One wall of the aviary allows a variety of surface materials to be flexibly exchanged, meaning that a wide range of scenarios can be tested as a result. ce/stk
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