Flight Control in Complex Environments: From Insects to Robots ‒ LIS ‐ EPFL

Flying robots are very useful for tasks such as aerial mapping, fast exploration, video footage and monitoring of buildings. However, autonomous missions are usually constrained to high altitude flights above flat surfaces in order to avoid collisions. Traditional methods for collision-free navigation require large resources and limit the payload of robots.

On the other hand, flying insects are able to navigate safely and efficiently using low quality vision as their main sensory input. Ideally, robots could adopt insects strategies, but little is known about the way insects turn visual stimuli into muscular actuation during flight. This precludes a direct implementation of insect flight control into robots and forces roboticists to guess appropriate strategies.

In this thesis, we aim to investigate, develop and implement insect-inspired control strategies in flying robots for goal-oriented navigation in complex environments. We will start by exploring insect sensing and actuation through experiments with bumblebees. Then, we will model the insect’s flight control strategies. This model will be tested in simulation and implemented in a custom designed flying robot. Through experiments in natural environments, we will characterize the efficiency of our model for goal-oriented collision-free navigation.

Publications

Motility and Societal Transformations

V. Kaufmann

Mobility / Society ; Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2023-11.

Publications

Motility and Societal Transformations

Photocatalyzed [2σ + 2σ] and [2σ + 2π] Cycloadditions for the Synthesis of Bicyclo[3.1.1]heptanes and 5- or 6-Membered Carbocycles

A Topological Data Analysis of Navigation Paths within Digital Libraries

Sustaining Knowledge and Governing its Infrastructure in the Digital Age: An Integrated View

The Societal and Scientific Importance of Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity in Machine Learning for Chemistry

Parameter-Free Molecular Classification and Regression with Gzip

Alchemical analysis of FDA approved drugs

Molecular set representation learning

An explainability framework for deep learning on chemical reactions exemplified by enzyme-catalysed reaction classification

Modelling mode dependent lane discipline in hybrid traffic

Faire l’histoire : Lausanne, ville de rivière

Clinical, genomic, and epigenomic analyses of H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline glioma long-term survivors reveal a distinct group of tumors with MAPK pathway alterations

Everolimus for Children With Recurrent or Progressive Low-Grade Glioma: Results From the Phase II PNOC001 Trial

Building a Knowledge Graph of Chinese Kung Fu Masters From Heterogeneous Bilingual Data

Statistical learning quantifies transposable element-mediated cis-regulation

SARS-CoV-2 hijacks a cell damage response, which induces transcription of a more efficient Spike S-acyltransferase

New ingredients for old recipes

Avian-Inspired Claws Enable Robot Perching or Walking

The irreducibility of vision: Gestalt, crowding and the fundamentals of vision

A multi-model analysis of the EU’s path to net zero

A Visionary Look at the Security of Reconfigurable Cloud Computing

On the number of regions of piecewise linear neural networks

Culture du bâti dans l’existant: Inventaire et contexte/ Baukultur im Bestand: Inventar und Kontext

THEMA/ANATHEMA, or, Things on Topic and Things off Topic

Promises, Lies, and Other Material Stories

Opération Béton

Sustainable is beautiful. Du projet à la construction

Structure of a membrane-bound menaquinol:organohalide oxidoreductase

Structural Measures as Guides to Ultrastable States in Overjammed Packings

Mechanics of the cellular microenvironment as probed by cells in vivo during zebrafish presomitic mesoderm differentiation

Embryonic tissues as active foams

Mechanical control of tissue shape and morphogenetic flows during vertebrate body axis elongation

A simple landscape of metastable state energies for two-dimensional cellular matter

Universal Features of Metastable State Energies in Cellular Matter

Hexagonal Patterning of the Insect Compound Eye: Facet Area Variation, Defects, and Disorder

Heterogeneous vesicles: an analytical approach to equilibrium shapes

Cell shapes and patterns as quantitative indicators of tissue stress in the plant epidermis

Lewis’ law revisited: the role of anisotropy in size–topology correlations

Performance of energy piles foundation in hot-dominated climate: A case study in Dubai

Field guide to tree-related microhabitats. Descriptions and size limits for their inventory

Disorder-induced bulk photovoltaic effect in a centrosymmetric van der Waals material

The inductive bias of deep learning: Connecting weights and functions

Separable Brønsted acidic imidazolium salts for polysaccharide hydrolysis in water

Magnetic orderings and electronic structure of complex oxides from advanced Hubbard functionals

Photoelectrochemical Cell Engineering for Solar Energy Conversion

The role of secondary ice production in mixed-phase clouds

Deep Learning for 3D Surface Modelling and Reconstruction

Multivalent Virucidal Antivirals: Synthesis, Mechanisms of Action, and Immune-stimulating Effects

Data-Driven Control and Optimization under Noisy and Uncertain Conditions

Three-dimensional fluid-driven frictional ruptures: theory and applications

Self-Supervised Learning for Patient Stratification and Survival Analysis in Computational Pathology: An Application to Colorectal Cancer

Towards a Framework for Estimation of User Susceptibility to Cybersickness

Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning on Graphs

Snow transport in extreme environments: from small to large scale modeling

The Effects of Spatial Organization and Fluid Flow on the Social Interactions in Microbial Communities

Quantifying online citizen science: Dynamics and demographics of public participation in science

In Medio Stat Virtus: Combining Boolean and Pattern Matching

Algebraic and Boolean Methods for SFQ Superconducting Circuits

Technology Mapping Using Multi-output Library Cells

Data-Driven Control Synthesis using Koopman Operator: A Robust Approach

Achieving high hybridization density at DNA biosensor surfaces using branched spacer and click chemistry

Scalable Logic Rewriting Using Don’t Cares

The Paris/Geneva Divide. A Network Analysis of the Archives of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations

Densification des villages alpins : vers un nouveau mode de vie

Maison de l’Algoculture: transformation de la STEP de Rolle

Traversée nourricière : pour un approvisionnement local par la ligne du LEB

Investigateur de zones inhabitées

Ancré au Léman: la réappropriation des débarcadères comme révélateur identitaire

Préserver la relation avec le bâti: évolutions du site industriel du Closel à Renens (VD)

Reconstruction de la cathédrale de l’Annonciation à Alexandrette

Un toit sur la rue : requalification d’une polarité du village de Reconvilier

Vie communautaire et élevage ovin pour donner une seconde vie aux bâtiments de l’ancienne station de ski de Château-d’Oex

Cuisine, Résistance et Partage: intégration d’une cuisine inclusive et évolutive dans la friche urbaine de Malley

The Urban Paragraph – Sharing every day

La fabrique de la transition. Vivre autour d’une chaufferie à Sébeillon

(dis)appearance : unearthing the fragile fossil of Geamăna through new narratives

La villa urbaine

L’habitat minimal au sein des bureaux vacants

Optimisation du confort de l’usager par la certification WELL: projet de rénovation du bâtiment de la Miséricorde de l’UNIFR