Drone aviary at NEST: new test environment for sustainable robotics
Empa and EPFL are collaborating to develop robotics for sustainability and environmental monitoring. A drone aviary at the NEST will serve as an ideal testing environment, allowing innovative technologies to be tested under realistic conditions.
Empa and EPFL are to work together in the future on the development of robotics for sustainability purposes, according to a press release. Empa will contribute its expertise in the areas of materials and development as well as its drone aviary, which will be opened in the modular research building NEST in Dübendorf in November. EPFL is contributing its expertise in environmental monitoring. In future, researchers and students from both institutions will also be able to work at the other institution, depending on the topic.
Empa researcher Mirko Kovacs has also been teaching as Professor of Sustainability Robotics since the beginning of September. Kovacs has headed the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics, which Empa runs jointly with Imperial College London, since 2018. His two teams in Dübendorf and London are now being joined by a third in Lausanne.
The drone aviary at NEST allows test runs with robots and drones in the open air, but shielded from the outside world by a cage. One wall of the aviary will allow surface materials to be changed and different scenarios to be tested.