Sustainability Robotics find a home in NEST

The new DroneHub in NEST, the modular research and innovation building of Empa and the ETH Domain's aquatic research institute(Eawag), has been officially opened. According to a press release, it offers a "unique environment" in which researchers can test and further develop innovative drones and robot technologies.

The DroneHub took shape in collaboration with Imperial College London. It is headed by Mirko Kovac, head of Empa's Sustainability Robotics research laboratory and the two facilities of Imperial College, the Aerial Robotics Lab and the Imperial Centre for Infrastructure Robotics Ecosystems. In future, the DroneHub will support Kovac's new joint professorship for Sustainability Robotics at Empa and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

Three zones have been set up on the NEST: Drones can carry out repair work on an exterior wall in flight and under real weather conditions using 3D printing. The biosphere, which is located in a kind of aviary and therefore also outdoors, enables robots to interact independently with nature, collect valuable environmental data with their sensors and at the same time test new biodegradable materials.

And finally, the modular façade of the DroneHub shows how the robots can be integrated into buildings and act as their immune system, above all to ward off dangers. "As we explore what symbiotic integration can really look like," Kovac says in an Empa video about the DroneHub, "living with drones and robots will also show how they can be integrated into our lives and how society can change." ce/mm