Smart materials

Thermally activated coiled structures made of cheap polymers that shows ground breaking performances:

• Energy density 4-5 kJ/kg

Activities:

• Manufacturing procedure
• Development of a custom experimental setup
• Experimental characterization

High altitude wind energy

Objectives:

• Investigating offshore HAWE systems

Activities:

• Modeling of floating platform HAWE
• Investigates energy extraction  
• Define design procedures for the float
• Validation optimization and control strategies

Energy Harvesting

• Innovative transducers based on Dielectric Elastomers for Wave Energy Harvesting.
• Coupled hydrodynamic-electro-hyperelastic models
• New optimized materials for energy harvesting
• Optimal Control of  DE generators
• Experimental testing of Poly-WEC 

Mechatronic systems

Snake Robot with variable impedance series-elastic actuation to improve locomotion efficiency.
In collaboration with Centro Gustavo Stefanini
Granted by: Finmeccanica
Activities:

• Study of the actuation/locomotion architecture
• Design and development of a test bench prototype