In the MIT AURA lab, we will study bio-inspired methods and unconventional designs to
solve seamless aerial and aquatic locomotion for applications in ocean sciences.
Starting January 2025.
News
MIT Aura Lab, starting January 2025.
Research
Highlights of my research by project. List of publication on ORCID and Google Scholar.
Aerial-Aquatic flapping-wing robots
capable of both flight and underwater locomotion, with a particular focus on transitions & bio-inspiration.
Perching with Flapping Wings
Large-scale flapping-wing robots with physical contact capabilities. Perching on a branch has been achieved!
SailMAV
Sailing-Flying locomotion method for long-duration aerial-aquatic missions thanks to wind energy harvesting.
Aquatic Jump-glider
A novel water-reactive fuel thruster for impulsive take-off, allowing multiple jump-gliding from the water surface.
Aerial-Aquatic Locomotion
This field was pioneered by Dr. Siddall and since then several protoype have demonstrated effective water take-off.
MEDUSA
A Multi-Environment Dual-Robot for Underwater Sample Acquisition. The underwater pod can move, film and sample.
Robobee
Aquatic escape of a 160 milligram robotic bee using flapping flight, hydrogen combustion and electrolysis.
HAMR
Quadrupedal legged Harvard Ambulatory Micro Robot (HAMR) with custom electronics and wireless control.
PI
Current lab members
Looking for students!
Champéry, Switzerland
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Email
raph.zufferey@gmail.com -
Social
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Address
EPFL, MED 1 1612, Station 9, 1015 Lausanne
Switzerland