Publications by Mirko Kovac | EPFL Graph Search

Low-Cost 3D printed, Biocompatible Ionic Polymer Membranes for Soft Actuators

Ionic polymer actuators, in essence, consist of ion exchange polymers sandwiched between layers of electrodes. They have recently gained recognition as promising candidates for soft actuators due to their lightweight nature, noise-free operation, and low-d ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.2025

Aerial additive manufacturing: Toward on-site building construction with aerial robots

Mirko Kovac

Recent advancements in large-scale additive manufacturing have extended its application in the building industry, delivering notable gains in productivity, efficiency, environmental sustainability, and safety compared with traditional construction methods. ...

2025

Leaf Level Ash Dieback Disease Detection and Online Severity Estimation With UAVs

Mirko Kovac

Ash dieback, caused by the fungal pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, is devastating ash tree populations across U.K. and Europe, with projections indicating that up to 80% of ash trees may die as a result of the disease. The extensive loss of this keystone ...

2025

TumblerBots: Tumbling Robotic sensors for Minimally-invasive Benthic Monitoring

Mirko Kovac

Robotic systems show significant promise for water environmental sensing applications such as water quality monitoring, pollution mapping and biodiversity data collection. Conventional deployment methods often disrupt fragile ecosystems, preventing de ...

2025

The rise of aerial additive manufacturing in construction: a review of material advancements

Mirko Kovac

The construction industry has recently increased the adoption of additive manufacturing (AM, also known as 3D-printing) technologies. This review paper presents the state of the art of ground-based AM systems in construction, focusing comprehensively on de ...

2024

Aerial Repair and Aerial Additive Manufacturing

Mirko Kovac

A large number of small‐scale demonstrations of aerial building and repair have been performed in literature. Aerial additive manufacturing is proposed as a methodology for building new structures and for performing repairs in locations inaccessible by gro ...

Wiley2024

A Soft Robotic Morphing Wing for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Mirko Kovac

Actuators based on soft elastomers offer significant advantages to the field of robotics, providing greater adaptability, improving collision resilience, and enabling shape-morphing. Thus, soft fluidic actuators have seen an expansion in their fields of ap ...

WILEY2024

Deposition dynamics and analysis of polyurethane foam structure boundaries for aerial additive manufacturing

Mirko Kovac

Additive manufacturing in construction typically consists of ground-based platforms. Introducing aerial capabilities offers scope to create or repair structures in dangerous or elevated locations. The Aerial Additive Manufacturing (AAM) project has develop ...

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD2024

Hybrid Soft Electrostatic Metamaterial Gripper for Multi-surface, Multi-object Adaptation

Mirko Kovac, Ryo Kanno, Sukho Song

One of the trendsetting themes in soft robotics has been the goal of developing the ultimate universal soft robotic gripper. One that is capable of manipulating items of various shapes, sizes, thicknesses, textures, and weights. All the while still being l ...

IEEE2024

Aerial-Aquatic Robots as a New Paradigm for Blue Carbon Monitoring and Sequestration

Mirko Kovac

The relentless rise of the global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels emphasizes the need for novel and innovative approaches to carbon sequestration strategies. This paper highlights how natural carbon dioxide removal methods can integrate with novel roboti ...

IEEE2024