Salary: 1 800€
Duration: 3 years
Country/Territory: Italy
Organization: University of Trento (Italy)
Group: Embedded Systems Lab ( https://www.linkedin.com/company/ees-lab/ )
Contact: Prof. Davide Brunelli <davide.brunelli@unitn.it>
Self-powered electronic sensors, 3D printed or made of """"textiles"""" i.e., in the form of fabrics or on flexible elements that allow the incorporation of electronic components such as batteries, sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers will be studied. The use of e-textiles is different from the wearable computers (wearable devices) we know because the emphasis is on seamless integration of the flexible covering material with electronic elements such as microcontrollers, sensors and actuators. Furthermore, e-textiles and 3D-printed electronics do not necessarily have to be wearable; for example, they could be used as coverings for exoskeletons and robots.
It is precisely this latter scenario where a final demonstrator will be developed, namely to realize a sensor in a flexible system that is self-powered because it has energy harvesting and for the sensing part of robots. Sustainability is emphasized by the system itself, which does not affect the robot's power consumption because this part of the electronics is self-powered.