A new ERC grant in mechatronics for UniTrento

The projects that will be funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the "Starting Grant" programme were announced today. Among them is Giacomo Moretti's project "Fleap – Fluid gap Electro-Active-Polymer machines", that he will carry out over the next five years at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento. With this project, there are nine projects funded by the European Research Council at UniTrento

About the project

In recent years, robotics and mechatronics have become part of our lives. They are at the core of industry 4.0, which is increasingly more automated, but also in the smart devices that we use every day in our homes. But there are sectors – such as space and ocean exploration, that plays a key role in the supply of raw materials and energy – where conventional technologies are still the most widely used.
The reason for this situation could be a technological gap due to the motors that allow robotic systems to move and transport materials and the generators that allow energy to be collected from the environment. Conventional (i.e. electro-magnetic) motors and generators are based on heavy and very delicate components, that are not suited for unconventional environments.
Here, fluid gap transducers, FGTs, are a particularly promising option. These systems rely on a combination of smart materials, and exploit electrostatics to move around or generate energy. They can be described as a flexible plastic pocket containing an insulating fluid (usually an oil). FGTs are lightweight, have no rigid parts and achieve remarkable performance in terms of power-to-weight ratio. It has recently been demonstrated that they can work effectively, as artificial muscles, for soft robots, underwater robots, and small mobile robots.
Fleap – Fluid gap Electro-Active-Polymer machines for a new generation of mechatronic systems – the project run by Giacomo Moretti for which he won a Starting Grant from the European Research Council, aims to push the limits of this technology to the extreme.
To achieve this goal, the research study will examine the physical phenomena that occur in FGTs, to propose ad hoc models and test new solutions. Among these, for example, is the possibility of using very rarefied gases (similar to the atmospheres of some planets) as fluid "gaps", or to use liquids that are less viscous than oils, which are easier to find or synthesise.
The goal is to study FGTs that are suitable for operating in the most difficult environments, for example in low pressure atmospheres for space applications, or in high pressure atmospheres for marine and oceanic applications. These could help achieve converters that are capable of extracting energy and producing electricity from sea waves.

ERC Starting Grant

This year the ERC awarded 494 grants under the Starting Grant scheme – for early career researchers – for almost 780 million euros, in response to 3,474 submitted proposals.
Germany leads the ranking of countries with most grants with 98 Starting Grants. Following in the ranking are the Netherlands (51), the United Kingdom (50), France (49) and Italy (41). In the ranking of grant awardees by nationality, Italy is second with 61 researchers, after Germany with 94. France has 44, Spain 36 and Israel 30.
The number of grants awarded to female researchers is growing, as they are 44% in 2024 compared to 43% in 2023 and 39% in 2022. Since 2007, more than 62,000 grant applications have been filed, and those submitted by women have increased from 30 to 40%.
Each project is awarded 1.5 million euros for five years. Based on estimates, these resources will create 3,160 jobs in the field of research.