Bio-inspired navigation system
January 18, 2023
The A*Midex University Foundation aims to support the development of a world-class higher education and research cluster in terms of research, training and innovation in the Aix-Marseille University area. It facilitates, accompanies and accelerates structuring projects for the Aix-Marseille site so that it is identified as a player capable of meeting the societal and scientific challenges of today and tomorrow.
For the Start-up Partnership call of the Transfer Program – whose objective is to encourage the development of collaborations between academic actors and young start-ups incubated on the Aix-Marseille site – the A*Midex University Foundation awarded a 108K€ grant to the NANOPOL project (Optical compass bio-inspired by NANO-printing of POLARIZING filters).
The project is led by Julien Serres at the Institut des Sciences du Mouvement – Etienne Jules Marey (ISM) in partnership SOLNIL. Taking inspiration from the desert ant, Julien Serres team (https://serres-lab.com/fr/) developed navigation and localization algorithms and sensors that can work in environments not covered by the GPS (for “Global Positioning System”) system. SOLNIL’s technology is enabling the miniaturization and the low-cost fabrication