Bachelor
Bachelor Theses at IRIS
HandoverNarrate: Language-Guided Task-Aware Motion Planning for Handovers with Legged Manipulators
This project addresses the challenge of task-oriented human-robot handovers, where a robot must transfer objects in a manner that directly facilitates the human’s next action. In our prior work, we demonstrated that robots can present objects appropriately for immediate human use by leveraging large language models (LLMs) to reason about task context. However, integrating task-specific physical constraints—such as ensuring a full mug remains upright during transport—into the motion planning process remains unsolved. In this project, we aim to extend our existing motion planning framework for legged manipulators by incorporating such constraints. We propose using LLMs to dynamically generate task-aware constraint formulations based on high-level task descriptions and object states. These constraints will then be used to adjust the cost function of the model predictive controller in real time, enabling more context-sensitive and physically appropriate handovers.
Keywords
language-guided motion planning, legged robotics, human-robot collaboration
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2025-10-13
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Organization Robotic Systems Lab
Hosts Tulbure Andreea
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences
How to Touch: Exploring Tactile Representations for Reinforcement Learning
Developing and benchmarking tactile representations for dexterous manipulation tasks using reinforcement learning.
Keywords
Reinforcement Learning, Dexterous Manipulation, Tactile Sensing
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-10-05 , Earliest start: 2025-11-01 , Latest end: 2026-06-01
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Organization Robotic Systems Lab
Hosts Bhardwaj Arjun , Zurbrügg René
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences
Simulation of cellular-force-microscopy-integrated lab-on-a-chip devices for in-situ biohybrid microrobot characterization
Microfluidic devices can be employed in biological research as lab-on-a-chip (LoC) and organ-on-a-chip (OoC) systems. These platforms enable precise in-situ cell manipulation within a highly controlled environment and have proven beneficial for the large-scale production of biohybrid magnetic microrobots. Integrating the LoC devices with the cellular force microscope (CFM) allows for real-time monitoring and in-situ mechanical characterization of biohybrid magnetic microrobots during their production and incubation. The goal of this project is to design and simulate an intelligent LoC/OoC device integrated with CFM for in-situ monitoring and characterization during microrobot production and drug testing.
Keywords
Lab-on-a-chip, organ-on-a-chip, magnetic microrobot, cellular force microscope, simulation
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2025-09-09 , Earliest start: 2025-09-09 , Latest end: 2026-03-31
Organization Multiscale Robotics Lab
Hosts Zhu Jiawei
Topics Engineering and Technology
Reinforcement Learning for Magnetic Levitation
This project explores the control of freely levitating objects in space using electromagnetic navigation using reinforcement learning. By generating controlled magnetic fields, we can wirelessly manipulate the position and orientation of the levitating magnetic object. A fully functional experimental platform is already available, providing a rich testbed for exploring advanced control strategies.
Keywords
reinforcement learning
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-09-01 , Earliest start: 2025-09-02 , Latest end: 2026-12-31
Organization Multiscale Robotics Lab
Hosts Zughaibi Jasan
Topics Engineering and Technology
Design data acquisition solution for smart clothing
The aim of this project is to develop and improve wearable electronics solutions for data acquisition from textile-based sensors used in our smart clothing.
Keywords
smart clothing, wearable technology, textile sensor, fitness tracking, sports medicine, PCB, electronics, computer science
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Semester Project , Internship , Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2025-08-27 , Earliest start: 2025-07-01 , Latest end: 2025-12-31
Organization Biomedical and Mobile Health Technology Lab
Hosts Ahmadizadeh Chakaveh
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
ADHD-Biomarker Study: Software development of Data Collection and Data Management Structures
The Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory (ReLab), ETH Zurich is running a paediatric study that integrates fNIRS, EEG, eye-tracking and motion sensing to establish objective biomarkers for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). You will create the technical backbone of a multimodal data-collection setup – coding computerized attention tests, synchronizing hardware, and delivering clean, well-documented datasets for downstream research.
Keywords
ADHD, Biomarker, fNIRS, EEG, Eye-tracking, Motion sensing, Data collection, Data management, Software engineering
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Semester Project , Course Project , Internship , Lab Practice , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2025-08-08 , Earliest start: 2025-08-10 , Latest end: 2026-03-31
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Schönhammer Josef
Topics Medical and Health Sciences , Engineering and Technology , Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences
ADHD-Biomarker Study: Neuropsychological Task Development and Data Analytics
The Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory (ReLab), ETH Zurich is running a pediatric study that integrates fNIRS, EEG, eye-tracking and motion sensing to establish objective biomarkers for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). You will drive the scientific backbone of the project – optimizing child-specific task parameters, leading participant interaction, and conducting and presenting statistical analyses.
Keywords
ADHD, Biomarkers, Neuropsychology, fNIRS, EEG, Eye-tracking, Motion Capture, Data Analytics, Statistical Analysis
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Semester Project , Course Project , Internship , Lab Practice , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2025-08-08 , Earliest start: 2025-08-10 , Latest end: 2026-03-31
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Schönhammer Josef
Topics Medical and Health Sciences , Engineering and Technology , Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences
Learning-based Control for Magnetic Levitation
This project explores the control of freely levitating objects in space using electromagnetic navigation, as illustrated in the image above. By generating controlled magnetic fields, we can wirelessly manipulate the position and orientation of the levitating magnetic object. A fully functional experimental platform is already available, providing a rich testbed for exploring advanced control strategies.
Keywords
magnetic levitation control, learning-based control, Model Predictive Control
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-08-06 , Earliest start: 2025-08-07 , Latest end: 2026-12-31
Organization Multiscale Robotics Lab
Hosts Zughaibi Jasan
Topics Engineering and Technology
Mechanistic Evaluation of taVNS in Motor Adaptation for Stroke Rehabilitation
This study aims to evaluate the mechanisms by which transauricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) may facilitate motor learning and adaptation, focusing on reticulospinal tract (RST) activation. A set of assessments will be used to build a comprehensive neurophysiological profile, providing insights relevant to developing taVNS-based clinical interventions. In this role, you will engage in study design, data collection, and analysis, gaining hands-on experience in mechanistic neurophysiological research with direct clinical applications.
Keywords
Transauricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) Reticulospinal tract (RST) Motor learning StartReact paradigm Stroke rehabilitation Neurophysiology Multisite EMG Motor pathway activation Clinical neurostimulation
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Semester Project , Internship , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-08-04 , Earliest start: 2024-11-24 , Latest end: 2025-10-26
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Viskaitis Paulius
Topics Medical and Health Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Development of flexible, biocompatible electrodes for vagus nerve stimulation therapy
Stroke is the most common cause of disability and as many as 14 million people suffer a stroke every year. Typical therapy today is focused on physical exercises and rarely combats the core of the problem - the interactions between the motor actions and the activity patterns of the injured brain. Therefore, we are developing a cutting-edge medical device that helps combine physical therapy with a non-invasive brain stimulation. This is expected to boost recovery after stroke and make this advanced neuro-therapy accessible to millions of people who need it.
Keywords
Biocompatibility Conductive Materials Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) Transcutaneous VNS (tVNS) Stroke Rehabilitation Therapy Medical Device Engineering Electrode Design and Prototyping Materials Science Biomedical Engineering Neurorehabilitation Clinical Usability Patient-Centred Design
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-07-22 , Earliest start: 2024-11-24 , Latest end: 2025-10-31
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Viskaitis Paulius
Topics Medical and Health Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Development and Testing of Electrical Systems for a SmartVNS Docking Station with Focus on Wireless Data Management
We are looking for an enthusiastic electrical/firmware engineer to design and implement the electrical and firmware aspects of a docking station for the SmartVNS device. The station will charge the device components (pulse generator and wrist motion tracker) and pull data from the pulse generator and motion tracker, uploading it to an online server via Wi-Fi. This project will also involve testing the reliability of data transfer and power systems under real-world conditions, providing valuable insights into the practical application of this technology.
Keywords
Electrical, embedded, electronic, engineering, biomedical
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Internship , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-07-17 , Earliest start: 2024-08-18 , Latest end: 2025-10-01
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Viskaitis Paulius
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Computational Modeling of Muscle Dynamics for Biohybrid Robots
This research aims to advance biohybrid robotics by integrating living biological components with artificial materials. The focus is on developing computational models for artificial muscle cells, a critical element in creating biohybrid robots. Challenges include modeling the complex and nonlinear nature of biological muscles, considering factors like elasticity and muscle fatigue, as well as accounting for fluid-structure interaction in the artificial muscle's environment. The research combines first principle soft body simulation methods and machine learning to improve understanding and control of biohybrid systems.
Keywords
Biohybrid Robotics, Computational Models, Soft Body Simulation, Finite Element Method (FEM), Muscle Dynamics, Soft Robotics
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-07-11 , Earliest start: 2025-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-02-01
Organization Soft Robotics Lab
Hosts Mekkattu Manuel , Katzschmann Robert, Prof. Dr.
Topics Mathematical Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology , Biology , Physics
GPU Acceleration of Soft Robot Modeling: Enhancing Performance with CUDA
We are enhancing soft robot modeling by developing a GPU-accelerated version of our FEM-based framework using CUDA. This research focuses on optimizing parallel computations to significantly speed up simulations, enabling larger problem sizes and real-time control. By improving computational efficiency, we aim to advance soft robotics research and facilitate more detailed, dynamic simulations.
Keywords
Soft Body Simulation, high-performance computing, GPU programming, Parallel Computing, Finite Element Method (FEM), Multiphysics Simulation
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Published since: 2025-07-11 , Earliest start: 2025-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-02-01
Organization Soft Robotics Lab
Hosts Katzschmann Robert, Prof. Dr. , Mekkattu Manuel
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Advancing Soft Robot Modeling: Integrating Physics, Optimization, and Control
We are advancing soft robot simulation with FEM and energy-based methods to model complex, adaptive behaviors. This research entails developing the framework to support diverse designs, integrate new physics models, and optimize performance, enabling enhanced control and real-world applications of soft robots.
Keywords
Soft Robotics, Finite Element Method (FEM), Physical Modeling, Benchmarking, Optimization, Multiphysics Simulation, Sim-to-Real
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-07-11 , Earliest start: 2025-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-02-01
Organization Soft Robotics Lab
Hosts Mekkattu Manuel , Katzschmann Robert, Prof. Dr.
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Perceptive Bipedal‑Wheeled Locomotion Using Direct Depth‑Camera Inputs
Recent work [1] trains perceptive quadrupedal locomotion policies directly from depth images using teacher‑student distillation and RL fine‑tuning, achieving robust traversal over challenging terrain. The egocentric vision problem usually requires RL fine-tuning or more complex training schemes to enable active perception due to the information gap between teacher and student observations. This project aims to bring depth camera-based perceptive locomotion policies to a wheeled-bipedal robot. We believe that this might be more adequate than elevation map-based perception, due to the highly dynamic nature of its locomotion. We put high emphasis on novel training schemes to reduce the number of training phases. Initial inspiration could be drawn from [2]. References: [1]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11164 [2]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.09149
Keywords
Perceptive locomotion · Depth camera · Bipedal‑wheeled Robot · End‑to‑end RL · Sim‑to‑real
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-07-09
Organization Robotic Systems Lab
Hosts Schwarke Clemens , Klemm Victor
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Learning Continuous-Time Feedback Laws for Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning
Hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) typically operates by decomposing tasks into high-level planners and low-level controllers. While high-level policies often evolve at discrete timescales, the low-level controller must generate fast, robust behaviors. This is usually framed as feedback laws or motion trajectories. In this project, we propose to learn continuous-time dynamical systems in the form of ODEs as low-level feedback controllers. The idea is to learn an ordinary differential equation (ODE) whose integral curve realizes the low-level trajectory, or whose vector field provides feedback behavior. These models offer several advantages: they are interpretable, temporally coherent, and can generalize better under time perturbations. The student will implement and evaluate ODE-based controllers within a hierarchical RL setup and compare their performance against standard low-level policy architectures (e.g., feedforward MLPs, recurrent policies). We are also open to shape the projects in the context of operator learning. References as inspiration: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.07366 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1909.12077 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.04439 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.15715
Keywords
Reinforcement Learning, Neural ODEs, Feedback Control, Hierarchical Policies, Continuous-Time Policies, Operator Learning
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-07-07
Organization Robotic Systems Lab
Hosts Klemm Victor
Topics Mathematical Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Rigid Body Dynamics as Sum of Squares: Reformulation and Investigation with Optimality Certificates
Rigid-body dynamics are foundational to robotics and mechanical systems. Surprisingly, although their equations often contain trigonometric or rational terms, they can typically be reformulated as (rational) polynomial systems. This opens the door to a powerful toolset: Sum-of-Squares (SOS) optimization. In this project, the student will explore how to reformulate the equations of rigid-body systems into polynomial forms suitable for SOS-based analysis (or its dual, the moment hierarchy). Through this lens, many classic robotics problems, such as verifying the global stability of visuomotor controller [1] or certifying optimality of solutions [2], can be recast as (convex) optimization problems. This project will investigate how far these methods scale: Can we extend them to complex robots? Can we prove properties like exponential stability or generate globally valid Lyapunov functions for general mechanical systems? Can we extract optimality certificates for complex dynamic trajectories? The student will implement tools for converting rigid-body models (e.g., simple pendulums, planar robots) into their polynomial equivalents, and then apply SOS programming and S-procedure techniques to verify Lyapunov stability or derive optimal controllers. References: [1] G. Chou and R. Tedrake, “Synthesizing Stable Reduced-Order Visuomotor Policies for Nonlinear Systems via Sums-of-Squares Optimization,” in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2023. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2304.12405. [2] S. Teng, A. Jasour, R. Vasudevan, and M. Jadidi, “Convex Geometric Motion Planning on Lie Groups via Moment Relaxation,” in Robotics: Science and Systems XIX, 2023. doi: 10.15607/RSS.2023.XIX.058.
Keywords
Rigid-Body Dynamics, Polynomial Systems, SOS Optimization, Lyapunov Stability, Convex Programming
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-07-07
Organization Robotic Systems Lab
Hosts Klemm Victor
Topics Mathematical Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Volumetric Bioprinting of Engineered Muscle Tissues
We are working with an innovative volumetric printing technique – Xolography – to fabricate engineered muscle tissues that function as bioactuators for biohybrid systems. You will work at the interface between biology and robotics, helping us exploring new designs and strategies to advance the field of muscle tissue engineering and muscle-powered living machines.
Keywords
bioprinting, muscle, tissue engineering, 3D cell culture, hydrogels, biohybrid robotics, regenerative medicine, 3D models, biomaterials, biofabrication.
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2025-06-27 , Earliest start: 2025-07-15
Organization Soft Robotics Lab
Hosts Badolato Asia
Topics Medical and Health Sciences , Engineering and Technology , Chemistry , Biology
CI/CD Automation and Testing for Embedded Systems
Design and implement a robust CI/CD pipeline for our embedded software development.
Keywords
firmware, embedded, github, cicd, workflow
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Semester Project , Internship , Lab Practice , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis , Summer School
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Published since: 2025-06-23
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Viskaitis Paulius
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences
Flash Storage and USB Communication for Embedded Systems
This project targets performance and feature enhancements to a firmware module that manages data transfers from flash memory to a host PC over USB (CDC/ACM). The goal is to improve system reliability, throughput, and communication efficiency for data logging or diagnostic use cases.
Keywords
embedded, c programming, firmware, flash memory, usb
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Published since: 2025-06-23
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Viskaitis Paulius
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Doxygen Documentation Pipeline for Embedded Firmware
You will help improve the usability and maintainability of Skaaltec’s embedded firmware codebase by integrating automated documentation generation using Doxygen.
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Semester Project , Internship , Lab Practice , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis , Summer School
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Published since: 2025-06-23
Organization Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
Hosts Viskaitis Paulius
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences