arXiv subjects

M. Kovac

Publications and source records attributed to M. Kovac.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Hydrodynamic Performance Enhancement of Unmanned Underwater Gliders with Soft Robotic Morphing Wings for Agility Improvement

This work assesses the hydrodynamic efficiency of Underwater Unmanned Vehicles (UUVs) equipped with soft morphing wings compared to conventional rigid wings. Unlike rigid wings, deformable counterparts can alter their aerodynamic properties on demand. Improvements in hydrodynamic efficiency extend a UUV's operational range and may determine mission feasibility. Structural and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted for both a soft morphing wing and a UUV incorporating it. The results show that a UUV employing soft wings achieves 9.75 percent higher overall efficiency than an equivalent vehicle with traditional rigid wings. These findings confirm the potential of soft robotics to enhance underwater vehicle performance, particularly in applications requiring pressure-agnostic operation.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

AMBER: A tether-deployable gripping crawler with compliant microspines for canopy manipulation

This paper presents an aerially deployable crawler designed for adaptive locomotion and manipulation within tree canopies. The system combines compliant microspine-based tracks, a dual-track rotary gripper, and an elastic tail, enabling secure attachment and stable traversal across branches of varying curvature and inclination. Experiments demonstrate reliable gripping up to 90$^\circ$ body roll and inclination, while effective climbing on branches inclined up to 67.5$^\circ$, achieving a maximum speed of 0.55 body lengths per second on horizontal branches. The compliant tracks allow yaw steering of up to 10$^\circ$, enhancing maneuverability on irregular surfaces. Power measurements show efficient operation with a dimensionless cost of transport over an order of magnitude lower than typical hovering power consumption in aerial robots. The crawler provides a robust, low-power platform for environmental sampling and in-canopy sensing. The aerial deployment is demonstrated at a conceptual and feasibility level, while full drone-crawler integration is left as future work.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

TumblerBots: Tumbling Robotic sensors for Minimally-invasive Benthic Monitoring

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 depiction of the undisturbed environmental condition. In response to this challenge, we propose a novel framework utilizing a lightweight tumbler system equipped with a sensing unit, deployed via a drone. This design minimizes disruption to the water habitat by maintaining a slow descent. The sensing unit is detached once on the water surface, enabling precise and non-invasive data collection from the benthic zone. The tumbler is designed to be lightweight and compact, enabling deployment via a drone. The sensing pod, which detaches from the tumbler and descends to the bottom of the water body, is equipped with temperature and pressure sensors, as well as a buoyancy system. The later, activated upon task completion, utilizes a silicon membrane inflated via a chemical reaction. The reaction generates a pressure of 70 kPa, causing the silicon membrane to expand by 30\%, which exceeds the 5.7\% volume increase required for positive buoyancy. The tumblers, made from ecofriendly materials to minimize environmental impact when lost during the mission, were tested for their gliding ratio and descent rate. They exhibit a low descent rate, in the range of 0.8 to 2.5 meters per seconds, which minimizes disturbance to the ecosystem upon water landing. Additionally, the system demonstrated robustness in moderate to strong wind conditions during outdoor tests, validating the overall framework.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2012

Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions

This Report summarises the results of the second year's activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group. The main goal of the working group was to present the state of the art of Higgs Physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first working group report Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002) focuses on predictions (central values and errors) for total Higgs production cross sections and Higgs branching ratios in the Standard Model and its minimal supersymmetric extension, covering also related issues such as Monte Carlo generators, parton distribution functions, and pseudo-observables. This second Report represents the next natural step towards realistic predictions upon providing results on cross sections with benchmark cuts, differential distributions, details of specific decay channels, and further recent developments.

hep-ph↗