Highlights
IAI - NIAOT (China) partnership
Within the framework of the Sino-Swiss Scientific Technical Cooperation agreement (SSSTC), and following a call for proposals of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER), an Institutional Partnership has been approved between IAI (for the HEIG-VD) and Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technology, which is the main chinese organisation in the development of astronomical telescopes and instrumentation.
A grant of 36'000 CHF is provided by SER to this partnership, named SSIPAI - Sino-Swiss Institutional Partnership on Astrophysics Instrumentation. An exchange programme is planned until april 2011, with reciprocal visits to present our respective projects and interest areas. THis is done in view of preparing and proposing joint projects and R&D collaborations in the areas of high-precision opto-mechanics and system engineering for astrophisics instruments.
SwissCube launched and deployed
SwissCube has been launched on septembre 23 at 8h21 MET. It was then deployed 20 minutes later.
The first spacecraft 100% «SwissMade» has been developed and built by students of several Western Switzerland universities and engineering schools, coordinated by their respective instutes and managed by EPFL Space Center.
The SwissCube scientific mission is to perform space-based observations of the airglow occurring in the upper atmosphere at an altitude of about 100 km. This light radiation is emitted at a wavelength of 762 nm around the Earth.
Two subsystems were principally developed at the HEIG-VD:
- The electrical power system
- The instrument optics and opto-mechanical system
Know-how and projects
Opto-mechatronic and systems engineering
- Inter- and pluridisciplinary applied science and engineering covering in particular the fields of mechatronics, precision motion, embedded systems, structures, thermal analysis, environmental modeling and impact problems simulation, measurements and tests.
- Pluridisciplinary projects involving a mix of technologies and applied sciences: mechatronics, computer programming, motion control, fine mechanics, optics, atmospheric phenomena, thermal control, motion.
- Design and realization of high-precision opto-mechatronics systems, integrating precision mechanics, electronics and software
“End-to-end” models of complex systems
- Simulation and mathematical modeling of designs, processes and physical phenomena
- Scientific and technical software applications
Publications
Contact
Prof. Lorenzo Zago
Institute of Industrial Automation
School of Engineering and Business of Canton de Vaud
Route de Cheseaux 1
CH-1401 Yverdon-les-Bains
Suisse
Tél: +41 (0)24 557 63 30
Fax: +41 (0)24 557 64 04
email
