Edison Gerena, postdoctoral researcher in robotics at ISIR, won the first prize of the 2020 thesis of the French Research Robotics Network (GdR Robotics).
Edison Gerena is rewarded for his scientific contributions, the originality and excellence of his work, which has been rewarded with A rank publications on the subject “6 DOF Optical Driven Micro-Orobot with Force Feedback Capabilities for Interactive Bio-Manipulation”. His thesis work was supervised by Stéphane Régnier, Professor at Sorbonne University and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and by Sinan Haliyo, Senior Lecturer / HDR at Sorbonne University.
The GdR Robotics 2020 Thesis Prize was awarded to him during the National Robotics Research Day (JNRR2021) which took place on Thursday 14 October 2021 in Paris.
His current research focuses on the design and production of mobile microrobots for biomedical applications, and on innovative optical systems for cell manipulation and characterisation. He is also part of SATT Lutech‘s “Young Doctor” maturation programme, to promote the results of his thesis and define an optimal technology transfer strategy.
Summary of the thesis
Optical tweezers are used to probe and manipulate micro-metric samples in a liquid environment and have been successfully applied in a large number of in vivo and in vitro experiments. The ambition of this thesis is to provide a complete robotic optical forceps system, which gives the operator direct access to biophysical interactions in a 3D workspace, with a flexible and intuitive user interface. This innovative robotic instrument is particularly relevant for experimental biology and provides a unique platform for characterising the microworld. It presents the following major contributions:
- The generation of multiple optical traps in a 3D workspace with nanometer resolution suitable for real-time applications,
- A real-time 3D force sensor with picoNewton resolution suitable for closed-loop control,
- A telerobotic system, offering simple human/machine interaction and intuitive control of biological and synthetic micro-objects in 6dl,
- Optobots”, microstructures operated at 6 ddl and with an integrated force sensor, allowing the regulation of the interaction between robots and an uncertain environment.
Contact: Edison Gerena, postdoctoral researcher
