[5] Over the past 20 years, he has put significant effort into understanding and designing small aerial machines with biologically-inspired perception, morphology, and behaviour that can be operated in novel ways by, and around, humans.

[14] Floreano and his team later also studied sound-based swarming and have shown that a quadcopter equipped with a microphone array could detect the range and bearing of another emitting high-frequency chirps.

In parallel to the design and autonomous control of aerial swarms, Dario Floreano has been studying body-machine interfaces for more intuitive and immersive tele-robotic operation of drones.

[18] Floreano also developed a soft exoskeleton, called a FlyJacket, coupled with virtual reality goggles and smart gloves to allow non-expert persons to naturally control a drone in search and rescue missions.

[26] Current work at the LIS also investigates avian-inspired drones, which can morph both their wing and tail surfaces by folding feathers and changing sweep angles in order to improve flight capabilities.

Amongst other examples, Floreano and his team work on new designs for a soft tensegrity robots, which could roll and jump, promising potential applications in disaster mitigation or space exploration.

[38] Most recently, Floreano has been interested in the variable stiffness capabilities of tensegrity systems, which would incorporate novel technologies based on smart materials and elaborate manufacturing techniques.

For example, he developed variable stiffness cables based on low melting point alloy (LMPA) smart materials, which could be toggled between rigid and soft states of tensegrity modules.

[40] Another recent example involves dual stiffness rod elements, which can be integrated in the design of robotic joints for rovers and drones to increase their impact and collision resilience.