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Politecnico di Milano, SIGMA Lab

News

News

Project launches, laboratory openings and research milestones, as published by the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Each entry links to the full article.

Articles
11

11 articles

2024

· Space

Favouring planetary space exploration exploiting digital twin and HUMS

The DIGES project nears completion: a digital twin of a lunar exploration rover, paired with a health and usage monitoring system that detects anomalies and supports mission continuity. The rover design borrows from NASA's Perseverance and ESA's Rosalind Franklin. Machine learning optimises the thermal system in real time, while the twin simulates battery short circuits, motor failures and solar panel degradation to test damage detection and Kalman-filter parameter updating. Coordinated by Marco Giglio and Francesco Cadini, funded by the Italian Space Agency.

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2022

· European Defence Fund

dTHOR — Digital Ship Structural Health Monitoring

Selected in the 2021 European Defence Fund call, one of 61 projects sharing roughly €1.2 billion of EU support. dTHOR builds a ship structural health monitoring system from large volumes of load and response measurements, a digital framework built on recognised open standards for data exchange, and hybrid analysis combining physics-based and data-driven models. It targets damage assessment, structural integrity evaluation and a reduced hydro-acoustic signature. A 35-member consortium over 36 months; the Politecnico team is led by Giglio, Sbarufatti, Cadini and Manes.

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· European Defence Fund

COMMANDS — Convoy Operations with Manned-unManneD Systems

Also from the 2021 European Defence Fund results. COMMANDS develops through-life capabilities for agile, intelligent and cooperative manned and unmanned land systems, addressing how unmanned ground vehicles operate in unstructured environments where satellite signal is degraded or denied. The work includes a laboratory demonstrator and a mobile demonstrator built around a last-kilometre resupply convoy with force protection. A 21-member consortium over 36 months; the Politecnico contribution covers digital twins, AI algorithms and HUMS.

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· Space

The DIGES project: digital twin of lunar exploration systems

Launch of the bilateral project between the Italian Space Agency and Politecnico di Milano applying digital twin and health monitoring methods to lunar exploration systems, with Giglio, Cadini and Sbarufatti leading the Politecnico contribution.

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· Materials

Test and calibration of mechanical properties of composite materials

Department feature on the group's experimental and inverse-calibration work establishing the mechanical properties of composite materials.

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2021

· European Defence Agency

SAMAS 2: a step forward in the structural integrity and safety of military helicopters

An EDA Category B project running 2021 to 2024, following HECTOR, ASTYANAX and SAMAS. It builds a structural health monitoring and prognosis system for two damage types, corrosion degradation and ballistic impact, combining model-based and data-driven approaches within a digital twin, and targeting TRL 6 to 7 through laboratory and flight testing. Giglio is Project Manager, with Sbarufatti and Manes as technical leaders. Consortium: Leonardo Helicopters and CNR in Italy; AFIT, WZL1, the Institute of Aviation and the Military University of Technology in Poland.

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· Facilities

High Strain Rate: a new interdepartmental laboratory

The High Strain Rate Lab opens as an interdepartmental facility spanning Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Science and Technologies, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Electronics, Information and Bioengineering. Andrea Manes directs the research group on structural integrity under extreme loading conditions.

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· Materials

Self-sensing composite materials based on a network of carbon nanotubes: the MISTICO project

MISTICO explores composites that sense their own damage through an embedded network of carbon nanotubes, removing the need for separately installed sensors. Funded by the department's Young Researcher programme, with Claudio Sbarufatti as principal investigator.

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2020

· European Defence Agency

Design methods for the next generation of naval propellers: NEXTPROP

NEXTPROP develops hydro-elastic software and design tools for low-noise naval propellers, combining CFD, finite element analysis and fluid–structure interaction. Contracted through the European Defence Agency and funded by the ministries of defence of Italy, Norway and Poland, and coordinated by Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt. Manes and Giglio lead the Politecnico contribution.

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· European Defence Agency

PATCHBOND II

Repair of composite aeronautical structures using bonded composite patches, applied to parts such as the NH90 fuselage. The Politecnico contributes finite element modelling of the repair patches and a permanently installed sensor system for structural health monitoring, with Giglio, Sbarufatti, Andrea Bernasconi and Daniele Oboe. Partner countries: Finland, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

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· European Defence Agency

Remote demonstration of the SAMAS project

A remote demonstration of a sensorised wingbox performing real-time load monitoring, passive impact detection and active damage localisation. SAMAS ran 2017 to 2020 as an EDA Category B project, with Giglio as coordinator and Sbarufatti as scientific manager. Partners: the Politecnico Department of Mechanical Engineering, Leonardo S.p.A., and AFIT and Military Aviation Works No. 1 in Poland.

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