The multidisciplinary ORION project involves three partners who have been collaborating since already several years. The first partner is specialized in the synthesis of semiconducting materials for organic photovoltaic applications (N. Leclerc team from ICPEES). The second partner is specialized in the synthesis of molecular organic fuorophores and fast electron transfer processes (R. Ziessel team, ICPEES laboratory). The third partner is recognized for its expertise in the elaboration and advanced characterization of organic photovoltaic devices (T. Heiser team, Icube). The ORION project relates to the first main topic of the PROGELEC program (photovoltaic energy production) and addresses more specifically the sub-theme 1.2 (thin films devices) by targeting the increase of the power conversion efficiency as well as the stability of organic solar cells. The ORION project aims to elaborate efficient and stable solar cells (power conversion efficiency of the order of 9%) from soluble electron donor small molecules. In the first part of the project, the partners will investigated and to circumvent photovoltaic performance limitations observed during preliminary studies on two original chemical platforms: the boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) and the triazatruxene (TAT). Each platform allowed the present consortium to reach already power conversion efficiencies in the 5% range. The first part of the ORION project is dedicated to identify and overcome the limiting factors and to enhance the power conversion efficiency up to an expected 9% (according to Scharber’s semi-empirical model). This part involves both partners for either the synthesis of new molecules (with broad absorption spectra, strong absorption coefficients and efficient intermolecular charge transport) and for the advanced physical characterization of already synthesized or newly designed molecules (charge transport, bimolecular recombination rate and photovoltaic properties). In the second part of the project, the partners will target an enhanced stability of the photovoltaic devices active layer. This more fundamental research part will be based mainly on the TAT platform and the basic idea is to promote supramolecular interactions either between the soluble donor small molecules or between the electron donor and the electron acceptor (PCBM derivative) constituents. These supramolecular interactions are expected to stabilize the active layer. Different ideas will be explored involving the chemical synthesis of functionalized soluble electron donor small molecules and/or PCBM derivatives. These advanced chemical synthesis concepts will be experimentally confirmed by photovoltaic devices lifetime measurements. This second part also involves both partners of the ORION project.

The MultiFlag project focuses on the design and the control of new bio-inspired microrobotic systems for future applications in the field of bioengineering. Three scientific objectives are targeted by the project: the design of multiple magnetic flagella micro-robots with optimized propulsion properties in highly viscous liquids, the design of an innovative reconfigurable robotic system to generate rotating magnetic fields in a maximized workspace, and the simultaneous control of the microrobots by the system in reduced environments. The project focuses on proposing a demonstrator to show these new opportunities around a phantom task for an operation of the spinal cord. Different performance indices will be evaluated around this task, such as the work area and displacement accuracy. This unique demonstrator opens a new door for future applications linking (micro) robotics and health at large. Research themes in achieving the main goal are numerous. They cover various topics such as the simulation of locomotion at low Reynolds number, the design of magnetic micro-robots with several flagella, the synthesis of tensegrity mechanisms based robotic systems, or the redundant and simultaneous control of magnetic systems in constrained environments. To achieve this challenge, the project members have established a taskforce with 3 PhDs co-supervised by 3 task leaders and a demonstrator all in one place, at the ISIR laboratory on the site of the UPMC, where a dedicated room will be available only for this demonstrator. This project is part of the strong (national and European) priorities in robotics and health engineering. It would confirm the place of France among the leading teams in this area of ??research. Its impact will be maximized by a wide distribution and at high level publications (Nature and Arte for exemple). Its originality will be an unfathomable source for social and economic benefits. This project involves the best teams in the field of robotics and micro-robotics. It also relies on extensive experience in the field of health and bioengineering. The leader of this project, Stephane Regnier, has seen his work recognized in the field by obtaining the IUF in 2015 and the magazine La Recherche prize for his work in magnetic micro-robotics.

Neurodegenerative and relative diseases have become the main priority of health authorities in developed and developing countries. In France only, about 860,000 persons suffer from the Alzheimer syndrome with 220,000 new cases reported each year, whereas more than 120,000 persons are affected by the Parkinson disease. However, in its latest report, the « Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) », clearly underlined the lack of efficiency of the current treatments, that are more palliative than therapeutic. This is especially true when diagnosis comes too late, i.e. even at the first signs of memory and/or motricity loss. The HAS also underlined that screening and diagnosis methods for these pathologies have received too few novel scientific investigations over the last decade. NEMRO project is part of the challenge of "Health and Well-Being" in its principal axis "Biomedical Innovation". It deals with the relationship between the neurodegenerative diseases and the olfactory deficiency. Several recent clinical studies (often statistical studies) have demonstrated an existing correlation between the loss of smell and the appearance of these pathologies. The olfactory deficit is a reliable precursor sign of a possible neuronal degeneration. Despite this significant advance in the understanding of neurodegenerative disease and related disorders, few ambitious scientific research to understand the origin, evolution and possible means to reverse these diseases by targeted therapies. The reasons for these studies remained at a clinical stage are many and varied. It is particularly difficult to access the olfactory mucosa located at the termination of the nasal walls with a diameter less than 3 mm. In addition to this is the lack of characterization/visualization techniques of the olfactory cells whose individual size is about a hundred micrometers. NEMRO plans to develop a nasal endoscopy system equipped with a fiber-based OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) imaging system. This nasal endoscope consists of a miniature robotic system (the diameter is less than 2 mm) and flexible. The design of the robot will be based on the use of a hybrid actuation: remote by a specific mechatronic system and an embedded actuation based on the use of electroactive materials (polymers). This system will provide an in-vivo dynamic characterization and non-invasive technique to perform 3D high resolution images (3D optical biopsies). These approaches will allow analyzing, with high accuracy (in 3D), the shape and the texture of the olfactory system, similar to histological studies. In a short term, this system gives a unique and reliable experimental investigation technique to understand/diagnosis of certain neurodegenerative diseases. It will also monitor the evolution, over time, the loss of smell and its effect on neuronal degeneration. Through these medical goals, breaking with current practices in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, NEMRO will be a project with a high scientific potential, which can lead to significant breakthroughs (better understanding of olfaction, early diagnosis, etc.) and open new ways for scientific research (effective therapy). In addition to this, NEMRO provides high-level scientific contributions: intrinsically safe micromechatronics design, OCT-based control schemes, applied mathematical methods for Compressed Sensing. It will also be the same for technological innovations and contributions (miniature and flexible robotic endoscopy with hybrid actuation remote/embedded).

High speed imaging is a booming activity with the ideal application of CMOS technology imagers. It makes it possible to acquire a fast single event at a fast sampling and frame rate and to observe it at a reduced frame rate. It finds many applications in motion analysis, explosives, ballistic, biomechanics research, crash test, airbag deployment, manufacturing, production line monitoring, deformation, droplet formation, fluid dynamics, particle, spray, shock & vibration, etc. High speed video imaging is currently driven by some industrial manufacturers such as Photron, Redlake, Drs Hadland, which design their own sensors. The current industrial most efficient imagers offer a speed of 22,000 frames per second (fps) for a spatial resolution of 1280x800 pixels, i.e. 22 Gpixel/s. This speed is not restricted by the electronics of the pixel but by the sensors chip inputs/outputs interconnections. The conventional operation mode based on extracting the sensor data at each acquisition of a new image is a real technological barrier that limits the scope of high speed cameras to the study of transient phenomena that last for a few hundred microseconds. The FALCON project's main goal is to overcome this technological barrier, increasing the acquisition speed by three orders of magnitude by proposing a sensor capable of taking up to 100 million fps while increasing the sampling rate up to 10 TeraPixel/s. To accomplish this, the classical approach of extracting image sensor should be abandoned in favor of a new one which makes it possible to eradicate the inputs/outputs bottleneck. Several studies mention the realization of high-speed image sensors based on the principle of "burst" imagers (BIS Burst Image Sensor). Since it is impossible to get the frames out of the sensor as they are acquired, the idea is to store all the images in the sensor and execute the readout afterward, after the end of the event to be recorded. So far, all the developed BIS based on this principle use a totally analog approach in the form of a monolithic sensor. The size of the embedded memory is generally limited to a hundred frames, the pixel pitch is around 50 µm and the acquisition rate is in the order of 10 Mfps for large 2D arrays. Furthermore, research works mention little data about the signal to noise ratio (SNR), but the leakage current of the storage capacities degrades the signal quality and the effect is more noticeable when the readout duration is high, i.e. when the number of stored images is large. This phenomenon limits, once again, the number of storable images in analog BIS forms. In general, a maximal SNR of 45 dB is obtained. The FALCON project is based on a device concept in total disruption with previous works, by implementing the possibilities offered by the emergent microelectronics 3D technologies in order to increase the performance of this type of sensor while also adding more features to it. A PhD work started in 2012 in collaboration between the CEA Leti and the ICube laboratory helped to determine an optimal sensor architecture that takes advantage of the 3D technology. A particularity of the proposed architecture is the in-line analog to digital conversion at full speed. This study shows that the proposed new approach increases the number of stored images, while increasing the signal to noise ratio. It has also brought light to the potential problems of heat dissipation inherent to both fast circuits and 3D technologies. The methodological aspects of the design are also at the center of the project seeing that architecture/partitioning and electronic/thermal co-designs are necessary to carry out this type of conception. New tools and methods for the design of integrated heterogeneous systems are needed. The ultimate objective of the project is a high definition 1200x1200 pixels, 10 Mega fps with more than 1000 frames embedded digital memory. The project is pushing the performances of all the system bricks to the state of the art.

Road infrastructures construction and renovation in the framework of sustainable development should nowadays include future scarcity issues, such as oil byproducts. Considering the existing road heritage, at least in France, renovation constitutes a major challenge. The ageing of infrastructures requires the development of Ecological reengineering affordable solutions, which allow for total, partial, even gradual, renovation. In the area of new construction, the question is to develop and implement solutions minimizing environmental and energy impacts, under managed costs, during the construction phase but also throughout the pavement lifespan. Grids, notably glass fiber grids, are an efficient and economical solution for asphalt pavement stiffening, to increase their lifespan and slow down the coming up to the surface of cracks, as well on new pavements as well as for reinforcement. Grids are used for reinforcement, to improve the traction performances and cracking resistance. As for every composite product, this is of paramount importance that the support and the matrix constitute a “unique” product in situ. Moreover, this cover should not lose performance during the application and when it is subject to constraints related to stress under traffic loadings. Nowadays, the grids are more and more used to improve the pavement lifespan, but this use mainly lays upon empirical rules, which are based on learnings from past experience. This project aims at gathering laboratories studies, observations from full size tests and modelings, in order to: • Improve the grids design: arrangement of threads and resins, opening of the stitch. • Improve the tests used for the laboratory characterisation of the grids mechanical performances: traction, indentation and fatigue tests on grids, resistance tests during implementation, fatigue tests on reinforced asphalt concrete • Better understand, through laboratory and full size tests, the impact of implementation conditions on the grids behavior, the sticking of asphalt concrete layers, and their modus operandi in pavement, with various asphalt materials (hot, warm) • Develop models suitable for describing the mechanical behavior and evaluating the reinforced materials lifespan. • Verify the possibility of integral recycling of these materials • Engineer evaluation methods of economical impacts and apply a method for analysing the life cycle assessment to evaluate environmental impacts of the reinforcement process. As expected results, one can list the optimisation of the grid mechanical properties in the context of existing pavements reinforcement and new pavements, relating experimental studies in laboratory with in situ studies on in situ and fatigue test tracks. The scientific and theoretical originality lies in the engineering of a model coupling fatigue and damage to predict the influence of the reinforcement grids on fatigue behavior of a reinforced pavement structure. Special attention will be devoted to the issue of quantification of grid spoiling during its implementation and sticking. This last idea will be the object of a laboratory test. Finally, the environmental impact of road strengthening by fiberglass grids will be considered from the manufacture of the grid to its full recycling and its use with warm mix asphalts, these latter being set to grow.