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About

Dario Stuhne is a robotics researcher whose work focuses on the intersection of autonomous systems, precision agriculture, and infrastructure maintenance. His key research areas include drone autonomy, agricultural robotics, and robotic manipulation for specialized tasks. Stuhne's major contributions center on developing practical robotic solutions for challenging real-world environments. He led the design of a novel wireless drone recharging station mountable on energized power lines (33 citations), enabling extended autonomous operations for infrastructure inspection. As part of the HEKTOR project, he contributed to heterogeneous autonomous robotic systems for viticulture and mariculture (18 and 16 citations), addressing labor-intensive tasks requiring extreme physical endurance. His innovative work includes a direct drive brush-shaped tool with torque sensing for compliant robotic vine suckering, replicating human skill for delicate agricultural operations. Stuhne has also developed systems for automated vine suckering using mobile robots, deep-micro-hole drilling that captures human operator skills, and magnetic gradient-based object localization for bridge inspection using UAVs. His research demonstrates a consistent focus on translating complex robotic capabilities into practical, deployable solutions for industry and agriculture.