Theses & Semester Projects
The Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control offers the following projects to ETH students:
- Studies on Mechatronics (SM)
- Bachelor Theses (BT)
- Semester Projects (SP)
- Master Theses (MT)
- You should read the ETH Citation Etiquette and working accordingly.
- For more information, read the ETH information on plagiarism.
- Furthermore, you are urged to use the Download IDSC Thesis Template (ZIP, 55.7 MB) to write your report.
How to apply:
- Please review the available projects below
- Send an email to the project contact.
Ex Vivo Perfusion Machine - Mechanical Design of the Disposable Set
Ex vivo perfusion machines keep organs alive outside the body by driving warm, oxygenated blood through their vessels. They help to address the organ shortage by turning marginal organs into transplantable ones. For mechanical engineering students, these systems show fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and control technology at work under real biological constraints. Pumps, sensors, and feedback loops must hold flow, pressure, and temperature within tight limits. Even small design choices influence organ viability. This thesis is an opportunity for you to have a direct impact on future transplant patients' lives.
Keywords
Mechanical Engineering, CAD, 3D printing, Bachelor's Thesis
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Bachelor Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2025-12-18 , Earliest start: 2026-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-06-01
Organization Research Onder
Hosts Machacek David
Topics Engineering and Technology
Ex Vivo Perfusion Machine - Modelling of Glucose Homeostasis
Ex vivo perfusion machines keep organs alive outside the body by driving warm, oxygenated blood through their vessels. They help to address the organ shortage by turning marginal organs into transplantable ones. For mechanical engineering students, these systems show fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and control technology at work under real biological constraints. Pumps, sensors, and feedback loops must hold flow, pressure, and temperature within tight limits. Even small design choices influence organ viability. This thesis is an opportunity for you to have a direct impact on future transplant patients' lives.
Keywords
Mechanical engineering, Biomedical engineering, Bachelor's thesis, Mathematical modelling
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Bachelor Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2025-12-18 , Earliest start: 2026-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-06-01
Organization Research Onder
Hosts Machacek David
Topics Engineering and Technology
Development of a Fully Automatic Syringe System to Investigate Drug Induced Liver Injury
Drug Induced Liver Injury (DILI) is a serious condition that can arise fom specific drugs, drug combinations, or their metabolites. We aim to improve safety during drug therapy by focusing on patientspecific DILI, by using cells that are taken from individual patients that therefore carry the genetic makeup and immunogenicity of the donor. Exposing these cells to drugs gives information on the tolerance of the patient to the specific drug. However, the cells not only need to be in contact with the drug, but they need flow exposure.
Keywords
Mechanical engineering, Master's thesis, Start-up, Biomedical engineering, Medtech
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Collaboration , Master Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2025-12-18 , Earliest start: 2026-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-11-30
Organization Research Onder
Hosts Machacek David
Topics Medical and Health Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Modelling and Optimal Control of a Turbocharger Gas-Flow Testbench
This master's thesis aims to develop a model-based optimal control strategy to accelerate the measurement process on a turbocharger gas-flow testbench. By modeling the temperature dynamics of the testbench and turbocharger housing, and identifying parameters from existing data, the project will enable faster transitions between operating points. The optimized control strategy will be compared to current methods, and additional focus will be placed on minimizing overall measurement time by optimizing the sequence of test points. The work supports Accelleron's efforts in efficient turbocharger characterization.
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-12-08 , Earliest start: 2025-12-01
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Research Onder
Hosts Widmer Fabio
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Multi-Agent Coordination without Communication using Inverse Optimal Control
As robotic systems such as drones and au tonomous vehicles become widespread, the ability of many agents to coordinate safely at high speed is critical. In this thesis, we focus on small-scale autonomous race cars that must plan and execute trajectories in the presence of other moving cars. Each car has only local sensing, a changing set of nearby opponents, and must still guarantee collision avoidance.
Keywords
Multi-Agent Control, Model Predictive Control, Inverse Optimal Control
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-12-04 , Earliest start: 2026-02-01
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Research Zeilinger
Hosts Rickenbach Rahel
Topics Engineering and Technology
The Way of Water: Development of a fleet of water-based drones for live performance
The Way of Water (wow.ethz.ch) fleet comprises 24 holonomic USVs, performing synchronized choreographies to music. Each vehicle is equipped with water fountains, RGB lighting, and mist generators, and utilizes a Fossen-based MPC with a multi-rate EKF (IMU + RTK-GPS) for tracking preplanned trajectories with ~5 cm accuracy. Time‐synced via GPS‐PPS, the swarm communicates over a hybrid Wi-Fi/4G network to broadcast real-time “trigger primitive” commands with <20 ms latency.
Keywords
Water based rovers, Electronics development, Distributed Robotics, Control Systems, Game design
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-12-01
Organization Research D'Andrea
Hosts Ramachandran Aswin
Topics Arts , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Patient upper body pose measurement system
This thesis aims to develop a patient upper-body pose measurement system suitable for multi-day monitoring in the intensive care unit. The system should reliably monitor head and spinal posture of the patient in the bed over several days to weeks without interfering with the care. The work will include selecting appropriate hardware, integrating the components into a system fit for bedside use, and creating a software pipeline for data acquisition and pose feature extraction. The system will then be validated on a healthy trial group as a prerequisite for clinical deployment.
Keywords
Biomedical, motion sensor, clinical study, estimation
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Semester Project , Internship
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Published since: 2025-11-29 , Earliest start: 2025-12-01 , Latest end: 2026-08-31
Organization Research Zeilinger
Hosts Heim Marco
Topics Engineering and Technology
Multiple-Animal Tracking and Pose Estimation
Animal models such as sheep provide valuable insights into cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics. Because posture strongly influences CSF pressure, linking continuous pressure measurements with accurate body pose is essential. This project develops a stereo vision–based setup and pose estimation pipeline to track multiple sheep over long periods despite occlusions and identity switches. Existing deep-learning frameworks for animal pose estimation will be adapted to meet the specific challenges of this environment.
Keywords
Biomedical Applications, Computer Vision, Pose Estimation
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Semester Project , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-11-28 , Earliest start: 2026-01-01 , Latest end: 2026-09-30
Organization Research Zeilinger
Hosts Roncoroni Martina
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Vision-based Autonomous Racing with F1Tenth Car
In this master thesis, our goal is to enable an F1Tenth car, an autonomous vehicle at 1:10 scale of a Formula 1 car, to race safely on a track that is perceived through RGB-D images captured by an onboard camera.
Keywords
vision-based control, autonomous racing, image processing
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-11-26
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Research Zeilinger
Hosts Trisovic Jelena
Topics Engineering and Technology
Teaching Assistant – Rocket-Like Drone Control
We are seeking a highly motivated student to join our team as a Teaching Assistant for a project on rocket-like drone platforms. The role involves developing control algorithms, state estimation, planning, and low-level firmware, with a focus on Model Predictive Control (MPC). The student will work approximately 15 hours per week and support live demos.
Keywords
Drone control, State estimation, Planning, Low-level control, C++, ROS, Firmware development, Robotics, MPC, Teaching Assistant
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Student Assistant / HiWi
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Published since: 2025-11-21 , Earliest start: 2025-12-01
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Research Zeilinger
Hosts Carron Andrea
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Master Thesis – Learning-Based MPC for Rocket-Like Drone Backflips
We are looking for a motivated master student to develop iterative learning-based Model Predictive Control (MPC) methods for a rocket-like drone. The goal is to perform agile maneuvers, including backflips, using a path-following approach inspired by recent advances in learning-based control. The thesis combines control, planning, and state estimation for experimental aerial robotics.
Keywords
In this master thesis, you will design and implement advanced control strategies for a rocket-like drone to perform agile maneuvers, such as backflips. The project focuses on iterative learning-based MPC with a path-following approach, inspired by techniques similar to this work [1]. Your tasks will include: 1) Developing an iterative learning-based MPC algorithm for agile manoeuvres 2) Integrating control with state estimation and low-level firmware on the drone platform 3) Performing simulations and experiments to validate control performance. We are looking for students who have: 1) Strong knowledge in control theory, including MPC and learning-based approaches. 2) Experience in ROS and C++ programming. 3) Interest in aerial robotics and experimental research. 4) Motivation for hands-on implementation and testing. This thesis provides a unique opportunity to work on cutting-edge drone control, combining theory and experiments on a rocket-like platform, and contributing to high-impact research in agile aerial robotics. [1] Pabon, Luis, et al. "Perfecting Periodic Trajectory Tracking: Model Predictive Control with a Periodic Observer (Π-MPC)." 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, 2024.
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-11-21 , Earliest start: 2026-01-15
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Research Zeilinger
Hosts Carron Andrea
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Strategic Interactions of Future Mobility Systems
Mobility is typically self-optimized for a particular region to accommodate internal travel needs. However, as soon as one considers multiple, interacting regions (e.g., urban areas interacting with agglomerations, and agglomerations interacting with rural areas), important coordination issues occur, including scheduling mismatches, fleet allocations, and congestion peaks. In short, a mobility system composed of self-optimized mobility systems seems to often operate suboptimally. In this project, we will investigate the idea of strategic interactions of future mobility stakeholders across heterogeneous regions, such as urban areas, agglomerations, and rural areas, leveraging techniques from network design, optimization, game theory, and policy making.
Keywords
Optimization, Game theory, Multi-agent interactions, Transportation systems, Robotics
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Semester Project , Master Thesis
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Published since: 2025-11-17 , Earliest start: 2026-01-01 , Latest end: 2026-07-01
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Research Frazzoli
Hosts He Mingjia
Topics Mathematical Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Direct Projects
The projects from Prof. Chris Onder's group are hosted on the student projects page.
The projects from Prof. Melanie Zeilinger's group are hosted on the student projects page.
Custom Projects
From time to time, project supervisors will develop custom student research projects to fit with a student's particular interests or skills.
If you are interested in doing a custom student research project, please email the project supervisor of your choice directly. We recommend that you carefully review their area of research before you contact them.
Please note that the decision of whether to develop a custom student project is at the full discretion of the project supervisor.