FITNESS Pathfinder

The FITNESS project will realize flexible smart skins able to provide a non-contact sense of “touch”. The envisioned smart skins will operate at microwave frequencies, and the same device will also allow far-field communication. The key technology enabling these functionalities is that of metasurfaces, i.e. structured surfaces that have unusual properties at some frequencies. In this case, they convey and manipulate surface waves, which also can be turned into radiating leaky waves for far-field communications. FITNESS unites a highly complementary consortium, unique expertise and state of the art facilities, bridging the gap between research and application. All 7 participants have participated in collaborative R&D projects at national and international levels. To reach the highly ambitious FITNESS objectives, a multidisciplinary and complementary team has been gathered with the key European experts, covering electromagnetics, electronics, materials and thermal aspects. The partners represent 3 universities (5 research teams), 2 private companies/SMEs & 2 research centres and cover 4 EU countries. Proper advice through the Advisory Board will be obtained to anticipate ethical issues regarding body-worn applications. The partners (short names in brackets) are: 1. Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), BE 2. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), FR 3. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V. (FhG), DE 4. eV-Technologies (EV-T), FR 5. Sveuciliste U Zagrebu Fakultet Elektrotehnike I Racunarstva (UNIZG), HR 6. Leibniz Institut Fur Polymerforschung Dresden (IPF), DE 7. L - UP SAS (LUP), FR FITNESS stands for “Flexible IntelligenT Near-field Sensing Skins” and is a visionary four-year research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe Programme (grant agreement number 101098996) with a total budget of 3.6 million Euros. Official Project starting date: [01-04-2023]