Symbio-TIC

The European robotics industry is moving towards a new generation of robots, based on safety in the workplace and the ability to work alongside humans. This new generation is paramount to making the factories of the future more cost-effective and restoring the competitiveness of the European manufacturing industry.

However, the European manufacturing industry is facing the following challenges:

• lack of adaptability,
• lack of flexibility, and
• lack of vertical integration.

The proposed SYMBIO-TIC project addresses these important issues towards a safe, dynamic, intuitive and cost-effective working environment were immersive and symbiotic collaboration between human workers and robots can take place and bring significant benefits to robot-reluctant industries (where current tasks and processes are thought too complex to be automated). The benefits that the project can bring about include lower costs, increased safety, better working conditions and higher profitability through improved adaptability, flexibility, performance and seamless integration. This project is planned for 48 months with a consortium of 15 partners from 7 EU Member States.

Results in brief: 

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/193465/brief/en?WT.mc_id=exp 

Project Name: 
Symbiotic human-robot collaboration for safe and dynamic multimodal manufacturing Systems

Funding:      
EU – H2020-FoF

Duration:    
01.04.2015 – 31.03.2019

NEXGEN_RWP articulates PROFACTOR’s goal to develop a new generation of robotic systems which can solve complex tasks efficiently even if framing conditions change. The further development of cognitive technologies will render possible the application of the system to a broad spectrum of use-cases in production environment.

Robots will be provided with semantic comprehension for available tasks like joining, assembly or other production tasks. The human activity will be recognized by multimodal (visual, tactile, etc.) sensory. Generalization of these tasks and processes by semantic data processing will ease adaptation to future tasks. A further challenge as far as cognitive robotic systems are concerned is the intuitive task based programmability of the system which guarantees ergonomic, beneficial and safe task execution.

Project Name:
Human-Robot Cooperation to enable a next generation robotic workplace

Funding:
FFG – IKT der Zukunft – 1. Ausschreibung

Duration:
01.10.2013 – 30.09.2015

The aim of the international research project LOCOBOT was to develop a low-cost “Robot co-worker” in a modular system that is suitable for industries with high production volume as well as for manufactures with low product volume and high customer specifications. The focus was on the development of a toolkit consisting of hardware and software components and a development environment, in which a robot assistant can quickly and easily be put into operation. The quick and easy configuration of the system was a pre- condition for development.

The main focus of PROFACTOR in this pioneering project included the topics of image processing, model-based engineering and the handling of parts. The focus was also built-upon findings of cognitive vision.

During the project, an assistance system consisting of hardware and software components was developed, which among other things dealt with improving workplace ergonomics. It is characterized by the position detection of work pieces in an unstructured environment and is equipped with a flexible robot arm. The gesture recognition process formed the basis for human-machine cooperation.

In the industrial use case the main challenge was picking heavier parts such as car batteries and starter motors. An excellent object localization and manipulation planner developed at PROFACTOR made it possible to visually localize the relevant components even in hard to reach and unstructured environments. The robotic ad-hoc process flow was then adjusted subsequently.

The results of the project allows greater flexibility, adaptability and scalability in production. The modular assistance system developed can be used in the sense of a “Plug & Produce” solution for various applications.

Project Name:
Low cost toolkit for building robot co-workers in assembly lines

Funding:
EU – FP7- FoF.NMP.2010-1 Plug and Produce components for adaptive control

Duration:
01.08.2010 – 31.07.2013

AssistMe is focused on potential operator and user experience of novel robotic assistance systems. A multi-level process develops and evaluates innovative interaction concepts and technologies in close collaboration with future operators and users who are integrated by user studies and who will evaluate the usability by means of application on use-cases from daily production routine.

AssistMe evaluates a combination of haptic (force feedback) technology, machine vision technology and spatial augmented reality interfaces.

The project results are integrated in two different use-cases from both combustion engine assembly and polishing of strand casting mold construction.

Project Name:
Human-Centered assistant robot in production

Funding:
FFG – 7. Ausschreibung Produktion der Zukunft nat. Projekte

Duration:  
01.04.2015 – 30.09.2017

Publications:

M. Ikeda, G. Ebenhofer, J. Minichberger, A. Pichler, A. Huber, A. Weiss, G. Fritz; User Centered Assistive Robotics for Production – Human Robot Interaction Concepts in the AssistMe project,  Proceedings of the OAGM&ARW Joint Workshop 2017
DOI: 10.3217/978-3-85125-524-9-09 Paper