Lazaros Nalpantidis, Assistant Professor at RVMI, along with academics from Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the UK and the US, organized the 2nd International Workshop on Cognitive Robotics Systems (CRS), with a focus on robots replicating human actions and activities.

The workshop was organized alongside the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), which was held in the Tokyo Big Sight in Japan. The workshop was a huge success with invited talks from world-class researchers in the field such as Prof. John Tsotsos (York University, Canada) (see image on the right) and Prof. Oliver Brock (TU of Berlin, Germany). Seven novel papers and four extended abstracts were presented during the full-day workshop. The panel discussion at the end of the day raised interesting questions on the definition of cognition in the robotics domain and the extent to which current state-of-the-art is addressing the question of human-like cognition in robotics.

We have two new EU projects starting up in Fall 2013!

STAMINA: a FP7 project within the cognitive systems call. We are coordinators for this project.

Partners are

• Aalborg University Copenhagen (Coordinator)
• PSA Peugeot Citroën
• BA Systèmes
• University of Freiburg
• University of Bonn
• Inesc Porto – Instituto de Engenharia di sistemas e computadores do Porto
• University of Edinburgh
• The overall budget is 4.5mio€.

Abstract: Part handling during the assembly stages in the automotive industry is the only task with automation levels below 30% due to the variability of the production and to the diversity of suppliers and parts. The full automation of such task will not only have a huge impact in the automotive industry but will also act as a cornerstone in the development of advanced mobile robotic manipulators capable of dealing with unstructured environments, thus opening new possibilities in general for manufacturing SME’s. The STAMINA project will use a holistic approach by partnering with experts in each necessary key fields, thus building on previous R&D to develop an autonomous and mobile industrial robot with different sensory, planning and physical capabilities that can be part of a fleet of robots and which can solve three logistic and handling tasks: De-palletizing, Bin-Picking and Kitting. The robot and orchestration systems will be developed in a lean manner using an iterative series of development and validation testes that will not only assess the performance and usability of the system but also allow goal-driven research. STAMINA will give special attention to the system integration promoting and assessing the development of a sustainable and scalable robotic system to ensure a clear path for the future exploitation of the developed technologies. In addition to the technological outcome, STAMINA will allow to give an impression on how a sharing of work and workspace between humans and robots could look in the future.

CARLOS: a FP7 project, Research for SMEs

Partners are

• Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste (Coordinator) (ES)
• Aalborg University Copenhagen (Dk)
• INESC PORTO – Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores (PT)
• Robotnik Automation SLL (ES)
• C.A.T. Progetti srl (IT)
• Deltamatic, S.A. (PT)
• Atein Naval, S.A. (ES)
• Astilleros José Valiña (ES)

Abstract: The CARLoS project aims to apply recent advances in cooperative mobile robotics to a representative industrial scenario in shipyards. CARLoS robot will be built using off-the-shelf technology under a modular approach. The prototype will be demonstrated as a robot co-worker for fit-out operations inside blocks of ship superstructures. Most of technology for developing such a robot exists, but there is not yet a solution on the market with capabilities that meet the special requirements of shipyards. The CARLoS project will contribute to strength the technological level and market position of:
-European SMEs that develop, supply, and integrate mechatronic, sensing, and electronic technologies for industrial applications.
-European SMEs providing fit-out services to shipyards and to industrial and civil construction.
The main features of CARLoS robot are:
• high mobility inside ship blocks
• semi-autonomous decision-making on the work to do
• autonomous stud welding capability
• autonomous pre-outfitting marking capability
• easily controlled by a shipyard worker
The working plan has been designed to develop a full robot for stud welding and marking. The project is divided in 7 WP including RTD, dissemination and management tasks, comprising:
• Development of a mobile navigation system for shipyard blocks
• Development of a sensing and control system for full automation of marking and stud welding
• Development of a skilled human-robot interaction system suited to the tasks at hand
• Continuous integration towards a final prototype
• Demonstration and validation of the system in real-world conditions
CARLoS will yield:
• Higher flexibility, productivity, and reliability
• Increase of the market share for the end users
• Improved outfitting competitiveness
• New market for high-tech products in which Europe stands out (e.g. mechatronics, machine vision, embedded processing)

We have two new great members in our group: Lazaros Nalpantidis who joined us from KTH and who is a new assistant professor, and Juris Klonovs, who is a new PhD student within the project Patient@Home.