Teaching the sense of touch to robots
CiTIUS researcher Juan Antonio Corrales presented yesterday at a European forum his participation in one of the four European projects on robotic manipulation of deformable objects funded by the ‘Horizon 2020’ programme.
Juan Antonio Corrales, a postdoctoral researcher who recently joined CiTIUS through the Beatriz Galindo call, took part today as an invited speaker in the workshop **‘**Soft objects robotics manipulation for the future of European factories’ (“Robotic manipulation of deformable objects for the future of factories in Europe”), organised by the European Robotics Association,
Corrales, who prior to joining CiTIUS coordinated the technical work of the SOFTMANBOT project from the leading institution (the graduate engineering school Sigma Clermont, France), will continue to collaborate on this initiative from Santiago de Compostela. It is one of four projects on robotic manipulation of deformable objects funded across Europe in 2019 through the Horizon 2020 excellence in research programme. It will not be the only one: in parallel, the young CiTIUS scientist is also taking part in the joint initiative ACROBA (AI-Driven Cognitive Robotic Platform for Agile Production environments), also in direct collaboration with Sigma Clermont, and presented today, Wednesday, by the coordinating institution, the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH).
Throughout his presentation at the European Robotics Forum, Juan Antonio Corrales addressed the current industrial situation, highlighting its needs and presenting the use case of a robotic cell in a toy factory. He used this example to explain the approach and technological challenges proposed in the project, which shares common features with other sectors such as the tyre, footwear and textile industries.
All the objects produced by these industries have in common that they are made from deformable raw materials. Their manufacture involves tasks that currently require manual work, such as, for example, demoulding dolls and shoe soles or assembling tyres and sports parts.
At present, it is common for these tasks to continue to be carried out manually, which is why one of SOFTMANBOT’s greatest challenges is to enable the robot to learn the manual skills of the human operator, always under human supervision. The aim is to create dexterous robotic hands to perform tasks that, to this day, still have a very high manual component. This goal is of great interest to industry, as demonstrated by the involvement of multinationals such as Michelin and Decathlon in the project consortium.
More information
About SOFTMANBOT
About ACROBA
Juan Antonio Corrales, a postdoctoral researcher who recently joined CiTIUS through the Beatriz Galindo call, took part today as an invited speaker in the workshop **‘**Soft objects robotics manipulation for the future of European factories’ (“Robotic manipulation of deformable objects for the future of factories in Europe”), organised by the European Robotics Association,
Corrales, who prior to joining CiTIUS coordinated the technical work of the SOFTMANBOT project from the leading institution (the graduate engineering school Sigma Clermont, France), will continue to collaborate on this initiative from Santiago de Compostela. It is one of four projects on robotic manipulation of deformable objects funded across Europe in 2019 through the Horizon 2020 excellence in research programme. It will not be the only one: in parallel, the young CiTIUS scientist is also taking part in the joint initiative ACROBA (AI-Driven Cognitive Robotic Platform for Agile Production environments), also in direct collaboration with Sigma Clermont, and presented today, Wednesday, by the coordinating institution, the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH).
Throughout his presentation at the European Robotics Forum, Juan Antonio Corrales addressed the current industrial situation, highlighting its needs and presenting the use case of a robotic cell in a toy factory. He used this example to explain the approach and technological challenges proposed in the project, which shares common features with other sectors such as the tyre, footwear and textile industries.
All the objects produced by these industries have in common that they are made from deformable raw materials. Their manufacture involves tasks that currently require manual work, such as, for example, demoulding dolls and shoe soles or assembling tyres and sports parts.
At present, it is common for these tasks to continue to be carried out manually, which is why one of SOFTMANBOT’s greatest challenges is to enable the robot to learn the manual skills of the human operator, always under human supervision. The aim is to create dexterous robotic hands to perform tasks that, to this day, still have a very high manual component. This goal is of great interest to industry, as demonstrated by the involvement of multinationals such as Michelin and Decathlon in the project consortium.
More information
About SOFTMANBOT
About ACROBA