AI.Society: Robotics and AI applications of the future

The Collective Learning demo presents the superior learning speed of an interconnected group of robots compared to a single robot. Where a single robot would take several hours to learn a task like insertion, the group can benefit from the experience of each member – and thus de-velop a superior solution faster.

Future of Workshop is about understanding and testing skill learning, human-robot collaboration, force-impedance control, and motion planning.

The Remote Robotic Teleoperation demonstrator addresses the challenges of a human-centered teleoperation station for production tasks such as assembly, which are still largely performed manually. Visual and bilateral haptic feedback in human-robot interaction enables remote support of assembly tasks.

Digital Twins in the KI.Fabrik are created using engineering data as well as live operational data. A prototype Digital Twin of the Wittenstein gearbox was developed to create a standardized electronic asset description using the Asset Administration Shell. This enables data exchange among industrial plants as well as between plants and production orchestration systems or engineering tools. Due to the great manual effort associated with extracting information from the available engineering documents, this demonstration presents a tool for automatic Asset Administration Shell generation from .stp files (CAD) of the Wittenstein gear. Additional automated information extraction tools are developed for formats such as .pdf and .xml. This is the first step towards an industrial real-time Digital Twin of the entire KI.Fabrik setup.

Automated Cable Insertion targets the issue of manipulating deformable objects in the production process – a problem that currently requires manual solutions. Visual and tactile information is provided for recognition and tracking purposes; and the wiring process is handled autonomously by two collaborating Panda robots.

In nature, the movement of quadrupeds is achieved through combined actions performed by the spine and legs. This provided the inspiration to design a biomimetic mouse with a lateral flexing spine to optimize its locomotion. The mouse robot benefits from the regular lateral flexion of a soft spine – enabling enhanced agile locomotion when moving through a maze scenario.

The start-up Olive Robotics will present smart and modular robot components with native ROS support for easy prototyping as well as flexible extension and augmentation of ROS-based robotic and automation systems.

RobCo has a vision to make robots available to everyone. With their tailored all-in-one robot solution, they can accompany SMEs during their transformation process towards Industry 4.0.

The Geriatronics Lighthouse Initiative in Garmisch-Partenkirchen develops adaptive humanoid service robots to enable the elderly to live independently. 3D navigation, environmental monitoring and object manipulation are used to create reliable patient monitoring tools that provide greater safety for the elderly and support caregivers. The goals: to preserve mobility and interpersonal interaction in old age as well as to support independent living through technical assistance systems with intuitive operation. Geriatronics shows the interaction between different robots: e. g. the prototypes by GARMI and its partners MUCKI and PARTI, which were designed for different tasks such as prevention, diagnostics, or rehabilitation.

While teleconsultation has evolved rapidly over the past decades, telediagnostics and telemanipulation are still lagging behind. To change this, ProteCT has developed a robot-based telediagnostics station enabling contactless examinations ranging from basic vital parameter tests to examinations requiring more intense physical interaction – such as throat swabs or palpation of the abdomen. The system is teleoperated by a physician and thus guarantees contactless interaction while ensuring a trusting doctor-patient relationship.

The goal of the AURORA project is to reduce the workload of OR teams while performing surgical procedures. The context-sensitive mobile assistant robot is able to move autonomously within the non-sterile area of the operating room where it can fetch required instruments or drugs etc. for the sterile OR team. To do this, the system combines elements of autonomous driving with domain knowledge and situational awareness, and augments these by way of intelligent object manipulation.

The startup Enari will showcase its MPER Lab motion profiling system that captures and monitors human musculoskeletal activity. Through the creation of a Digital Twin, human movements can be interpreted and predicted using special sensors. Furthermore, the sensors provide information about tendons and ligaments, muscle innervation, and the muscle/fat tissue ratio.