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AI.Society: Robotics and AI applications of the future

Exhibition and dialog platform

By humans for humans

Whether private or professional lives; social or economic aspects: Robotics and artificial intelligence have fundamentally changed our lives – and will continue to do so. Which areas will see the greatest impact of these innovative tech-nologies? What new applications will we benefit from in the future?

In addition to concrete applications for work environments, healthcare, mobility, and environment, AI.Society also sheds light on ethical issues in the field of robotics and AI. Because the associated social transformation brings about both opportunities and new challenges. This makes it all the more important to carefully shape this transformation process. Representatives from science, business, politics, and society will jointly develop visions and approaches on how this process can contribute to creating a future worth living. A future that always considers society.

The focus topics

The Future of Work

Nothing influences and changes the field of work as profoundly as the development of new technologies and production resources. However, that has now started to change. For example, research experts at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are now taking a people-centered approach in their vision of the factory of the future. This is not about the replacement or disenfranchisement of humans by technology, but about strengthening their skills, expanding their craftsmanship, and creating a safe working environment.

© Messe München GmbH

The interdisciplinary Work@MIRMI network includes more than 20 institutes from the faculties of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Automation, Electrical Engineering, Construction, Geography, Environment, Sports, and Health. It conducts research into challenges such as demographic change, lack of specialists, climate change, and Europe's competitive position on a global scale. One of its lighthouse projects: the KI.FABRIK of the Bavarian High-Tech Agenda, which is to be implemented by 2030 to provide resilient and profitable facilities producing state-of-the-art IT and high-tech mechatronics components. AI.Society offers deep insights into various showcases.

Looking back: 2022 showcases

KI.FABRIK: Collective Learning

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

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

KI.FABRIK: Remote Robotic Teleoperation

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.

KI.FABRIK: Digital Twin

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.

KI.FABRIK: Automated Cable Insertion via Robots

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.

KI.FABRIK: Biomimetic Mouse Robot

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.

Olive Robotics – Next Generation Smart Modular Robotics

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 – Modular Industrial Robot

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 Future of Mobility

Mobility moves us all – quite literally – including robotics and AI.Society. Sustainable and flexible mobility solutions will shape our future. Autonomous vehicles, interconnected mobility, flying robots, dynamics modeling, and collision detection are essential components of mobile robotics. In addition, AI makes it easier for us to access new forms of mobility and helps us eliminate human error.

Artisense – Visual Navigation for Autonomous Mobile Robots

Looking back: 2022 showcases

Artisense

Artisense has developed an integrated localization platform for automating robots, vehicles, and spatial intelligence applications.

Fernride

Another TUM spin-off named Fernride will present its logistics sustainability project that combines the skills of truck drivers with autonomous technologies.

The Future of Health

Many robots previously used in industrial settings are now being adapted to meet the more demanding challenges of the healthcare sector. How come? It is a reaction to an aging population and the shortage of healthcare professionals. Computer vision, machine learning, virtual and augmented reality, among other things, will take robotics to an entirely new level, thus enabling them to become true members of staff.

Geriatronics World: PARTI and GARMI

Looking back: 2022 showcases

Geriatronics

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.

ProteCT – Protection against the Coronavirus through Robot-Assited Telemedicine

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.

AURORA – a mobile service robot for the OR

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.

Enari – MPER Lab

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.

The Future of Environment

Climate and environmental protection are among the most pressing issues of our time. How can AI and smart robots support coordinated efforts to tackle this major global challenge? Various applications are already being used in sustainable agriculture, environmental protection, and air quality measurement.

SeaClear

Looking back: 2022 showcases

Angsa – The Autonomous Trash Picking Robot

Angsa, a TUM spin-off, presents an autonomous robot that can detect and selectively remove small waste from grassy and gravel surfaces.

SeaClear

SeaClear goes even further and takes waste removal to the seas. Its robots can locate and collect litter from the seabed, even miles below the surface while robotized agricultural machines.

Future of Environmental Monitoring via Accessible Robot Interfaces

Environmental protection requires sufficient up-to-date data of ecological parameters to monitor the environment's state. While current manual environmental monitoring solutions have proven successful, the involved costs prevent scaling beyond the current level. Robotic environmental monitoring will provide the needed tools for current experts to 1. autonomously gather data and 2. provide live data to environmental experts via telepresence. Future of Environmental Monitoring via Accessible Robot Interfaces showcases how even non-experts can leverage the technology of telepresence in real-world settings for environmental monitoring. Fair visitors are invited to experience our research hands-on: We offer interactive telepresence sessions with remote robots located in our lab, live from the AI.Society booth via an approachable computer/keyboard setting.

Aerial Manipulation

Aerial Manipulation presents a drone that helps harvest fruits and vegetables – especially in hard-to-reach locations.

Review of AI.Society 2022

© Messe München GmbH
© Messe München GmbH
© Messe München GmbH
© Messe München GmbH
© Messe München GmbH

i_space – the AI.Society forum

The i_space forum looks beyond technical feasibility aspects of robotics and automation. Carefully selected demo teams provide exciting insights into their current research and real-life scenarios. Program highlights include the Ethics Round Table and the KI.FABRIK Bavaria panel discussion.