Active Perception for Flexible Object Handling in Smart Manufacturing

Intelligent object handling is becoming a must in a smart manufacturing system especially with the recent appearance of the motion compliant dual handed industrial robotic systems. Also the enhanced 3D sensing capabilities from the robotics domain enables us to reconsider our view about the smart manufacturing by enabling on the fly spatial perception of the robot working space.

All the recent advances in the dual handed robotics are integrated into the Baxter platform which is available on the market since a few years ago. This platforms enables the integration and validation of advanced perception and planning modules in a flexible way. The great variety in client side needs of the Accenture requires a re-deployable approach for the development on this platform from the company.

Driven by the current needs of Accenture and relying on their expertise in perception and robotics, researchers at the academic partner UTCluj will work on the following major objectives: perceiving and understanding in 3D the environment of robot; collision-safe motion planning of the arms; and integration of this robot into real-life-driven production line demo applications. Involvement of B.Sc. and M.Sc. students is planned, together with dissemination of the results in top conferences and journals.