idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Grafik: idw-Logo

idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft

Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instance:
Share on: 
08/02/2022 14:00

Fraunhofer IPA joins euROBIN project with leading European research labs on AI-driven robotics

Dr. Karin Röhricht Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung IPA

    31 well-known European research labs cooperate in the Network of Excellence euROBIN which is running from July 2022 until June 2026. Fraunhofer IPA is particularly involved in using robotics to reach one of the UN »Sustainable Development Goals«.

    euROBIN is a new network of excellence that brings together European expertise on robotics and AI. It establishes a unified pan-European platform for research and development. For the first time, a large number of distinguished research labs across Europe are jointly researching AI-based robotics. Goals include both significant scientific advances on core questions of AI-based robotics as well as strengthening the scientific robotics community in Europe by providing an integrative community platform.

    The network is open to the entire robotics community and provides mechanisms of cascade funding to double its number of members over the next years. It comprises 31 partners across 14 countries. Coordinated by the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center, it includes the highest-profile research institutions as well as outstanding industrial partners across sectors. euROBIN was awarded 12.5 Million Euros by the EU and Switzerland in total and launched on July 1st 2022 with a runtime until June 2026.

    Cognitive robots for reaching the “Sustainable Development Goals”

    The initiative seeks to bring together the robotics community and to benefit science, industry, and society while promoting European values. The network is a facilitator of knowledge transfer and exchange between research institutions and industry partners. The project partners will be working on two main goals. The first one is to use robotics for reaching the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) announced by the United Nations (UN) in 2016. Fraunhofer IPA is involved in the work package 1 “Robotic manufacturing for a circular economy”, which is connected to SDG 12 “Responsible consumption and production”.

    “The euROBIN project perfectly fits to the network of our AI Innovation Center “Learning Systems and Cognitive Robotics” that we are managing together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO here in Stuttgart”, explains Dr. Werner Kraus, head of the department Robot and Assistive Systems at Fraunhofer IPA. “The project leverages the ecosystem in Baden-Württemberg to excellent European research.”

    Knowledge transfer

    Addressing the main scientific and technological challenges hampering the breakthrough and large-scale deployment of robotics is the second main goal: euROBIN focuses on making cognition-enabled robotics solutions more transferable and reusable among scientists and by new industries. This is crucial to better join forces in Europe in this dynamic and very competitive field. This concerns for example the skill transfer from one robot to another, from one domain to another, such as human to robot, or from researchers to other researchers.

    Competitions and scientific contributions

    Two major project aspects will enable to reach these goals. One are cooperative competitions. Teams will publicly compete on visionary and challenging applications, but the competition rules will be made such that exchange of knowledge, data, and results between teams is equally valued to the mere task performance. Fraunhofer IPA will be involved in the manufacturing challenge and particularly in the robotized handling of flexible objects. The other aspect are scientific contributions with these four focuses: InterAct, learning transfer, transferable knowledge, and human-centered transfer.

    The project euROBIN receives funding within the “Horizon Europe” program.


    Contact for scientific information:

    Dr.-Ing. Werner Kraus | Telefon +49 711 970-1049 | werner.kraus@ipa.fraunhofer.de


    More information:

    https://www.ki-fortschrittszentrum.de/ Further information about the AI Innovation Center (German only)


    Images

    In July 2022, the kickoff meeting for the project start took place.
    In July 2022, the kickoff meeting for the project start took place.

    DLR.

    During the kickoff meeting, Werner Kraus participated in a lab tour and was able to see the DLR robots in action.
    During the kickoff meeting, Werner Kraus participated in a lab tour and was able to see the DLR robo ...

    DLR.


    Attachment
    attachment icon Press release as PDF

    Criteria of this press release:
    Journalists
    Mechanical engineering
    transregional, national
    Research projects
    English


     

    Help

    Search / advanced search of the idw archives
    Combination of search terms

    You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.

    Brackets

    You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).

    Phrases

    Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.

    Selection criteria

    You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).

    If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).