Overview

Summary

CONCERT focuses on the development of robotics technologies aiming at a novel concept of configurable robot platforms, which can be explored in application domains with unstructured, variable and evolving workspace settings and tasks.

It targets to make a step transition from the current general-purpose lower power collaborative robots to a new generation of collaborative platforms that can safely collaborate in tasks with demanding human-scale forces while ensuring safety on the fly, implement efficient collaboration principles and demonstrate quick adaptability to address less standardized and more unstructured environment and task settings.

It proposes the development of a new paradigm of high power/strength, adaptable, collaborative robots, which leverages on modular and configurable robot hardware with adaptive physical capabilities.

automatic deployment of control and online safety verification methods. Multimodal, multistate perception and supervision tools provides enhanced human, robot and task execution awareness enabling the implementation of adaptive shared autonomy and role allocation planning in human robot collaboration.

The development of the CONCERT technologies is steered by use-case scenarios from the construction industry, a sector with significantly high socio-economic impact, offering at the same time an extremely challenging, yet highly motivating and pertinent domain for demonstrating and validating the quick deployment and interoperability features of the CONCERT configurable collaborative robotic solutions.

Objectives

CC1

Versatile configurable robot components with adaptive intelligent physical skills

CC2

Robot configuration synthesis and mission tasks programming

CC3

Online safety verification and interaction control

CC4

Workspace supervision and versatile human-robot collaboration

CONCERT work plan involves the following Scientific and Technical Objectives:

Realize

Realize a mobile collaborative robot with adaptable physical skills, which can be quickly tailored to address the specificities of diverse unstructured workspaces and tasks, while tackling the needs of heavy payload tasks in terms of physical strength and interaction.

Develop

Develop synthesis and automatic control and interface generation tools for configurable robots enabling non-expert users to quickly configure, deploy and operate task-suitable collaborative robots in unstructured workspaces.

Develop

Develop safety verification methods and a human-robot interaction control framework to permit the safe interaction and cooperation of human partners with the fully configurable and physically strong collaborative robot.

Develop

Develop methods to enhance the human and robot awareness and improve efficiency in human robot collaboration by exploring the tracking, prediction and interpretation of human actions and intentions, as well as shared autonomy and role allocation planning strategies.

Integrate

Integrate the technologies into a configurable robot for construction tasks and evaluate the impact of the developed robotic solutions in common construction tasks considering the efficiency, productivity and reduction of cost.

Evaluate

Evaluate the compliance of the developed technologies with the relevant legislation regulations including legislation and ethical regulations concerning the use of high-power collaborative robots and interaction technologies

Use Cases

The project has a clear focus on developing robotics technologies aiming at a new concept of configurable robot platforms, which can be explored in application domains with evolving workspace settings and tasks. Construction sites offer particularly relevant challenges, with the variability in the task settings being an extensively present characteristic. Therefore, the scientific and technological developments of CONCERT, their integration as well as their assessment will be driven by use-case scenarios from the construction sector.

Impact

Advance

Advance collaborative robot technologies contributing to the fundamental of robotics towards new collaborative platforms, which can be quickly customized and provide functionalities that are robust, safe and efficient under unstructured workspace conditions and interactions.

Boost

Boost the use of robotics in the construction sector that is a strategic pillar for both the economy and society and inspire the development of solutions for many other demanding applications featuring unstructured environments.

Facilitate

Facilitate the entrance of collaborative robotics in manufacturing and production lines with regularly evolving workspace and product features as well as to new large market domains such as the construction industry.

Europe

Advance Europe’s excellence in robotics, fulfilling the gap of a technologically advanced versatile robotics technologies that can enable the exploration of robotics in new domains with demanding and evolving requirements.