Nowadays, manufacturing organizations have to provide a quick reply to the market changes (Agile Manufacturing), re-programming their robots frequently and quickly to achieve the ability to produce different products by using the same system (Routing Flexibility).
To meet these needs, this research line is focused on the analysis, design, and implementation of methods and tools that offer non-expert users an intuitive way to program and interact with robots. Furthermore, thanks to the Joiint Lab established in 2021 within the technology park Kilometro Rosso, our laboratory collaborates side by side with several companies which propose new challenges and provide valuable feedback on the developed technologies, establishing a synergy between research and industrial needs.
Service robots are defined, according to ISO 8373, as robots that “perform useful tasks for humans”. Therefore, they are designed to help people to perform tasks that are dangerous or repetitive.
In this research field, we designed two service robots, ALTER-EGO and LHF-Connect, that can work in a full autonomous way or that can be remotely operated by humans as robot avatars.
Rehabilitation engineering is the use of engineering principles to 1) create methods, technologies and devices to assist individuals with disabilities and 2) contribute to the recovery of physical and cognitive functions lost because of a disease or an injury.
Our lab’s experience in this topic includes the development of the SoftHand Pro, a robotic hand for prosthetic applications supported by European H2020 and ERC projects.