Understanding Robots

Our latest insights from our patented and internationally published research in robotics

IntuiTeach: Faster Robot Teaching

March, 2023 — Small and medium -sized enterprises are still underutilizing collaborative robots. This puts their competitive edge over larger players at risk. One of the reasons that prevents SMEs from leveraging collaborative robots more extensively is an insufficient availability of trained cobot operators. This hinders them from flexibly deploying cobots and thereby reduces the value cobots can create for their businesses.

With IntuiTeach we have developed a system which allows users to intuitively program collaborative robots with hand gestures and by moving them into desired positions with both hands. This internationally patented system makes cobots accessible to novice users and speeds up programming of standard cobot workflows by 20%.

Improving Human-Robot Interactions in the Manufacturing Industry

April, 2023 — The number of industrial robots in manufacturing companies increases every year. These new work colleagues relieve factory workers from monotonous, hard work and help companies, especially in high-wage countries, to stay competitive by increasing their productivity.

In our research, we test and implement user- and context-aware smart robot systems which improve acceptance by human collaborators in real-time and non-intrusively. This strengthens desirable cooperations between humans and robots in day-to-day operations.

Visual Perception for Common Sense Robots

May, 2023 — Commercially available robots are becoming increasingly versatile regarding the contexts in which they can be deployed. While a few years ago, robots were confined to cages in which they operated in isolation, today, collaborative robots share tasks with humans in a more natural way.

Despite this increase in situations in which humans and robots work alongside each other, truly hybrid intelligence setups, in which robots and humans collaborate intuitively remain unseen. By combining computer vision algorithms, knowledge graphs and large language models we equip robots with deep contextual understanding of their visual surroundings, so they can perform actions and interact with humans intuitively.

Flexible interoperability of robots with humans and machines

June, 2023 — In modern industrial settings, robots are becoming increasingly prevalent as they offer numerous benefits, such as improved efficiency, precision, and safety. However, for robots to reach their full potential, they must be able to operate seamlessly alongside humans and other machines.

In our work, we therefore research standardized interfaces through which humans and other machines can collaborate with robots regardless of the robot’s brand or make. We thereby set the foundation for robots to be seamlessly integrated in smart factories and classical environments dominated by manual labor that can be extended with robots in order to ease the strain on human workers.