Technische Universität München Robotics and Embedded Systems
 

SMART-E

 
Marie Curie Programme

Sustainable manufacturing through Advanced Robotics Training in Europe

SMART-E

SMART-E is a Doctoral Training Network, funded by the EU Commission’s FP7 Marie Curie Programme , with the aim to prepare the next generation of leading experts in advanced robotics to secure a sustainable manufacturing sector in Europe.

The network involves the collaboration of eight European institutions – the University of Salford, University of Zurich, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italian Institute of Technology, Technical University of Munich, FESTO, Airbus and Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield.

The network is bringing together leading experts in the field of embodied intelligence, compliant, soft robotics, advanced manufacturing, industrial robotics and automation, smart materials and machine learning in Europe.

Main Objectives

Role of TU München

TU München leads the topic area "Safety and human robot interaction and corporation" as well as the quality management of the overall project. The following sub-projects are directly executed by TU München:

Methods

In classical industry automation robots are separated from human workers for safety reasons. The disadvantage of this setting is that the robots require huge and expensive safety cells and that due to the separate workspace the manufacturing becomes unflexible. In order to be competitive in flexible manufacturing with products produced in small to medium quantities, humans require assistance of robots. Sharing the workspace of robots with humans has many advantages since complementary abilities can be usefully combined. For instance, cognitive capabilities of humans can be joined with the precision and power of robots. The problem, however, is that this set-up is no longer safe. Two approaches to achieve safety are pursued:

Partners

People

SMART-E website

Publications