KUKA : at ICRA in Singapore

At the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Singapore KUKA presents innovative applications with its research partners from Singapore.

24 May 2017

• From 29 May to 3 June the world's largest robotics conference offers researchers from across the globe a platform to discuss the latest in robotics and automation. KUKA, the Augsburg-based automation specialist, is a sponsor ofICRA.
• We highlight innovative approaches of our research partners at this year's ICRA to demonstrate the full potential of our open hardware and software platforms.

Dr. Rainer Bischoff, Head of KUKA Corporate Research

Together with research partners from Singapore KUKA showcases the lightweight robotLBR iiwain two innovative applications: Learning by demonstration for easy adaption of trajectories and learning of dynamic object handover.

Singapore's A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research shows a flexible Learning by Demonstration application, permitting online adaptation of robot behaviours for industrial manufacturing. The framework implemented on theKUKA LBR iiwarobot is targeted at helping small and medium manufacturing enterprises with high-mix low-volume production needs. The exhibit can be intuitively operated by the visitor to teach a production task initially and to incrementally optimize trajectories or to quickly adapt them to varying products and tasks.

The Advanced Robotics Centre at the National University of Singapore is researching one of the most important physical interaction channels between humans and robots - the dynamic handover of objects. Here, the robot needs to adapt its behavior to environmental features and human characteristics, such as height, agility and individual preferences. Visitors passing by theLBR iiwaexperience a smooth dynamic handover of a bottle of water. By using this adaptation technique, future service robots will not have to be programmed perfectly upon delivery, but will be able to adapt autonomously to the need of human partners.

TheKUKA LBR iiwais the world's first series-produced sensitive robot and therefore compatible forhuman-robot-collaboration. Humans and robots can work together on highly sensitive tasks in close cooperation, which lays the foundations for innovative and sustainable production processes. This opens up the possibility of new applications at utmost efficiency. Dedicated interfaces for research are available which offer direct low-level real-time access to the KUKA robot controller at high rates of up to 1 kHz.

This open hardware and software platform enables researchers to realize their ideas and to focus on their research. KUKA engages with robotics research institutes around the world to grow its partner network.

The2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)is the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society's flagship conference and the most important conference on robotics and automation, with workshops, discussions and exhibition for researchers from all around the world. This year's conference theme is "Innovation, entrepreneurship, and realworld solutions".ICRA 2017takes place from 29 May to 3 June at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.