Universidad Carlos III de Madrid - UC3M

The Autonomous Community of Madrid has the most important robotics groups in Spain and Europe for its citizen services. That is one of the conclusions which can be gleaned from the projects carried out within the framework of Robocity2030, a consortium which coordinates the main research groups in this field within this region of Spain.

The objective of this program, promoted by the Autonomous Community of Madrid through the Directorate General of Universities and Research, is to develop innovative applications in service robots which enhance citizens’ quality of life within metropolitan areas. "We can affirm that we are leaders in matters related to intelligent robotics and services”, asserted the program’s coordinator, Carlos Balaguer, Director of the Robotics Lab at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in which the following entities also participate: Universidad de Alcalá (UAH), Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) (The Scientific Research Council). The program gathers more than 60 PhDs and 100 researchers.

One of the most important projects of the Robocity2030 program has been created at UC3M is in the intelligent domestic area, depicting a kitchen where an assistant robot such as Asibot performs, and which was carried out at this Madrid university. The goal of this type of robot is to allow the disabled, the elderly or individuals with cognitive problems, for example, to live on their own without outside help, so as to improve the quality of their lives, the coordinator, Professor Balaguer, explained.

The portable climber robot for personal assistance can move on vertical surfaces through a docking station system placed on the walls and adjusted to the dimensions of the room where the devices are installed. At present, the movement between them and the tasks carried out are done through previous programming, but the researchers are working on providing the robot with an intelligent system to recognize images so that they can carry out tasks autonomously.

One of Asibot’s most interesting aspects is its portability, since it can be joined to different connectors from different users, and can even be anchored to the disabled person’s wheelchair. The arm can lift and carry up to 2 kilos thanks to the light aluminium and carbon fibre structure which houses all of the technology for on board control, with a potential reach of up to 1.3 meters. The robot is portable, since it barely weighs more than 10 kilos, although the next prototype, which is in its development stage, improves upon the current features.

The applications for robots of this type, dealt with within the framework of the Robocity2030 program, can be divided into two large groups: quality of life in open environments and quality of life in closed environments. In the first case, the objective is to analyze the possibilities for employment of robotics in infrastructures and urban thoroughfares, focussing on such applications as mobile robots for street cleaning detection and deactivation of explosives, citizen safety, maintenance of green spaces, etc. In the second case, the goal is to make citizens’ everyday life easier, more pleasant and trouble-free in inhabited spaces such as homes and offices. This group of applications for service robotics is also aimed at a wide cross-section of the population, such as the elderly, children, and the disabled, who in many cases need permanent assistance in hospitals, homes, and schools with play, education, help and rehabilitation, and personalized remote service robot companions, etc. "Assistential robotics”, Balaguer commented, “is a multidisciplinary area which requires the additional incorporation of doctors, therapists, psychologists and sociologists. In addition, from a technological point of view, the challenge is to make the systems much more user-friendly, much sturdier, and obviously, much more affordable”, he concluded.

RoboCity2030 is a consortium of research groups funded by the Autonomous Community of Madrid within the Framework of the IV Plan Regional de Investigación Científica e Innovación Tecnológica (IV PRICIT)(Regional Plan for Scientific Research and Technological Innovation).. The advances of this project are continuous and are at the highest level internationally. In forthcoming news, we will be providing information as to the results obtained.

Further information:
RoboCity2030 web: www.robocity2030.org

Full-text bibliography related to this press release may be found at the e-archivo Institutional Repository

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