Sophisticated robots to give people a walking boost
People with damaged limbs and that cannot walk take note: there is light at the end of the tunnel. An EU-funded team of researchers is marrying cognition and innovation to develop new robots that will help people step forward. Coordinated by the Institute of Automation at Bremen University in Germany, the CORBYS ('Cognitive control framework for robotic systems') project has clinched EUR 6.1 million under the 'Information and communication technologies' (ICT) Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The University of Hertfordshire in the UK, for its part, is making a huge contribution to this project by building the cognitive features of these robots. Dr Daniel Polani and his team from the university's School of Computer Science have secured a EUR 780,800 grant for the work they will carry out in the project, which is running for a period of 4 years. 'There are already some robots which help people to walk, but the issue is that they need constant attention and monitoring by therapists and they cannot effectively monitor the human,' explains Dr Polani. 'In CORBYS, the aim is to have robots that understand what humans need so that they can operate autonomously.' Under the plan, the Hertfordshire team will focus their work on the high-level cognitive control of these robots and their synergy with human behaviour. The scientists say this is based on biologically inspired principles and methodologies developed by the School of Computer Science team in recent years. 'We believe that all organisms optimise information and organise it efficiently in their niche and that this shapes their behaviour - in a way, it tells them to some extent what to do,' Dr Polani comments. 'We believe it will help our system to take decisions similar to organisms and to better "read" the intentions of the human it supports. Furthermore, we will use these techniques to balance the lead-taking between robot and human.' The partners of CORBYS, which kicked off in February of this year, will create two demonstrators including an innovative mobile robot-assisted gait rehabilitation system that could optimally match the needs of the user at various stages of rehabilitation. These robots are unique in that they will be able to cope with the dynamic yet complex environments within which humans function. The CORBYS partners say the high-level cognitive control modules, the semantically driven self-awareness module, and the cognitive framework for anticipation of, and synergy with human behaviour - all supported with a sophisticated multi-sensor system to make dynamic and environment perception possible - will make these robots be aware and able to control the situation at hand. The 12-strong CORBYS consortium comprises experts from Belgium, Germany, Norway, Spain and the UK. The EU is a major supporter of projects focusing on cognitive systems and robotics, and is funding 38 projects active in this specific area under FP7. The ICT Work Programme under FP7 is split into eight 'Challenges', with Challenge 2 being 'Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics'. The EU believes ICT systems, including robot and robotic systems, must be more robust, a cinch to use and context-aware.For more information, please visit: University of Hertfordshire: http://www.herts.ac.uk/home-page.cfm(opens in new window) CORBYS project factsheet on CORDIS, click: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/270219 ICT Challenge 2: Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/programme/challenge2_en.html(opens in new window)
Countries
Belgium, Germany, Spain, Norway, United Kingdom