The project is expected to create the following:
Two reconfigurable pneumatic-based robotic manipulators mounted on a mobile robotic platform,
Novel soft end-effectors with variable stiffness that will allow for a diverse set of manipulation tasks,
A Robotic perception module comprising 3D vision algorithms,
A Semantic Mapping module powered by scene understanding algorithms,
A Knowledge Representation framework capturing important information regarding objects’ properties & relationships,
A Hierarchical Imitation Learning framework for acquiring robotic skills to accomplish complex tasks directly from human demonstrator,
A Human-Interaction conditioned Path &Task planning module enabling reactive robot control,
An edge-AI framework for deploying ML models & computer vision algorithms at the edge in a streamlined fashion,
Two demonstrators in solar & hydroponic farms and Open datasets for Learning-by-Demonstration of complex tasks in challenging environments.
Leading to the following impacts:
Scientific: step-change towards the automation of manual tasks, paving the way for further applications across a vast range of industries; combination of several disciplines and automation advances to contribute to the great scale workforce transition
Economic: enabling the reduction of labour costs and the increase of productivity, improved yields and higher-quality produce, lower production costs and higher profitability, creating new promising market opportunities
Social: transition to automation of work, unleashing workers from challenging, repetitive, heavy, complex, long-duration, demanding, dangerous tasks and giving the opportunity and time for skill upgrade; future job opportunities will possibly require creativity and analytical abilities to complement robotics and automation capabilities during tasks; integrating automation advances helps enhance performance in all areas, prevent accidents or hazards, and reduce human errors, ensuring a safe working environment. Increased automation in agriculture and solar installation/maintenance will safeguard against food security threats and energy poverty
Environmental: minimisation of resource waste and environmental pollution, reducing energy use while increasing energy production and resources efficiency, decreasing emissions and man-made pollution
