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Toolkit for building low cost robot co-workers in assembly lines

Objective

The European automotive industry and their component manufacturers are facing the biggest shift in their history. The transition from combustion engines to electric drives (e-vehicle) requires pro-duction facilities that can initially deal with low and varying production volumes and can quickly be up-scaled to large numbers at need. LOCOBOT provides a solution to this problem by developing a flexible robotic assistant platform to support manual production processes and increase the produc-tivity and precision of such tasks. LOCOBOT does not only include the robot itself but also the en-gineering tools that are required for quickly building the robot, setting up its control structure and defining its tasks. Facing the demographic change, a further goal of LOCOBOT is the improvement of ergonomics in industrial production processes. A group of key players in the automotive industry, in automation components, advanced robots and engineering software will be supported by a group of excellent researchers to solve the technical and scientific challenges in LOCOBOT. The results will be demonstrated by setting up 3 typical and highly relevant use cases in a pilot production line of Audi AG. The automotive industry will benefit from LOCOBOT by having a robot assistant that can be quick-ly reconfigured in terms of its kinematic structure as well as its tasks. This allows them to make manual production processes much more efficient, to quickly up-scale a production process if re-quired and to improve working conditions by reducing the need to lift heavy objects (such as wheel hub drives for the e-vehicle). This will enable the industry to achieve a leading position in the the e-vehicle market and to keep up with the expected customer demand. The immediate impact (2-5 years) of LOCOBOT will be about 150 MEur in savings due to increased flexibility and efficiency, and will be 10 times as much in the following years depending on how the production numbers of the e-vehicle evolve.

Call for proposal

FP7-2010-NMP-ICT-FoF
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Coordinator

PROFACTOR GMBH
Address
Im Stadtgut D1
4407 Steyr Gleink
Austria

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Activity type
Other
Administrative Contact
Dieter Brandecker (Mr.)
EU contribution
€ 781 380,20

Participants (9)

AUDI AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Germany
EU contribution
€ 363 787
Address
Auto-union-str. 1
85057 Ingolstadt

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Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Administrative Contact
Jens Bunte (Dr.)
HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY
United Kingdom
EU contribution
€ 300 000,80
Address
Riccarton
EH14 4AS Edinburgh

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Administrative Contact
Eva Olszewska-Day (Dr.)
TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE INGOLSTADT
Germany
EU contribution
€ 401 117
Address
Esplanade 10
85049 Ingolstadt

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Administrative Contact
Johann Schweiger (Dr.)
POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Italy
EU contribution
€ 373 897
Address
Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32
20133 Milano

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Administrative Contact
Anna Desantis (Dr.)
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
United Kingdom
EU contribution
€ 299 748
Address
Old College, South Bridge
EH8 9YL Edinburgh

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Administrative Contact
Helen New (Ms.)
FERROBOTICS COMPLIANT ROBOT TECHNOLOGY GMBH
Austria
EU contribution
€ 469 171
Address
Altenbergerstrasse 69
4040 Linz

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Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Administrative Contact
Paolo Ferrara (Dr.)
FESTO SE & CO KG
Germany
EU contribution
€ 249 500
Address
Ruiter Strasse 82
73734 Esslingen

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Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Administrative Contact
Andreas Muenzenmaier
RIDGEBACK S.A.S. DI PAOLO BARATTINI & C.
Italy
EU contribution
€ 257 249
Address
Via San Francesco Da Paola 6
10123 Torino

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Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Administrative Contact
Paolo Barattini (Dr.)
VISUAL COMPONENTS OY
Finland
EU contribution
€ 244 150
Address
Vanrikinkuja 2
02600 Espoo

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Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Administrative Contact
Ricardo Velez (Mr.)