Enhanced Grasp Capabilities in Advanced Picking Robots
The FLAIROP project, a partnership between Canadian and German organizations, is set to bring the next generation of trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) to manufacturing. This ambitious endeavour is spearheaded by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Institute for Material Handling and Logistics (KIT-IFL), which is leading the consortium.
The University of Waterloo (Canada) and KIT are at the forefront of this project, developing object recognition and autonomous grasping through Deep Learning. DarwinAI (Canada) is contributing by providing their Explainable (XAI) platform, focusing on Local and Global Network Optimization, and Automated Generation of Network Structures.
The project's unique approach lies in the use of federated learning, a method designed to balance data diversity and data security in an industrial environment. This approach allows the robots to be trained at several picking stations by means of gripping and transferring items, without requiring sensitive company data.
Festo SE & Co. KG, a leading German manufacturer of automation technology and factory automation, is developing and piloting picking stations in real warehouse logistics. Researchers at KIT-AIFB (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Research Group) are investigating the use of distributed AI methods to make picking robots smarter.
The robots in the FLAIROP project will be trained with very different articles at the various stations. The goal is to use training data from multiple stations, plants, or companies, without compromising data security. The project will set up a total of four autonomous picking stations for training the robots: two at the KIT Institute for Material Handling and Logistics and two at the Festo SE company based in Esslingen am Neckar.
The training of the robots at these stations is scheduled to begin at the end of 2023. The four autonomous picking stations for robot training in the FLAIROP research project were set up at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund.
As a part of the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment, with the objective to make significant contributions to global challenges. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence, preparing students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science.
For more information about this press release, please contact Dr. Felix Mescoli, Press Officer, at +49 721 608 41171 or [email protected]. This collaborative project promises to revolutionize manufacturing by creating smarter, more autonomous robots that can learn from each other without compromising data security.
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