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Interface for the future of robotics

In most cases, robots are known as machines that carry out predetermined processes precisely. Their advantage over other industrial devices is that they can be used in many ways due to their high flexibility. In order to further increase this flexibility, KUKA relies on intensive exchange with the global robotics community. Through competitions such as the RoboCup, tasks from the factory of the future will be transformed into scientific challenges for researchers. In this way solutions are created that are needed for the further development of production in the direction of Industry 4.0.

Since every development always starts with a first, small step, KUKA brought the youBot to the RoboCup at the Leipzig trade fair. The robot is an omni-directional mobile platform, on which a five-axis robot arm with two-finger gripper is mounted. The device allows the realization of your own controls and application ideas. Its biggest advantage: The youBot can be controlled with a variety of open source software packages as well as other software (C++ API, ROS, Orocos, LabView and many more). KUKA youBot offers researchers, lecturers and students as well as research and development departments in industry the hardware basis to try out new things and scale knowledge for other applications. With the KUKA youBot, it is possible to conduct small-scale research on important topics of the factory of the future on the way to becoming an Industry 4.0 solution," explains Dr. Bischoff.

Apropos Industry 4.0: Visitors were able to experience the current state of research for the factory of the future live at the RoboCup competitions in the RoboCup League, which was mainly initiated by KUKA. In contrast to the soccer and service-oriented robotics competitions, the participants in this competition deal with the research and development of the use of robots in an industrial context. Here, robots are supposed to perform complex tasks in cooperation with people, for example in production, automation or general logistics. Real industrial challenges should form the basis for robust mobile manipulation, which should be scalable, i. e. usable on a much larger scale.

Teilnehmer des RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig

Continuous competition is a prerequisite for innovation. The RoboCup in Leipzig is the perfect interface between the current state of development and groundbreaking solutions for the challenges of the future

Dr. Rainer Bischoff, Head of Corporate Research at KUKA

 In order to achieve even better comparability of the competition participants in the future and to be able to run the competitions in several spatially and temporally separate rounds similar to the Champions League in football, KUKA has initiated the establishment of the European Robotics League together with other partners from science and with the help of funding from the European Commission. The RoboCup in Leipzig marks the official starting point for this European league, which will provide pioneering developments in the three socially relevant areas of robotics industry, services and rescue, even better training for tomorrow's engineers and computer scientists, and greater public acceptance for support with robot technology.

KUKA auf dem RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig