Diversey is partnering with Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and a select group of other companies on pioneering research in the field of robotics.
The vision of the research project is to provide mobile industrial robots with an open world view that helps them learn to understand what they see, so they can adapt to changes in their working environment. It also aims to give mobile robots with increased flexibility to enable them to operate in environments that undergo frequent changes.
Diversey, the TU/e High Tech Systems Center, plus Lely Industries, Vanderlande Industries, ExRobotics (ImProvia), and Rademaker are co-investing €1.5m in the project, which began in January 2018 and will run for four years.
The project is named FAST (new Frontiers in Autonomous Systems Technology) and partners from other fields are welcome to join. The industrial partners cover a wide range of applications from agriculture, internal logistics, inspection robots, high-tech bakery equipment and professional cleaning.
The FAST project is the result of an industry survey conducted by the TU/e High Tech Systems Center to establish shared robotics R&D questions in which the expertise of TU/e could play a role. The collaboration enables experiences to be quickly shared and use cases to be added early on in the development process. This also has a positive impact on the education of students and is an investment in developing future engineers.
Dr. Ilham Kadri, President and CEO of Diversey said: “Diversey has long championed the use of cleaning robots working in tandem with human operatives in locations such as airports, offices, schools, malls, hospitals and warehouses. Our TASKI Intellibot range of robotic floor cleaning machines have won multiple innovation awards from around the world and this is an exciting collaboration that will demonstrate that robots are here to stay... in collaboration with human beings.”
PHOTO: Bart van Overbeeke fotografie
