ROMO – RObotics for Moving Objects within manufacturing and healthcare – enabling the future internet of things

In this project we develop methods and algorithms that allow robots to interact with and handle moving objects in real time. The motion of the objects is constrained, but the position, orientation and velocity are only partly known in advance. Estimating, or predicting, the motion continuously based on measurements is therefore necessary in order to plan and control the robot accordingly. In the manufacturing industry, applications include handling of objects while they are moving on a conveyor belt or the mounting, soldering or welding while in motion. Inspection and maintenance in the process industry using mobile robots also requires close contact with objects that are moving and thus has similar challenges. A third application area is healthcare, where the use of robots requires safe interaction with humans. An example of this is automatic ultrasound examinations, where the robot must be able to both find and follow organs and other structures that move inside the body. The results so far include the completion of a laboratory setup for automatic ultrasound examination, and a new algorithm for visual tracking of a swinging crane load.