Researchers from TU Delft and others will receive €7.6 million funding from the European Horizon2020 programme for the ROSIN (ROS-Industrial quality-assured robot software components) project, which aims to develop open source robot software. Half of the budget will be made available to parties wishing to co-develop applications.
Industrial robots have been used cost-effectively for the past 20 years only to perform repetitive tasks that need to be done a large number of times. Governments and research institutions have invested over a billion dollars in research during this period to further develop robot behaviour and expand robots' capabilities. These include technology that allows robots to safely interact with humans or better interpret data.
Existing software artefacts are limited
This research has led to all kinds of innovations. These by no means always find their way into robots, partly because robots' existing software architectures are limited and hinder the deployment of developed technology. As a result, in many cases, it is too costly to implement innovations in robots in practice, resulting in lost opportunities to increase industry productivity.
The ROS project will therefore develop advanced scientific algorithms that will enable innovative functionalities to be added to robots cost-efficiently. The algorithms are made freely available through the international ROS community. The ROSIN project of the 'ROS-Industrial' subgroup of the global open source project 'ROS' (Robot Operating System) aims to make these algorithms suitable for industrial use.
Led by TU Delft and Fraunhofer Institute
The ROSIN project is led by TU Delft in cooperation with the German Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineerung and Automation IPA. Also involved in the project are the German Fachhochschule Aachen, the Danish IT University Copenhagen, the Swedish robot company ABB and the Spanish research institute Tecnalia.
The grant is not only available for researchers, but also for parties who want to co-develop applications. "Half of the ROSIN project budget is reserved for third parties. Any group of European parties (both companies and institutions) can come forward with a good idea for a 'Focused Technical Project' (FTP) or a new educational activity for ROS-Industrial," explains TU Delft researcher Gijs van der Hoorn. "For example: three companies want an ROS software component for automatic polishing. Together with a party that can make this software, they then submit an application to ROSIN, which can subsidise 33% of the cost. Incidentally, the 'call for proposals' is broader than software components: standardisation initiatives, sample applications and security and safety audits can also be considered."
Finding funders
By subsidising Focused Technical Project of European parties, the European Commission wants to help finance the development of ROS components. Indeed, in practice, many companies prove willing to fund such projects only after they have proven their success, making it difficult for developers to find funders. By subsidising up to 33% of the total cost of a project, the European Commission aims to help developers reach the first milestone in their project, so companies will be more inclined to fund the remaining 67% of the project. Companies wishing to apply for funding for a Focused Technical Project can apply for it at http://rosin-project.eu/.
More information about the ROSIN project can be found here. Click here to read more about the ROS-Industrial subgroup.
By: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source photos: Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA)
