Situational adaptive movement prediction for firefighting squads in indoor attack
We presented our paper “Situational Adaptive Motion Prediction for Firefighting Squads in Indoor Search and Rescue” at ICRA in the Long-Term Human Motion Prediction workshop.
Firefighting is a complex but poorly automated task. To minimize ergonomic and safety risks for firefighters, robots could be used in a collaborative approach. To enable human-robot teams in firefighting, important fundamentals are still missing. Among other things, the robot must predict human movement because occlusions are ubiquitous. In this work, we propose a novel motion prediction method for firefighting squads in indoor attack. Squad paths are generated using an optimal graph-based planning approach that represents firefighter tactics. Paths are generated on a per-room basis, allowing dynamic local adaptation of paths without global replanning. The movement of individual agents is simulated using a modification of the Headed Social Force Model. We evaluate the feasibility of the pipeline using a novel dataset generated from real footage and show its computational efficiency.
Contact: Elodie Hüsing
New research topic at IGMR: Pick & Toss
Today’s production plants would be unthinkable without robotic pick & place processes. Handling objects are picked by the robot and placed at the target position with the desired target orientation. An innovative possibility to significantly increase the workspace of a robot and to reduce process times is the extension of this process by the targeted throwing of handling objects. Possible areas of application are the sorting of products that are not damaged during the throwing process (e.g. screws or nuts) or whose damage is of secondary relevance (e.g. sorting out defective products, separating materials in recycling plants).
Our goal is to describe the robotic pick & toss process using a combination of classical analytical and machine learning models to make the innovative process industrially viable.
Contacts:
Nils Brückmann
Johannes Bolk
Developments with Trapo GmbH
The IGMR – RWTH Aachen supports Trapo GmbH in the further development and integration of trajectory planning and trajectory execution algorithms for the new Trapo Loading System robot. Compared to the old TLS, the navigation of the new TLS is realized with the MoveBase Framework of the Robot Operating System (ROS). For this purpose, together with Trapo GmbH, we have created a special configuration for car-like structure for the local MoveBase Planner. The new TLS was last presented at the LogiMat trade fair.
Contact:
Daniel Gossen
Project launch IIDEA – Inclusion and integration through cobots on the labor market
In April, the innovative project “IIDEA – Inclusion and integration through cobots in the first labor market” was launched, which aims to empower the inclusion and integration of severely disabled people in the first labor market through collaborative robotics.
The deployment of cobots makes it possible to create new jobs and forms of work that satisfy the individual needs of severely disabled people. These new forms of work are not being established on the margins but at the heart of digitization and Industry 4.0.
In a rapidly changing world, we must focus on the needs of all people and ensure that everyone can reach their full potential. The IIDEA project is an important step towards an inclusive and inclusive society and economy.
For more information about the project, please visit the project profile. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact our staff: iidea@igmr.rwth-aachen.de.
Contacts:
Prof. Mathias Hüsing
Carlo Weidemann
Sophie-Charlotte Keunecke
Elodie Hüsing
Christina Jansen
Welcoming the new Master’s first semester students
The Institute of Transmission Technology, Machine Dynamics and Robotics welcomes all new first-semester Master’s students!
The summer semester started on 03.04.2023 and with it the Master’s program for many first-semester students. At a welcome barbecue organized by the Mechanical Engineering student council, we were able to introduce our institute and talk to students.
Sophie Charlotte Keunecke, Nils Brückmann, Vincent Brünjes and Thomas Knobloch welcomed the new Master’s students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the IGMR. This allowed the students to make their first contacts with the institutes and also get to know various projects. A special highlight was the presentation of the Robot Companion by Maximilian Hilger!
We would like to thank the Mechanical Engineering student council for this great offer and your immense commitment.
We wish all new first-year students all the best for their studies and an unforgettable time at RWTH and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
Contacts:
Sophie-Charlotte Keunecke
Nils Brückmann
Vincent Brünjes
Thomas Knobloch
Successful workshops with the Technical University of Liberec
Four different institutes of the Technical University of Liberec introduced us to their fascinating projects and interesting presentations before we worked out common research interests in smaller workshops.
The Technical University of Liberec and the IGMR can already look back on many years of joint exchange and close cooperation; the restrictions imposed by the pandemic have not weakened this, but have severely limited it.
Therefore we are pleased to be able to strengthen our cooperation with new, joint research interests in the future.
Contact: Sophie Charlotte Keunecke
Interactive learning with ROS: The new course in RWTHJuypter
We are pleased to present our latest ROS course, which is integrated as JupyterHub under RWTHJupyter. This course offers an interactive way to learn and deepen the basics of ROS (Robot Operating System).
ROS is an open source framework that allows developers to simplify the control of robots and their sensors. It provides a set of tools and libraries that make it possible to simplify the communication between the different components of a robot and speed up the development of applications.
Our course covers the main topics required to work with ROS. These include using ROS nodes, topics, services and actions, using ROS libraries such as tf (transform library) and moveit (motion planning library), and developing your own ROS packages. Working with different robot platforms is also covered.
Special emphasis is placed on the use of Jupyter notebooks to make the course interactive and vivid. This allows students to complete the examples and exercises directly in the course environment and see the results immediately.
We would like to thank Quantstack for their support in developing the course and their developments on JupyROS. By using Jupyter notebooks and JupyROS, we have been able to create an intuitive and user-friendly environment that makes learning ROS quick and easy.
We hope that our ROS course will be useful for both beginners and advanced developers and look forward to welcoming many participants.
Contact: Markus Schmitz
Cross section group: Application Dynamics
The Application Dynamics team is made up of members from all IGMR research areas. This allows the skills in vibration analysis and machine dynamics to be optimally combined with the expertise and many years of experience in power transmission and robotics. This fusion of the Institute’s internal research priorities enables solutions to be found to problems that require both technical knowledge of dynamics and application-specific expertise. This cross section of knowledge is applied, for example, in the form of a needs-based investigation and exploitation of the dynamic effects of a system. The focus is on applications in robotics and gearing, but also covers all types of mechanical motion systems. The current research horizon ranges from kinematic redundancy and high-speed trajectories to the use of neural networks to extend the workspace through innovative object manipulation.
Contact: Johannes Bolk
Review Summerschools ROBO and ROCNI 2022
The Summerschool serves to educate and deepen the knowledge of interested students. The Summerschool ROBO and ROCNI are offered by the International Academy (IntAc) and conducted by the Institute of Mechanism Theory, Machine Dynamics and Robotics (IGMR) at RWTH Aachen University. The theoretical basics are esxtended by the practical application of simulations and on the real robot in the laboratory of the IGMR.
Contact:
