Blog

Recognising Human Gestures Without Cameras or Wearables A new scientific publication by Dimitrios Tsiakmakis, Massimiliano Iosi, and Gastone Ciuti from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), a partner of the MANiBOT project, has been published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. The article, “Non-Intrusive Contactless Gesture Recognition for Human-Robot Interaction,” explores how humans can communicate with robots […]

Proximity Detection Sensor for Human-Robot Collaboration The proximity detection sensor is designed to allow robots to perceive the presence of nearby objects or people before physical contact occurs. By continuously monitoring changes in its immediate surroundings, the sensor enables early awareness of proximity and supports timely and appropriate robot responses. Within the MANiBOT project, this

Giving Robots a Sense of Touch: Tactile Sensing for MANiBOT Robotic manipulation systems are fast, repeatable, and increasingly capable, but compared to humans they remain surprisingly “numb.” While vision systems allow robots to see their environment, they lack many of the rich sensory cues people rely on when handling objects, particularly the sense of touch.

How MANiBOT is a Step Toward Smarter Airports Baggage Handling is a core activity at all airports which directly affects customer experience for departing as well as arriving passengers. Efficient baggage handling is a vital contributing factor to smooth airport operations, as it safeguards timely departures of the aircraft with all luggage on board and

In the fast-paced world of retail, efficient shelf replenishment will be crucial to maintaining customer satisfaction and ensuring the smooth operation of stores. As one of the end users of the bi-manual robotic technology, we at Masoutis are thrilled to share our aspirations on how the MANiBOT innovative project will revolutionize our shelf replenishment workflow, making it both more efficient and accurate as well!

Mobile robots are becoming more common in places where humans work and move around, like warehouses, stores, and airports. For these robots to work well, they need to be able to move safely, precisely, and adapt to changes in their environment. The traditional robot navigation technologies – using laser sensors, magnetic strips on the floor, or special QR code markers – were developed for industrial, well-structured, environments. Thus, these older methods often require a lot of additional set up and they suffer decreased efficiency in frequently changing environments with a lot of moving objects. This challenge is particularly clear in the MANiBOT project, which aims to develop mobile robots with two robotic arms to perform complex tasks in real-world settings. Addressing this, ABB Robotics is contributing to this project by introducing an advanced vision-based navigation system that uses artificial intelligence to overcome the navigation challenges faced by MANiBOT and similar advanced robotic systems.

In recent years, robotics has made significant progress in areas like perception, thinking, and movement. However, robots still demonstrate limited capabilities compared to that of humans especially when it comes to interacting with objects, humans and generally the real-world environment.