Flanders Make technology enables voice-controlled robots
Flanders Make has developed new technology that enables industrial robots to understand their surroundings via a ‘mind map’ that humans can also easily interpret. The robots can make decisions independently and adapt to changes in their environment. Staff will be able to control them easily, for example simply by talking to them. This significantly lowers the barrier to introducing more robots onto the shop floor.
The essence of the innovation
“With the mind map, we combine our technology with advanced robot control, enabling operators to easily understand and control robots on the shop floor. At the same time, we are laying the foundations for multi-robot coordination, in which robots and humans work together using a common language and continuously adapt to changing circumstances,” says Gianni Borghesan, a Flanders Make researcher at KU Leuven.
The technology is based on a mind map containing elements that indicate how the robot ‘sees’ its environment, as well as how the robot itself is constructed, how the workplace is laid out, and which rules it must follow to work safely and efficiently.
The robot uses this mind map directly whilst it works. It links what its sensors measure to what it “knows”, thereby understanding what is happening and immediately adapting its behaviour, without the need for separate programming for every situation.
Whereas robots are often still a black box today, this technology makes their ‘thought process’ comprehensible for the first time. It creates a single shared view on which humans and robots can rely together to interpret situations, make decisions and work together.
New possibilities
Thanks to this innovative technology, companies can quickly deploy robots on the shop floor and adjust their operations flexibly. Operators simply speak to them in plain language, and the robots respond verbally or via the mind map. This immediately gives them a better understanding of how the robots work and helps them learn to anticipate new situations more effectively. It also brings seamless collaboration between multiple robots a step closer.
AI software supplier Mappalink is one of the first users of the new Flanders Make technology. “For our customers, this means they can roll out increasingly complex and larger robot setups without the need for additional configuration or specialist expertise. Thanks to systems that understand what is happening, continuously adapt and respond to changes, flexible and scalable automation is finally becoming a practical reality,” says CEO Gerben Peeters.
Flanders Make is now also working directly with interested companies to bring this innovative technology to their workplaces.
