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Webpage Opening october 1, 2016

Website of the project STOP - Seguranças robóTicos coOPerativos - open to the public!

Project Accepted september 8, 2016

Final decision of acceptance of the submitted project on the public tender number 33/SI/2015

Designação do projeto
STOP .: Seguranças robóTicos coOPerativos

Código do projeto
CENTRO-01-0247-FEDER-017562

Ficha do Projeto

About

This project has as general objective to contribute to increase the acceptance of mobile robotics technologies in the area of services, focusing on the installation of mobile robot teams in large indoor spaces frequented by people (e.g., large shopping malls, common areas of shopping centers, offices and services, museums, etc.) to carry out patrol and surveillance missions independently. This project involves a joint effort of A company and two entities of the scientific and technological Portuguese system, in order to bring robots closer to human beings,helping them in the monotonous or repetitive tasks associated with the supervision, monitoring and surveillance of infrastructures, framed in the concept of multi-robot patrol for monitoring and surveillance of buildings and facilities.

In this way, this project allows to configure a first application to the development of the economic sector of the surveillance systems of a new technology based on mobile robotics, with prospects of technical-economic feasibility and conditions of replicability, aiming to achieve the industrial valorization of knowledge associated with new robotic technologies susceptible of being applied at national and international level.

The use of mobile robots to patrol reduces the human exposure to repetitive tasks and low added value, which in some scenarios pose a risk to human life (e.g., patrolling large infrastructures or facilities with a toxic, explosive or radioactive atmosphere), following the same line of thinking behind the design of industrial manipulators.

This is a project of the Central Portugal Region of half a million euros cofunded by the program Portugal 2020, under the reference CENTRO-01-0247-FEDER-017562.

Prototypes

Given the practical nature of the project, and considering the proof of concept associated with the research work already developed by the team, it is essential to demonstrate the proposed solution in an operational environment. In this way, the CTCV facilities, located in Coimbra, will be used to assess the performance of the robotic patrol system and to demonstrate, in a real situation, to a specialized public, the economic advantages of the same.

Prototype 1

Patrol with a robotic unit for validation of functional characteristics

Objective Validate robotic platforms, focusing on controllers, self-location, planning and navigation, energy autonomy, reactive behaviors for safe navigation in areas densely frequented by people, communication with the cloud.

Prototype

Patrol with team of three robotic units for validation of multi-robot patrol method

Objective Validate a single-floor multi-robot patrol method with a small team, focusing mainly on inter-robot communication to coordinate distributed decision-making and optimize patrolling actions performed individually by mobile robots, but also including automatic deployment features and programmed and staged stop of the robots for automatic battery charging.

The CTCV facilities that will serve as infrastructures and space for demonstration of the project have a total useful area for surveillance of more than 5.000 m2, being composed of about 80 divisions, all considered as important places to be visited by the robots teams. It should be noted that this building has been used as a business incubator, and the promotion of security and surveillance in post-employment hours is a key factor in capturing new entities dealing with raw materials and high-cost equipment, e.g. Health/pharmaceutical industry, technological development in the area of automation and robotics, development of new materials, among others.

Team

As head of the consortium, Ingeniarius is a private SME focused on technology R&D, with a particular focus on robotics. In addition to managing the project, its main task is the development of robotic solutions and their integration into a cloud architecture.

The CTCV is an entity of the National Scientific and Technological System, with wide experience of participation in projects in national and european consortium. In this project, it will play an end-user role in the technology, using the main building as a demonstration space for the solution to be developed.

The ISR-UC is an associated research unit of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra, composed of a multidisciplinary research team capable of performing excellence research in systems and robotics, namely in the areas of autonomous mobile robotics, intelligent transportation, search and rescue robotics, computer vision, and multi-robot patrol.

Coordinators

Micael Couceiro
Main Coordinator
Ingeniarius

Victor Francisco
CTCV Coordinator
CTCV

Rui Rocha
ISR UC Coordinator
University of Coimbra

R&D

Samuel Pereira
Investigator
Ingeniarius

David Portugal
Investigator
Ingeniarius

Munkenyi Mukhandi
Investigator
Ingeniarius

Farzan Majeed Noori
Investigator
University of Coimbra

Vishnu Muthu
Investigator
Universidade de Coimbra

Filipe Pinto
Investigator
Universidade de Coimbra

Managers

André Araujo
Financial and Technological Manager
Ingeniarius

Scientific Conferences

Portugal, D., Pereira, S., Couceiro, M. S. (2017). The Role of Security in Human-Robot Shared Environments: A Case Study in ROS-based Surveillance Robots. The 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2017), August 28 - September 1, 2017, Lisbon, Portugal.

Noori, F. M., Portugal, D., Rocha, R. P., & Couceiro, M. S. (2017, October). On 3D simulators for multi-robot systems in ROS: MORSE or Gazebo?. In Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR), 2017 IEEE International Symposium on (pp. 19-24). IEEE.

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Contacts

Address

Rua Nossa Senhora da Conceição 146

4445-147 Alfena

Portugal

Mobile Phone +351 96 117 14 09

Email address stop@ingeniarius.pt