In the industrial field, robotics applied to complex assembly lines is now a mature and proven technology: will robots conquer the same relevance in other fields? Thanks to the development of enabling technologies, we are in a historical moment in which the arrival of a new generation of robots is very close: robots will be able to support humans in work-related or day life activities and they will become safe and reliable “companions”.
This market, now in a booming phase, needs more than ever support from research centers where it is possible a real multidisciplinary application driven approach. In this way, it will be possible to merge and integrate innovative solutions related not only to control, perception, artificial intelligence & cognition, locomotion systems, smart mechanical architectures, actuation and energy supply but also to aspects of design, interaction, security, as well as social, economic and ethical issues.
All those aspects strongly motivate the creation of the PIC4SeR – PoliTO Interdepartmental Centre for Service Robotics where the expertise can support all the necessary development steps, leading to design, simulate and manufacture the basic components that will enable the new era of “service robots”. This Centre, aims to coordinate the activities of several research groups, already active in the various departments, on the enabling technologies necessary for the development of this highly innovative and multi-disciplinary area.
The goal of the PIC4SeR Centre is to create a common physical environment as well as a community, in which tools and skills can reside to organically synthesize the characteristics of different application scenario’s (precision agriculture, smart cities, search&rescue, patrolling and early warning systems, life support for elderly and disabled people, rehabilitation, archaeological survey/security/protection, etc.) and their related robotic experimental solutions.
