LOCOBOT - Low cost toolkit for building robot co-workers in assembly lines

Abstract

LOCOBOT (www.locobot.eu) is a European project funded in the first call of the "Factory of the future" in FP 7 (FoF.NMP.2010-1). LOCOBOT addresses strategic objective - Plug-and-Produce components for adaptive control. The 'Factories of the Future' public-private partnership (PPP) is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the private sector to promote research in advanced manufacturing across Europe. Launched in early 2009, this major European initiative has embarked upon its first 25 research projects which will achieve their final results in 2013 and 2014. 5 of these 25 projects are related to the Topic of robotics and LOCOBOT is one of this 5 projects. LOCOBOT is a system which reaches above and beyond what is currently available for those working in the automotive industry: it incorporates a flexible robotic assistant platform to support and increase manual production processes, as well as the engineering tools required for its setup. Further, this project aims to improve the ergonomics in industrial production processes. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.