INESCOP gathers the APRIL project partners in a workshop
INESCOP hosts the second workshop for the integration of the different modules developed during the H2020 APRIL project, gathering the partners of the project for ten days in the facilities of the technology centre.
The workshop, organised by the partners who provide technological support to the H2020 APRIL project, enabled the joint implementation of different functional modules which, due to the location of their headquarters, are usually carried out independently. For this reason, taking advantage of the demonstrator for the bagging of insoles installed at INESCOP's industrial plant, different systems, such as artificial vision, were validated both for the detection of objects to be handled as well as people in a work environment. The grip libraries were also tested with the robotic hands for the different processes, as well as the safety systems and the general control, which allow the robot to carry out the operation for which it has been programmed.
INESCOP welcomed all the technological partners, PIAP, TREE, SSSA, IIT, DFKI, as well as the coordinator, UPM, which resulted in the creation of a multidisciplinary team prepared to share the achievements obtained so far. In fact, although the facilities of the Footwear Technology Centre only include the pilot for the use case related to the footwear industry, work was carried out on other lines to improve certain aspects in the handling of passports (INCM’s use case) or poultry parts (ASINCAR’s use case).
This demonstrated the flexible nature of the APRIL System as a multi-purpose robotic solution for handling deformable materials in manufacturing processes. The aim of this project, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 programme, is to create different prototypes of low-cost multi-purpose autonomous robots capable of handling, assembling or processing different flexible materials within a production line, which will be implemented in six demonstrators of different use cases around Europe.
Partners’ meeting
As most partners were gathered at INESCOP's facilities, a hybrid consortium meeting was held, which was attended online by the partners who were not in the centre. During the meeting, different aspects to be tackled in this last stage of the project were addressed. Based on the technical results achieved in this second workshop, a work plan was agreed upon for the development of the next actions planned, where the integration of each solution developed for the different pilots will be implemented, as well as the demonstration events for each use case.
The APRIL project heads into the final stage with both the technological and the industrial partners involved in the achievement of the expected objectives.
FUNDING
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research under grant agreement No 870142