ROSSINI | RObot enhanced SenSing, INtelligence and actuation to Improve job quality in manufacturing

The ROSSINI project foresees 3 use-cases related to Domestic Appliances Assembly (WHIRLPOOL), Electronic Components Production (SCHINDLER) and Food Products Packaging (IMA). The 1st use case aims at implementing real and efficient HRC which will allow to enhance human health and satisfaction in workplaces combining automation and the lean manufacturing concept thus reducing costs and avoiding dangerous operations for workers (requirement: improving safety in HRC and maintain the efficiency of the production line). The 2nd use case wants to redesign the actual production line  where individually separate but related items are grouped (the kitting step), packaged (the assembly step) and supplied together as one unit (requirement: strict collaboration between human operators and robot). The 3rd use case will leverage on a mobile robotic solution and an advanced smart sensing system to improve its current robotic solution for assisting operator in machine monitoring and maintenance (requirement: improve system performance in terms of speeds, handled objects and capabilities, whilst maintain operator safety)

ROSSINI develops and demonstrates technologies enabling a significant advancement in HRC. They are:

• ROSSINI Smart and Safe Sensing System
• Safety Aware Control Architecture
• Collaborative by Birth Robotic Arm
• Human-robot mutual understanding framework
• Integration and Validation Layer

These technologies will be then integrated into the ROSSINI Platform architecture.

Expected achievements: 15% increase in OECD Job Quality Index through work environment and safety improvement; 20% reduction in production reconfiguration time and cost; reduction of heavy works impacts and costs: increase in the overall job satisfaction and job attractiveness; increased value-chain integration and stakeholder satisfaction

HRC applications pose several challenges to the manufacturing industry which sees an increased need for automation and scalability, notably in SMEs. Moreover, at the moment, HRC applications imply also huge investments in terms of effort, time and intellectual capital to integrate robots and sensors into the manufacturing workflow which can’t be afforded by most of the European SMEs, notably if the production combines low volume with high mix. Trough ROSSINI project, implementation of real and cost effective HRC contributes to redesign workplaces combining automation and lean manufacturing concept, with a drastic reduction of conversion and reconfiguration costs.

The development of the Rossini Modular KIT allowed to bring significant advance in terms of tecnology and awareness on collaborative robotics for all Europe. In particular, the set of efficient and modular tools developed within Rossini enable and ease different specific activities: from the hazarda assessment evaluation untill the multiple detection of humans on a monitored area where robots are working. Nevertheless, important activities still need quite a few effort in terms of knowledge, development and collaboration: from the necessity to refine (or define new well-establised interfaces) untill the identification of solutions able to bring the human-robot iteraction even closer (and more trustworthy), also in terms of standadization (that still present several gaps on this topic).

In particular, the following topic have been identified as important issues to tackle in future activities and research:

• Cross-domain approach for both design and validation 8in terms of safety and beyond)
• Considering the need to widespread HRC technologies throughout very different kind of people
• Identification of the most suitable data to collect and monitor
• Inclusion of a proper ergonomics perspective to interpret data
• Automatization of the risk assessment in the design phase
• Maintaining coherence in development with the already published standards

ROSSINI helps European factories to attract skilled workforce in factories because of the attention paid to job quality and employee satisfaction

Concerning standardization, the ROSSINI project defined a roadmap of activities based on three pillars:

• Training and knowledge sharing among standards and best practice on HRC application (both internally and externally the ROSSINI consortium)
• Participation in working groups to bring the knowledge and experience acquired during the development of the ROSSINI project 
• Active contribution to standardization.

The contribution of the ROSSINI project have been effective to provide useful insights to the regulatory scenario, as the project tackles the development of  innovative robotic solutions characterized by built-in safety features, and a safety aware control architecture.

In particular,  the activities planned and realized within the ROSSINI Standardization Roadmap contributed fruitfully as input for standardization in terms of identification of the main issues and topic to be address into standards, contribution to offical standardizaiton documents and contribution to ISO/PAS documents.

ROSSINI provides several advances beyond the state of the art, developing a Safety Aware Control Architecture for robot cognitive perception and optimal task planning and execution. 

In order to enable actual perception, ROSSINI leverages on a data processing technique for real-time image recognition, to obtain a semantic scene map that adapts to dynamic working conditions. 

ROSSINI adopts also algorithms for motion prediction of humans and moving entities, and embeds their stochastic information in the dynamic semantic scene map. This allows the robot to further refine its planning in order to maximize performance while preserving safety. 

In this way, ROSSINI introduces a novel perception and control architecture blending safety and performance oriented planning/control that wants to reach the goal of optimising the trade-off between human operator safety and manufacturing productivity.

Cobots and in general HRC solutions, which can be used for multiple functions due to their flexibility in deployment, offer higher returns on investment and faster payback, compared to legacy industrial robots. Moreover, cobots’ safety features and ease of use make integration and implementation less costly than the traditional industrial robots. In high-cost countries, having skilled human workers engaged in suitable configured manufacturing, assembly, finishing and inspection operations side by side with cobots is one of the most cost- effective ways to leverage the unique value-adding capabilities of a skilled human workforce

The ROSSINI modular KIT offers advance components for the different layers of a robotic application (sensing, perception, cognition, control, actuation and integration)

Job quality evaluation focused on HRC developments aim in improving well-being of workers (acceptance, trust, physical health) in contexts where robots may become actual co-workers.  

Real-time sensing and communication features are key to guarantee safety

The overal modular approach of the ROSSINI solution and the implementation of ROS nodes for the various components of the ROSSINI Modular KIT is intended for internal (CORE, EXTRA and AGGREGATED components) and external (EXTERNAL components) scalability of the whole system.

The ROSSINI project gathered IP policies under the Data Management Plan

The ROSSINI project runs its development in accordance with EU rules and regulations, as GDPR