In two months, four events and several quilometres travelled by INESC TEC researchers, with different robots developed by the institution. The goal? To show both industry and students the latest innovations in research carried out by INESC TEC in the field of robotics.
The trip began at the Centro Desportivo do Politécnico (Porto) and the highlight was the quadruped robot. Equipped with sensors, this robot features surveillance and monitoring features, but it can also be used in the manipulation of objects, through the integration of a robotic arm. The quadruped was the main actor of INESC TEC at the Open Campus, an event held by the Polytechnic Institute of Porto that aimed to present the different areas of training of the institution, as well as the associated research centres, e.g., INESC TEC, as hubs of innovation and culture. In addition to this robot, INESC TEC researchers disseminated the institution’s lines of research related to industrial robotics and encouraged visitors to explore the research and technologies developed.
The journey continued, this time towards the south, more specifically to the municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha – where INESC TEC participated in OpenDay@Palbit; the event brought together more than 100 industry leaders, public entities, sector representatives and research and development institutions. INESC TEC presented and demonstrated the Hi_rEV project – Recovery of the Automotive Components Sector, financed under the mobilising agendas for business innovation of the Recovery and Resilience Programme (PRR). The project, led precisely by Palbit (the entity responsible for organising this event), aims to support the digitalisation of the automotive components industry, supporting the adaptation to the changes introduced by the energy transition process.
“In addition to a brief presentation of the general and ongoing technological developments related to the digitalisation of the production process of this sector, INESC TEC had the opportunity to demonstrate an innovative technological solution, which combines collaborative robotics and computer vision technologies, to carry out the inspection of aluminium parts produced from die-casting and machining processes. The event provided a unique opportunity to bring together different stakeholders from the Automotive Components Sector in one space, in an environment of sharing and open discussion about the future of the sector”, explained Luís Rocha, researcher at INESC TEC.
A few quilometres further north, this time at the Santa Maria da Feira Europark, INESC TEC researchers attended the second annual meeting of mobilising agendas, particularly at the Vine & Wine exhibition space. This time, the Modular-E robot was the main attraction – developed within the scope of the agenda, for precision fertilisation. This robot recently won a second place award for best robot at the world fair for robotics for agriculture – FIRA.
Back at ISEP, INESC TEC returned to travel with the quadruped robot, this time to participate in the Open Robotics @ISEP, giving students the possibility to interact with the robot. The INESC TEC researchers who attended the three days of the event presented to the students the new approaches and technologies in the world of robotics.
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