Cognitive Robotics on the
Factory Floor
Erez Karpas
Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Robots
• The word “robot” was first used in the 1920 Czech play ”R.U.R.
(Rossum's Universal Robots)” by K. Čapek
• robotnik = slave
• robota = forced labor
• Come in many shapes and sizes and perform many functions, …
TOPIO
KUKA
KIVA
Big Dog
Roomba
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Autonomous vs. Remote Controlled
Predator Drone
KIVA
Parrot ARDrone
Less autonomy
Roomba
Cobham tEODor
Bomb Disposal Robot
More autonomy
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“Classical” Manufacturing Robots
• Isolated in safety cages
• Follow rigid program
• Very expensive to set up
BMW i3 Assembly
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Cognitive “vs.” Pre-programmed
ABB Robotics
Less decision making
Roomba
KIVA
More decision making
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Enablers for Cognitive Manufacturing Robots
• Hardware
• Cheap 3D sensors
• Affordable compliant robots
• 3D Printing
• Open source software provides
many “basic” capabilities
• Motion planning
• Mapping & localization
• Object recognition
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Benefits of Cognitive Manufacturing Robots
• Fast assembly line setup
• Execution monitoring
• Effective human robot teamwork
• Dealing with novel situations
• Customized Manufacturing
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Customized manufacturing
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Why Funding Agencies Want You to Work on
Industrial Robotics
• Make [Your Country Name Here] Great Again
• Bring manufacturing back from the far east
• Allow SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) access to cost-effective
automated manufacturing
• Examples
• More than 50% of food consumed in Europe is manufactured by SME
Why You Should Want to Work on Industrial
Robotics
• Easier than service settings:
• Human
• Less sensitivity to privacy
• Easier to “train” human
• Environment
• More structured environment
• Easier to modify
• Impact is ea$ily mea$urable
• Lots of funding (H2020, new CMU institute, …)
Planning Competition for Logistics Robots
http://www.robocup-logistics.org/sim-comp
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