Smartbot For Agriculture, Shipping and Industry

SmartBot, an innovative robotics project involving 24 partners collaborating in Germany and the Netherlands is creating a global knowledge hot spot in the field of robotic sensing and a new way of doing business.

SmartBot is a consortium that comprises three areas of research and development:

• Roboship, which is aimed at perfecting an intelligent robot to inspect and repair the ballast water tanks of large ships;
• Sinbot, which is exploring the use of intelligent industrial robots in production;
• AgroBot, which is developing semi-autonomous robot systems that can aid in farm production without damaging the environment.

The SmartBot project highlights the idea that contact and non-contact sensor robotics can assist in work that is too dangerous or labor intensive for humans, as well as for probing work areas that are difficult to access. The resulting efficiencies can then be used to streamline production and conserve resources.

This technology is still in the experimental stages but has already been in limited use during the past few years.

Smartbot RoboShip - Video: DFKI GmbH - Robotics Innovation Center

As Drenthe Province Commissioner Ard van der Tuuk states in a recent promotional video made for SmartBot, “The past years were economically difficult. We have decided that innovation is the way to take on our competitors.”

Lead partners in the project include Coevorden-based Axum Engineering; the independent advisory and research partner for the vegetative sectors, DVL plant; developer and global supplier of 3D motion tracking products based upon miniature (MEMS) inertial sensor technology, Xsens; and the venerable German construction company Meyer Werft GmbH.

Several research institutes and universities are also involved – INCAS; the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Osnabruck University, the STODT practice centre for advanced technology, and the Westfalishce Hochschule of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen, among many others.

Supported by the European Union’s ITERREG IVA Structural Funds program, SmartBot is being acclaimed as a new way for key sectors to share individual expertise and knowledge bases in an effort to build new capacities and possibilities.

The SmartBot cooperative is currently inviting registration from potential partners and clients interested in receiving regular updates on the status of the various component projects.  

Source: Smartbot.eu