Recent advances in multi-robot systems offer the potential to significantly improve quality for manufacturing and other industrial applications. Advances in control systems, embedded processor, sensor, communication and networking technology in the last few decades, that have made individual autonomous systems more practical, have enabled the research on and the development of cooperative systems, where capabilities are expressed by the team rather than by a super-capable individual.
This makes it possible to address challenges that are relevant for industrial applications, where typical operations often include complex tasks that require capabilities that are varied in both quantity and difficulty, such as goods transportation, distributed assembly, and infrastructure inspection.
This workshop aims at bringing together experts, both from the academia and from the industries, in the field of cooperative vehicle and robotic systems exploited for solving real world industrial problems. The objective is to investigate the main open issues that have prevented a complete deployment of cooperative autonomous systems for industrial operations, as well as to identify the most recent technological development that might lead the definition of effective solutions for automated industrial applications. In particular, exchange of ideas among expert from the industry and from the academia is welcomed and solicited.

1. Kay Fuerstenberg, SICK AG, Germany
2. Rainer Bischoff, Kuka, Germany
3. Joey Durham, Amazon Robotics, USA
4. Philippe Martinet, IRCCYN, France
5. Gian Diego Tipaldi, Univ. of Freiburg, Germany
6. Paolo Rocco, Polytechnic Univ. of Milan, Italy
7. Achim J. Lilienthal, Orebro Univ., Sweden

08.30 - 08.50
Welcome

08.50 - 09.15
PAN-Robots: Plug&Navigate Robots for Smart Factories
Invited speaker: Markus Boehning (speaker) and Kay Fuerstenberg (SICK AG, Germany)

09.15 - 09.40
Cooperative Mobile Manipulation
Invited speaker: Rainer Kümmerle (speaker) and Rainer Bischoff (Kuka, Germany)

09.40 - 10.05
Assembling Orders in Amazon’s Robotic Warehouses
Invited speaker: Joey Durham (Amazon Robotics, USA)

10.05 - 10.30
Robust, Accurate and Flexible Navigation in Industrial Environments
Invited speaker: Gian Diego Tipaldi (Univ. of Freiburg, Germany)

10.30 - 11.00
Coffee break

11.00 - 11.25
Reactive motion planning for safe human-robot collaboration
Invited speaker: Paolo Rocco (Polytechnic Univ. of Milan, Italy)

11.25 - 11.50
Perception and Reasoning for Safe, Long-Term Operation of Mobile Robots Operating in Industrial Applications
Invited speaker: Achim J. Lilienthal (Orebro Univ., Sweden)

11.50 - 12.30
Panel discussion

Lorenzo Sabattini
Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering (DISMI)
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
E-mail: lorenzo.sabattini@unimore.it
web: http://www.arscontrol.org/lorenzo-sabattini

Cristian Secchi
Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering (DISMI)
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
E-mail: cristian.secchi@unimore.it
web: http://www.arscontrol.org/cristian-secchi

Gian Diego Tipaldi
Department of Computer Science, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Georges-Köhler-Allee 79, D-79110 Freiburg, Germany
E-mail: tipaldi@cs.uni-freiburg.de
web: http://www2.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~tipaldi/

The Workshop has the support of

The IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Multi-Robot Systems

The IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Autonomous Ground Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems

SICK AG, Merkurring 20, 22143 Hamburg, Germany

The workshop has been partially supported by the European Commission under the grants H2020-645403- ROBDREAM and FP7- 610917-STAMINA.