INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS

Our research department has made substantial contribution in development of latest trends in the fields of robotics and automation in the past decades. Our research area covers wide area of the robotics field, from kinematics and dynamics, mechanisms, robot control, machine vision, robot aided reconfiguration, service robotics, biomechanics, etc. We are implementing our research results and knowledge to solve challenging tasks in the fields of industrial automatization and robotization that require alternative innovative approaches not yet available on the market. We are integrating robotics as key enabling technology paired with other Factories of the Future technologies such as machine vision, artificial intelligence and intelligent business systems into Industry 4.0 concept.   

We were a key partner and coordinator of the H2020 Factories of the Future ReconCell project, whose goal was to develop robotized assembly workcell using innovative approaches such as reconfigurability, modularity, IoT and Plug&Produce to create economically viable solutions for automated production of highly variable products in small and medium sized batches. We are also partners in several other European projects, like Trinity, ReconCycle, Qu4lity, etc. 

The field of robotics represented a crucial part of the GOSTOP programme, which was until now the largest Slovenian state, EU and industry founded research programme in the field of Factories of the Future in Slovenia. We were involved in the programme as a coordinator and performed several research and development activities. The goal of the programme was to accelerate development of the Factories of the Future concept in Slovenian regions and to support transfer of Slovenian companies into Industry 4.0.

We are collaborating in Slovenian Strategic Research and Innovation Partnership (SRIP) in the field of Factories of the Future named SRIP FoF. The partnership is consisted of Slovenian economy representatives, research and educational organizations, government representatives and others interested parties included in ˝Slovenian smart specialization strategy S4˝. Our department representative is the chairman of the partnership board and coordinator of the horizontal collaboration network in the enabling technology field of robotics.

We are participating in another Slovenian smart specialization strategy S4 project called AUTOPILOT that is founded by Slovenian state, EU and industry aiming to create new products with high added value suitable for global markets. Goal of the project is to transfer new concepts, knowledge and experiences achieved as research and development results from previous work on different industrial and EU projects at our department. The aim of the project is to design a new generation of production and assembly line which could be competitive also for personalised production on a base of a novel robot aided manufacturing concept, integrated in to Industry 4.0 platform. It will be capable of producing highly variable products while maintaining high productivity, which is achieved by proposed concept combined with hardware and software self-learning and self-adaptability capabilities.