APRIL brings news on a grasp planner and a software pipeline for human-to-robot handover at IRIM 2023

Mattia Penzotti and another researcher posing for a picture during the poster session, after the presentation of the papers

We are in Rome, more precisely at the 5th Italian conference on robotics and intelligent machines (I-RIM, the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines), taking place in Rome at the Fiera di Roma in collaboration with Maker Faire Rome – The European Edition. The event is running from Octber 20 to 22, 2023 and the hype is high. APRIL H2020 is not missing this opportunity not only because of the notoriousness of the occurrence, but also because of its two abstracts accepted to the conference, authored by the PhD students Manuela Uliano and Mattia Penzotti.

But first, what is I-RIM?

As previously mentioned, I-RIM stands for  Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines and is a non-profit organization, established as an Association. It constantly works to develop new solutions for helping people on different levels (i.e. working conditions, well-being, quality of life) and to improve the conditions of society in general. This effort relies on robotic technologies and intelligent machines. 

Through the conferences, I-RIM makes it possible to prepare the ground for researchers and companies to update each other:

  • researchers show the available or possible technologies to be eventually used as solutions for the market needs;
  • companies display their achievements and needs for present and future.

The grasp planner and the software pipeline for human-to-robot handover

At I-RIM 2023, the APRIL Project H2020 got two abstract accepted, which where presented on two different days by PhD students Manuela Uliano and Mattia Penzotti from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.

On Friday 20th, Mattia Penzotti presented the paper “Towards a software pipeline for seamless robot-to-human handover”, authored by Francesco Rea, Mattia Penzotti, Arren Glover, Francesco Iori, Gojko Perovic, Matteo Conti, Angela Mazzeo, Egidio Falotico, Chiara Bartolozzi, Marco Controzzi. The authors are from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, both partners of the APRIL H2020 Consortium.

The paper itself describes the architecture of a modular software which makes it possible for cobots to exchange objects in industrial scenarios. Each module goes deep into the challenges of the actual state-of-art, included the perception of the partner, the motor coordination and the interaction fluidity.

On Saturday 21, Manuela Uliano presented the paper “A rule-based robot grasp planner inspired by human behaviours”, authored by Manuela Uliano, Lucia Angelini, Angela Mazzeo, Mattia Penzotti, Francesca Cini, Marco Controzzi.  The authors are from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and Prensilia, both partners of the APRIL Consortium.

The paper explains the architecture of a high level grasp planner able to help the robot defining the best grasping strategy according to the current situation (i.e. consistency of the object, gripper, task to execute, interaction with the environment).

At I-RIM, after both presentations, there was a poster session were it was possible to have a confrontation with other researchers.