GMV has taken part in the National Robotics Conference (Jornadas Nacionales de Robótica), held on 14 and 15 June in Valladolid’s Industrial Engineers’ School (Escuela de Ingenierías Industriales).

The event had a predominantly academic-researcher approach, divided into 5 thematic sessions: healthcare robotics; social robotics; robot kinematics, dynamics and control; tracking, navigation and mapping; and human-robot interaction and applications. Industrial participants, for their part, demoed some of their latest developments.

GMV, as a member of the Spanish Robot Technology Platform (Plataforma Tecnológica Española de Robótica: Hisparob), took part in one of the panel discussions to share with the rest its enriching and ongoing collaboration with Spanish universities in this area. It also showcased its surface robot developments and its work in unmmaned aircraft. Another talking point was the company’s role in PRODUCTIO, a project of the National Business Research Consortia (Consorcios de Investigación Empresarial Nacional: CIEN) under the aegis of the Industrial Technology Development Center (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial: CDTI). PRODUCTIO is looking into new technological developments to boost the operational capacity of industrial processes.

GMV’s intervention also brought out other robot projects and developments in the autonomous-driving area like ESCAPE, the European Safety Critical Applications Positioning Engine; and also in healthcare, like the Rehabilita project to create robot-assisted rehab systems, and radiance, GMV’s inhouse intraoperative radiation therapy planner.

The event also debated the future robotics challenges in Industry 4.0, in terms of regulation, safety and new trends.

Leading figures at this year’s conference were Professor Marc Hanheide (University of Lincoln) and Professor Luca Locchi (Sapienza University of Rome). As in previous years the organization of this yearly event fell to the Robotics Thematic Group (Grupo Temático de Robótica: GTROB) of the Spanish Automatic-Control Committee (Comité Español de Automática: CEA), this year in collaboration with Valladolid University’s Advanced Production-Technology Institute (Instituto Universitario de Tecnologías Avanzadas de la Producción: ITAP).