BIFROST is a 'ground-breaking research' project for established researchers, funded by the prestigious FRIPRO/FRINATEK programme at Research Council of Norway and will develop novel robot visual and tactile-based perception for manipulation of challenging compliant objects such as seafood.
If we are to develop robust robot-based automation, we need to develop solid visual and tactile based perception and thus equip robots with better perception capabilities than they currently possess today. Only then robots could aim to perform complex manipulation tasks which are currently exclusively carried out by humans. Humans are naturally equipped with amazing visual and tactile capabilities, outstanding manipulative dexterity, and an ability rapidly to learn new tasks in a way that is still beyond our understanding. All these capabilities, and specifically the combination of visual and tactile perception, enable them to learn new and complex manipulation skills.
Robots, on the other hand, lack such visual and tactile perception skills and this is especially emphasized during manipulation of 3D compliant objects, which pose an additional challenge compared to manipulation of rigid objects. Clearly, robotic manipulation of compliant objects is limited due to the obvious challenges such manipulation incurs but also due to compelling scientific and technological challenges linked to the visual and tactile perception, control and learning.
The BIFROST project addresses these challenges by developing a visual-tactile perception, control, and learning framework in order to enable robots manipulate 3D compliant objects for a set of specific scenarios. By doing so, the project will generate ground-breaking research and new knowledge as a fundament for a future robot technology that may be capable to address in the future, e.g. challenging real-world robotic manipulation in domains characterized as critical society functions, such as those in food/seafood processing, involving compliant food object robotic manipulation.
Project Type: Research Project, Ground-breaking research.
Financed by: FRIPRO/FRINATEK, Research Council of Norway.