Rise of the robots

FLO or washing roBOT, or FLOBOT, will be a large scale, autonomous floor cleaning machine, for washing the floors of supermarkets, airports, hospitals and warehouses. Although it can be manually started, programmed and monitored by people, there will be no need to physically move it around making the process more efficient.

FLOBOT is being developed by a multi-disciplinary team, including the University of Lincoln, which specialises in the software required to operate the robot. Dr. Nicola Bellotto, principal investigator from the University of Lincoln and member of the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems Research, works in mobile robotics and computer vision and has detailed knowledge on people tracking with robots.

He said: "Our key aim is to program FLOBOT to detect and track people moving around so as to avoid them and also be able to estimate typical human trajectories in the premises where it operates. We can then predict where it is likely to be most dirty, by analysing those trajectories and the general use of the environment."

Floor washing tasks have many demanding aspects, including autonomy of operation, navigation and path optimisation, safety with regard to humans and goods, interaction with human personnel, easy set-up and reprogramming. FLOBOT addresses these problems by integrating existing and new solutions to produce a professional floor washing robot for wide areas. The work that will be carried out on production prototypes will ensure the actual system is completed and ready for real-world use.

For everyday environments

Professor Tom Duckett, also from the University of Lincoln, works in autonomous robotics and sensor systems, and is director of the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems Research.

Professor Duckett said: "The general idea is to create professional service robots that will work in our everyday environments, providing assistance and helping to carry out tasks that are currently very time – and labour – intensive for human workers. Participating in this Innovation Action project is really exciting, because it means that many of the underpinning research concepts and technologies we have been developing at the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems now have the potential to leave the laboratory and become part of real products like cleaning robots, which could impact on the everyday lives of people everywhere.”

The project is funded by Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for 2014-2020. Project consortium include the Coordinator CyRIC, Cyprus Research and Innovation Center and partners Fimap SpA, Robosoft Service Robots, Vienna University of Technology, Carrefour Italia, Manutencoop Facility Management, Ridgeback S.A.S. and GSF SAS.

Industry involvement

The project team is keen to ensure that the technology transfers out of academia and into industry and ICMMA, the Industrial Cleaning Machinery Manufacturers Association, part of The Building Futures Group, has been invited to participate in the FLOBOT project's Business Interest Group.

On signing the Letter of Intent, Kevin Webb, chair of ICMMA's Technical Committee, said: "We believe that the research taking place within the project is of significant interest to our members, our strategic alliances and the industry as a whole and is aligned with our work in the areas of evolving standards for the cleaning machinery."

ICMMA’s relationship with The Building Futures Group, the trade association for Cleaning and Facilities Management, also provides access for FLOBOT’s Business Industry Group to access machinery users.

Prof. Duckett said of the partnership: "We are keen on feedback from manufacturers and machinery users within the industry and welcome ICMMA's participation in the Business Interest Group, their feedback on the strategic direction of the project and the provision of independent input and advice."

More information about the project can be found at http://www.flobot.eu/ and those on Facebook can follow https://www.facebook.com/flobot.eu and for Twitter can follow @Flobot_Project