What can Garmi, the robot from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, do?

Research in the field of geriatronics has been taking place at the TU Munich campus in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for over five years. First and foremost is the nursing assistant robot GARMI. It should develop into an all-in-one helper and later assist nursing staff.

GAP – If you want to know how much science goes into GARMI’s individual capabilities, take a look at the publications of the researchers involved. In the last half of 2024, we will primarily highlight the presentations at the international robotics conference IROS, which took place in Abu Dhabi in mid-October of the year. The benchmark is always the mandatory criterion of safety and efficiency in use:

Robotic tasks in dynamic environments require safety: Researchers Seongjin Bien, Abdeldjallil Naceri, Luis Figueredo and Sami Haddadin have developed a new system that enables robots to precisely avoid obstacles. This helps GARMI movements detect nearby objects and adapt to them smoothly. By accurately capturing object shapes without complex processing, the system improves the robot’s ability to perform tasks. This technology has been successfully tested in real scenarios.

How an exoskeleton for the upper limbs enables intuitive remote control of an avatar with remote-controlled robots: In order to be able to optimally support doctors and nurses later, researchers Moein Forouhar, Hamid Sadeghian, Daniel Pérez-Suay, Abdeldjallil Naceri, and Sami Haddadin are devoting themselves to the design an exoskeleton that is intended to revolutionize the interaction of specialists with assistance robots like GARMI.

In addition to design and control performance, the system not only offers potential portability and tactile responsiveness, but also features a fully actuated shoulder joint and sensors that directly measure interaction forces. These advances allow exoskeleton users to control GARMI with natural, smooth movements. This ensures that the robot works safely and efficiently in tasks that require high precision.

Advanced control strategies ensure that the exoskeleton adapts perfectly to the user’s commands, increasing comfort and reducing effort. With its ability to integrate into the health and care environment, this exoskeleton will make operating robots like GARMI easier and more intuitive than ever.

Human abilities as a model for transfer to robots: Zhelin Yang, Seongjin Bien, Simone Nertinger, Abdeldjallil Naceri and Sami Haddadin have set themselves the goal of teaching robots to move like humans to enable us to work better with them.

Under the title An optimization-based scheme for the real-time transfer of human arm movements to the robot arm, they have developed a system that allows robots to imitate human movements in real time. The combination of intuitive motion targeting and responsive exoskeleton control paves the way for more effective and user-friendly robot-assisted care and service applications.

Safe remote control of a robot avatar despite an illegal internet connection? The solution to the problem: In order to improve the control of robots with intelligent communication systems, researchers Xiao Chen, Youssef Michel, Hamid Sadeghian, Abdeldjallil Naceri and Sami Haddadin have chosen a new approach. They show how to improve the performance of remote-controlled robots like GARMI, especially in environments with unstable internet connections.

Together, they developed a system that adjusts the level of autonomy based on the quality of the communications network to ensure smoother and efficient control, even in the event of delays or interruptions.

The highlight: Through the shared autonomy model, the system allows the robot to take on tasks autonomously when necessary, while the human controller still remains in control. This breakthrough is definitely a step forward in making robot-assisted care and service tasks more efficient and user-friendly in the future.

How digital twins enable robots to learn: For GARMI, for example, this means the ability to perform a task such as grasping with the necessary adaptability and safety, while its digital twin enables real-time monitoring and learning of interaction strategies. In addition, a data recorder at GARMI ensures the secure management of patient data, optimizes performance and of course takes data protection into account.

This innovative approach is based on making significant progress in caring for seniors through advanced robotics and AI personalized, human-like support such as the GARMI robot.

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