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Research Projects
AViRobots
Title: Development of an intelligent surveillance and security infrastructure system based on mobile robots Funded by: AVI (Agència Valenciana de la Innovació)
Duration: 01/2023 - 12/2025
Description: 
The project focuses on the use of terrestrial mobile robots for the surveillance of indoor and outdoor environments, access control and people identification. It is proposed the realization of technological developments that digitize and automate the tasks of surveillance of buildings and infrastructures by means of mobile robots aided by artificial intelligence techniques. The project considers the development of a complete surveillance system that will integrate: a set of intelligent mobile robots equipped with sensors, a human-machine interface software system that will allow efficient interaction between operators and robots and, finally, a wireless communications system that will allow the exchange of information in the system.
The developed system can be exploited by security companies for the surveillance of indoor or outdoor environments or by law enforcement agencies. During the course of the project, a demonstration system will be created to validate this application and make it ready for a level close to the market. In this way, the aim is to reduce uncertainties about the technical and commercial viability of this technology. The demonstrators will make it possible to test the operation of the monitoring system under real operating conditions and will also make it possible to present the product to companies interested in its commercial exploitation.
This project with reference INNVA1/2023/61 has been funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency.
Keywords: Mobile robots, visual perception, multisensory fusion, infrastructure surveillance
Head Researcher: Arturo Gil, Luis Payá More Information...
HYREBOT
Title: Hybrid Robots and Multisensory Reconstruction for Applications in Lattice Structures (HyReBot) Funded by: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Duration: 09/2021 - 08/2024
Description:
The use of reticular structures, which are composed of a number of beams or bars closely intertwined, is widespread nowadays in the construction of all types of fastening and support components for different infrastructures. They are especially indicated in metal bridges but also in roofs of hangars and spacious industrial buildings. They are generally formed by a set of highly interlinked and interconnected bars, joined together by nodes (either rigid or articulated), forming a three-dimensional structural mesh. The execution of both inspection and maintenance tasks on this type of reticular structures is especially challenging owing to (a) the access problems because of the high interconnection of the bars through the nodes and (b) the complexity of going through paths that permit moving from one starting point to a target point while traversing these structural nodes.
Aerial vehicles have been considered along the past few years as a possible solution to automate these inspection and maintenance tasks on reticular three-dimensional structures. However, the high complexity of such structures (often including narrow gaps between nodes and bars and with a strongly heterogeneous distribution) limits the use of this type of aerial vehicles, since they could not enter the different internal locations of the structure that are not easily accessible. Another of the limitations of this type of vehicles is their limited manipulation capacity while they are in the air.
The present research project focuses on this field. The project will explore the possibility of using robotic units that can move along these reticular structures in such a way that they can navigate through them with 6 degrees of freedom and traverse the reticular nodes present in them, regardless of their arrangement, layout and 3D configuration of the mesh. To address these inspection and / or maintenance tasks, this research project proposes the analysis, design and implementation of hybrid robots. They will consist of simple modules with few degrees of freedom, either with serial or parallel structure, designed in such a way that, when combined into hybrid robots, they can effectively navigate through these reticular structures despite all the challenging issues they present. In addition to analyzing these robots in depth, both from the kinematic and dynamic point of view, we propose to analyze and demonstrate their ability to navigate through such reticular workspaces, negotiating any possible arrangement of reticular nodes present in such structures.
Finally, it is essential to have a sufficiently precise model of the reticular structure in which these modular robots have to operate and to estimate efficiently their position and orientation in this environment. Considering the experience of the members of the research team in previous projects, the present project also proposes performing the reconstruction of these environments (three-dimensional grid structures), based on the fusion of the information provided by both range and visual sensors in a 360o field of perception around the robot. To achieve this objective, deep learning techniques will be used to efficiently process the high amount of data provided by the sensors.
Project PID2020-116418RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.
Keywords: Hybrid robots, visual perception, sensor fusion, reticular structures
Head Researcher: L. Payá, O. Reinoso More Information...
PROMETEO2021
Title: HACIA UNA MAYOR INTEGRACIÓN DE ROBOTS INTELIGENTES EN LA SOCIEDAD: NAVEGAR, RECONOCER Y MANIPULAR Funded by: GENERALITAT VALENCIANA
Duration: 01/2021 - 12/2024
Description:
Durante los últimos años el número de robots que se utilizan para la realización de tareas de forma autónoma en múltiples ámbitos y sectores se ha venido incrementando paulatinamente. Hoy en día es posible encontrarnos la presencia de robots realizando tareas repetitivas y en entornos controlados abordando tareas complejas y en ocasiones peligrosas. Sin embargo, la realización de tareas por parte de robots en entornos no controlados con presencia de objetos y elementos móviles (como puede ser la presencia de personas y otros robots) y que requieren la necesidad de realizar desplazamientos entre diferentes puntos de la escena presenta notables inconvenientes que es preciso abordar con objeto de posibilitar una mayor integración de los robots en este tipo de escenarios.
En este proyecto de investigación plantea abordar actividades de investigación dentro de este ámbito en tres líneas específicas: navegación, reconocimiento y manipulación, con objeto de posibilitar avanzar en la integración de los robots y la realización de tareas dentro de estos entornos. Por un lado, es necesario tener en cuenta la presencia de los seres humanos en estos entornos sociales, dado que su posible movimiento y la forma en que se comporten afectará a la manera en que deben moverse los robots y en definitiva a la navegación de estos dentro de estos escenarios. Además, es preciso avanzar en tareas de reconocimiento del entorno identificando los escenarios con objeto de que la localización de los robots dentro de estos sea más robusta y precisa. Finalmente se abordará el problema de la manipulación de los objetos por parte de estos robots teniendo en cuenta la flexibilidad tanto en la forma como en la deformabilidad de estos.
Proyecto PROMETEO 075/2021 financiado por la Consellería de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana
Head Researcher: Oscar Reinoso More Information...
TED2021
Title: Development of intelligent mobile technologies to address security tasks and surveillance indoors and outdoors Funded by: Agencia Estatal de Investigación. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Duration: 12/2022 - 11/2024
Description:
This project proposes using mobile robots and machine learning technologies to carry out surveillance and security tasks in indoor and outdoor environments. During the course of the project, it is expected to generate scientific knowledge and carry out technological developments that digitize and automate the tasks of surveillance of buildings, infrastructures and industry. Such developments are expected to have potential of technology transfer to security companies, State security forces and emergency units.
Currently, these tasks are carried out by specialized personnel, with the aid mainly of cameras located in fixed positions and cctv systems. In this project, it is proposed to perform this surveillance in a much more effective way and more safely for these personnel, with the support of cooperating mobile robots that can patrol the areas to be monitored and use different types of sensors (omnidirectional vision cameras, infrared cameras, laser range and proximity sensors) and sensor fusion technologies to address two major problems: (a) robot navigation through the environment to be monitored, including building a model or map, localization and trajectory planning and (b) interpretation of the environment so that suspicious objects, intrusions by unauthorized personnel and other potentially dangerous situations such as fire sources and overheating in facilities can be detected. The project includes the creation of an intuitive graphical interface that allows the user to interact with the robots and maps created, know the alarms that have been generated and influence the task carried out by the robots.
Both the cooperation between the robots themselves and the cooperation between the potential remote operator and the robots is critical to effective surveillance. It is a cutting-edge technological aspect with great development in current international research works. Other technologies involved in the project, such as object and person recognition, deep learning and autonomous robot navigation, are also among the most developed today. The proposing research group has a consolidated track record and extensive experience in the fields of mobile robotics, machine learning, image processing and sensor fusion.
Therefore, the proposed idea is framed within the field of digital transition and seeks to improve and enhance technology to apply it to security and surveillance tasks in buildings, infrastructures and facilities. The main goal of the project is to ameliorate the quality of the work of security employees and improve the competitiveness of security companies. In particular, the use of mobile robots is proposed in situations in which the use of static security cameras is inappropriate or insufficient, or to serve as support and assistance to existing security personnel. A use case will be, for example, the surveillance of large areas of land in adverse conditions (cold, extreme heat). In addition, the mobile robots will be equipped with sensors that will allow the detection of intrusions or security failures in low or no lighting conditions. The proposal also aims to have a minimum ecological impact, as it will use highly efficient electric mobile robots.
This project has been founded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Keywords: Mobile robot, computer vision, image processing, sensor fusion, robot navigation, deep learning
Head Researcher: A. Gil, L. Payá More Information...
ModRet
Title: Reconocimiento y creación de modelos de estructuras reticulares (ModRet) Funded by: Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Duration: 2 años
Description:
El proyecto se centra en la creación de modelos de estructuras reticulares. Este tipo de estructuras se encuentran en numerosas construcciones y requieren un mantenimiento continuado. Este mantenimiento se puede automatizar mediante un robot móvil que sea capaz de desplazarse a través de la estructura. Sin embargo, para poder abordar esta tarea, es necesario que el robot disponga de un modelo de la estructura, que le permita conocer su posición y planificar la trayectoria y secuencia de movimientos adecuadas para alcanzar el punto destino. Para crear este modelo, el robot recogerá información a medida que se desplaza a lo largo de la estructura por primera vez, mediante los sensores de que va equipado (fundamentalmente sistemas de visión omnidireccional). El modelado de este tipo de estructuras presenta varios aspectos diferenciales con respecto a otros entornos, como su simetría y presencia de estructuras visuales repetitivas, la gran variedad de puntos de vista desde la que pueden ser observadas, dependiendo de la trayectoria del robot, y los cambios que puede sufrir su apariencia, debido a las reparaciones desarrolladas por el robot. Considerando estas características, se dotará al modelo de una estructura jerárquica, con una capa de alto nivel con información sobre la topología de la estructura, y una o varias capas de bajo nivel, con datos sobre las barras y nodos, como su forma, ancho, planos que componen las barras y topología de nodos. Para la descripción de las escenas y extracción de información relevante se usarán técnicas de inteligencia artificial y aprendizaje profundo. Con estas herramientas se separará la información que rodea la estructura y sus condiciones (como las condiciones de iluminación) de la información de la celosía que rodea al robot (barras y nodos). Asimismo, se implementarán algoritmos para la creación del modelo del entorno de manera incremental, actualizándolo según el robot avanza y captura nueva información de la estructura.
Head Researcher: L. Payá More Information...
EMERG2020
Title: RECONSTRUCTION OF SCENES FROM OMNIDIRECTIONAL CAMERAS USING VISUAL APPEARANCE AND DEEP LEARNING TECHNIQUES. Funded by: Generalitat Valenciana
Duration: 01/2020 - 12/2020
Description:
Most of the existing algorithms that solve mapping and location problems stop working properly when the robot operates in an unstructured, complex and changing environment or when the robot can move with more than three degrees of freedom (DOF). ). In response to this challenge, the main research line of this project proposes the improvement and development of new mechanisms that allow efficient, robust and precise modeling of environments using vision systems. Specifically, the use of omnidirectional vision systems is proposed due to the large amount of information they provide at a relatively low cost. However, the use of these vision systems makes it necessary to consider the challenges of working with the images provided by this type of camera. In this sense, it is proposed to study in depth descriptors based on global appearance and make use of Deep Learning techniques.
The development of this project is developed through various objectives such as the analysis of the present algorithms for creating maps and location, comparison of the present global appearance algorithms and also, developing new location algorithms and / or appearance descriptors global based on Deep Learning. In order to improve the integration of the mobile robot in real work environments (Industry 4.0), in which they interact with people, characteristics that make it compatible with human perception will be incorporated into the map.
Keywords: Deep learning, scene reconstruction, localization, omnidirectional vision
Head Researcher: M. Ballesta More Information...
Map Building by Means of Appearance Visual Systems for Robot Navigation
Title: Map Building by Means of Appearance Visual Systems for Robot Navigation Funded by: CICYT Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Duration: 01/01/2017 al 31/12/2019
Description:
In order to be truly autonomous, a mobile robot should be capable of navigating through any kind of environment while carrying out a task. In order to do that it is considered necessary that the robot possesses the ability to create a model of its workspace that allows to estimate its position inside it and navigate along a trajectory.
Map building and navigation is currently a very active research area, in which a large number of researchers focus on and where very different approaches have emerged based on diverse algorithms and using various kind of sensorial information. To the present days, most of the efforts have been focusing on construction of models of the environment based on a set of significant points extracted from it without considering the global appearance of the scene.
Considering the concepts posed above, we propose the improvement and development of new mechanisms that allow an efficient, robust and precise modelling of the environment by making use of omnidirectional vision systems. The research group has experience in the mentioned areas and during the last years has developed different approaches in the areas of map building, localization, exploration and SLAM by means of information gathered by different kind of vision systems installed on the robots. In order to carry out these approaches, an extensive study of the different description methods has been performed, both based on the extraction of significant points and local descriptors and also those methods based on the global appearance of the image, with remarkable results.
Keywords: Mobile robots, autonomous navigation, computer vision, omnidirectional systems
Head Researcher: L. Payá, O. Reinoso More Information...
BinaryRobot
Title: Diseño y desarrollo de un robot de estructura híbrida con actuadores hidráulicos de operación binaria Funded by: Generalitat Valenciana
Duration: Del 01/01/2018 al 31/12/2019
Description:
Las estructuras de acero requieren tareas de inspección, mantenimiento y reparación para garantizar su buen funcionamiento, su estabilidad, su integridad estructural, su longevidad y su buena estética. Tales estructuras están presentes en numerosas construcciones tales como puentes, puertos, aeropuertos, torres de telecomunicaciones, estadios, tendido eléctrico, centrales eléctricas y plantas industriales, además de formar parte del esqueleto de la mayoría de edificios. Habitualmente, las tareas de mantenimiento de estas estructuras verticales son realizadas por operarios humanos que deben trepar a las estructuras para realizar dichas tareas en ellas, lo que somete a dichos operarios a graves riesgos que incluyen la caída desde una altura considerable o la electrocución. Con el fin de evitar someter un operario humano a tales riesgos, desde hace un par de décadas, numerosos investigadores en todo el mundo han estado estudiando la posibilidad de emplear robots trepadores para llevar a cabo estos peligrosos trabajos en altura.
El objetivo principal que planteamos en este proyecto consiste en desarrollar un nuevo robot trepador articulado para la exploración y el mantenimiento de estructuras verticales de acero, con capacidad de movimiento en el espacio tridimensional. La principal novedad del robot a desarrollar en este proyecto frente a otros robots trepadores de estructuras desarrollados hasta la fecha es que el robot que proponemos tendrá actuación binaria (actuadores todo/nada), lo que simplifica en gran medida la planificación y el control de sus movimientos. Además, el robot a desarrollar tendrá un grado de redundancia cinemática moderadamente alto (entre 10 y 12 grados de libertad), lo que permitirá que éste disfrute de una movilidad suficientemente elevada para explorar estructuras tridimensionales a pesar de contar únicamente con actuadores binarios. De esta forma, mediante la combinación de actuación binaria y redundancia cinemática, pretendemos alcanzar un compromiso entre simplicidad y libertad de movimiento, de forma que contribuyamos a salvar los principales problemas de complejidad que actualmente impiden que los robots trepadores de estructuras se utilicen de manera más extensa
Keywords: robot trepador, operación binaria
Head Researcher: M. Ballesta More Information...
NAVICOM
Title: Robotic Navigation in Dynamic Environments by means of Compact Maps with Global Appearance Visual Information Funded by: CICYT Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Duration: 01/09/2014 al 31/05/2017
Description:
Carrying out a task by a team of mobile robots that move across an unknown environment is one of the open research lines with a higher scope for a large development in the mid-term. In order to accomplish this task it has been proved necessary to possess a highly detailed map of the environment that will allow the localization of the robots as they execute a particular task. During the last years the proposer research team has worked with remarkable results in the field of SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) with teams of mobile robots. The work has considered the use of robots equipped with cameras and the inclusion of the visual information gathered in order to build map models. So far, different kind of maps have been built, including metric maps based on visual landmarks, as well as topological maps base on global appearance-based information extracted from images.
These maps have allowed the navigation of the robots in these maps as well as the performance of high level tasks in the environment. Nonetheless, there exists space for improvement in several areas related to the research carried out so far. Currently, one of the important problems consists in the treatment of the visual information and the updating of this information as the environment changes gradually. In addition, the maps should be created considering the dynamic and static part of the environment (for example when other mobile robots or people move in the environment), thus leading to the creation of more realistic models, as well as strategies to update the maps as changes are detected. A different research line considers the creation of maps that combine simultaneously the information about the topology of the environment, as well as semantic and metric information that will allow a more effective localization of the robot in large environments and, in addition, will enable a hierarchical localization in these maps. The proposed research project considers to tackle the aforementioned lines, thus considering the task of developing dynamic visual maps that will incorporate the semantic and topological structure of the environment, as well as the metric information when the robots perform trajectories with 6 degrees of freedom.
Keywords: Mobile Robots, Visual Maps, Topological and Compact Navigation, Visual SLAM
Head Researcher: A. Gil, O. Reinoso More Information...
Localización y Creación de Mapas Visuales para Navegación de Robots con 6 GDL
Title: Localización y Creación de Mapas Visuales para Navegación de Robots con 6 GDL Funded by: Generalitat Valenciana
Duration: Enero 2015 - Dic 2016
Description:
La realización de tareas por parte de robots móviles que se desenvuelven por un entorno desconocido es una de las líneas de investigación abiertas en la actualidad y que previsiblemente tendrá mayor repercusión a medio plazo. Para ello es necesario poder tener como referencia una información lo más precisa y detallada posible con objeto de que el robot o los robots que se encuentran ejecutando una determinada tarea pueden localizarse dentro del entorno de trabajo. Durante los últimos años se ha trabajado de forma notable y con excelente resultados en esta línea de investigación de creación de mapas de entornos a través de los cuales se pudieran localizar los robots en un proceso conjunto (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping). El grupo de investigación proponente se ha centrado durante los últimos años en esta línea de investigación teniendo como datos de partida para la creación del mapa, la información visual de cada uno de los sistemas de visión con que cuenten los robots. A partir de esta información visual, se extraen mapas métricos con objeto de que los robots puedan localizarse y desarrollar tareas de navegación de una forma lo más precisa posible.
Es en este ámbito donde se centra el presente proyecto de investigación, en el que a partir de los resultados alcanzados hasta el momento se plantea acometer nuevas líneas de investigación consistentes en desarrollar mapas visuales dinámicos teniendo en cuenta la información semántica y topológica aportada por los sistemas de visión todo ello en entornos de 6 grados de libertad.
Keywords: Visual SLAM applied to 6DOF robotics
Head Researcher: L.M. Jiménez More Information...
VISCOBOT II
Title: Integrated Exploration of Enviroments by means of Cooperative Robots in order to build 3D Visual and Topological Maps intended for 6 DOF Navigation Funded by: CICYT Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Duration: 01/01/2011 al 31/12/2013
Description:
While a group of mobile robots carry out a task, they need to find their location within the environment. In consequence a precise map of a general and undetermined environment has to be known by the robots. During the last decade a series of methods have been developed that allow the construction of the map by a mobile robot. These algorithms consider the case in which the vehicle moves along the environment, constructs the map while, simultaneously, computes its location within the map. As a result, this problem has been named Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). This research project focusses thus on the construction of visual maps in 3D general unknown environments by using a team of mobile robots equipped with vision sensors. In this sense, we propose to undertake, among others, the following lines: 6 DOF cooperative visual SLAM, in which the robots move following general trajectories in the environment (with 6 degrees of freedom) instead of the classical trajectories in which it is assumed that the robots navigates on a two-dimensional plane; integrated exploration, where the exploration paths of the robots consider to maximize the knowledge of the environment and, at the same time, take into account the uncertainty in the maps created by the robot(s); map alginment and map fusion of local maps created by different robots; and finally, the creation of maps using the information based in the visual appearance that allows the construction of high-level topological maps.
Keywords: Robotics, Visual SLAM, Cooperative Exploration
Head Researcher: O. Reinoso More Information...
VISCOBOT: Percepction
Title: Cooperative Mobile Visual Perception Systems as support for tasks performed by means Robot Networks Funded by: CICYT Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Duration: 1/10/2007 - 30/09/2010
Description:
Performing tasks in a coordinated manner by means of a team of robots is a topic of great interest and allows to improve the results compared to the single-robot case. The current research project focuses on this particular field and proposes the need to use different vision systems distributed along the mobile agent network that gather a precise and complete description of the environment. To cope with the proposed goals it will be necessary to tackle with different research lines, in consequence, we are working on the following subjects: Cooperative map building and localization using particle filters, Visual landmark modelling: Improving data association in visual SLAM, development of cooperative exploration strategies using the information provided by each robot, cooperative reconstruction of environments using appearance based methods.
Keywords: Robots Cooperativos, SLAM visual, Exploración cooperativa, Reconstrucción basada en apariencia
Head Researcher: O. Reinoso More Information...
Technical Assistance
Hacia la formación práctica ubicua y digital en robótica mediante laboratorios remotos
Title: Convenio de Colaboración para el desarrollo del proyecto "Hacia la formación práctica ubicua y digital en robótica mediante laboratorios remotos” Funded by: Centro de Inteligencia Digital de la Provincia de Alicante (CENID)
Duration: 6 meses (abril 2022 - octubre 2022)
Description:
Este proyecto pretende desarrollar un laboratorio remoto, que consiste en una plataforma ciberfísica que permite al estudiantado de carreras técnicas conectarse a robots de forma remota, para hacer prácticas de laboratorio y experimentos con dichos robots, a través de Internet. Esto permitirá dotar al estudiantado de mayor flexibilidad espacial y temporal, permitiéndoles hacer prácticas de laboratorio de forma ubicua, sin limitarlos a tener que desplazarse a un laboratorio físico para realizar las prácticas únicamente en las horas en las que el acceso a dicho laboratorio está habilitado. El estudiantado se conectará a los robots reales a través de un servidor web y, a través de una interfaz, podrá comandar movimientos o experimentos para realizar con los robots remotos. El movimiento de los robots se mostrará a través de una webcam en tiempo real, y también se devolverá información relativa a los resultados del experimento remoto, información que será captada mediante sensores de posición, velocidad, y fuerza, colocados en el robot real. Los robots remotos que se implementarán para hacer prácticas a distancia serán de tipo paralelo o de cadena cinemática cerrada, ya que éstos disponen de mayor riqueza que los robots tradicionales de cadena cinemática serie, a la hora de ser estudiados en asignaturas de control y robótica.
Las actividades que abarcará este proyecto serán las siguientes cuatro: 1) construcción de dos robots paralelos con los que el estudiantado pueda realizar prácticas y experimentos a través de internet, 2) implementación del servidor web que gestione las reservas y el acceso remoto de los robots por parte del estudiantado, 3) la programación de interfaces gráficas de usuario que permitan al estudiantado comandar órdenes y experimentos a la vez que se observa el movimiento del robot en tiempo real a través de una webcam, y 4) diseño de prácticas y experimentos didácticos a realizar con la ayuda del laboratorio remoto desarrollado. El principal resultado esperado de este proyecto es la materialización del mencionado laboratorio remoto, que permitirá flexibilizar la realización ubicua de prácticas con robots reales a distancia, haciendo uso de las tecnologías digitales al servicio de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje.
Keywords: Robot paralelo, laboratorio remoto, prácticas de laboratorio, identificación, control
Head Researcher: Adrián Peidró More Information...
abionica1.21T
Title: Empleo de algoritmos para conciencia situacional en vuelo mediante visión artificial Funded by: Abionica Solutions S.L.
Duration: 05/2021 - 11/2021
Head Researcher: A. Gil More Information...
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