Competing in the World Robot Summit was a fantastic opportunity to test CambridgeARM against robots from other world-class research teams. - PhD student Josie Hughes
CambridgeARM was selected to compete in the Summit’s World Robot Challenge in Tokyo recently. Cambridge University Engineering PhD students Josie Hughes, Luca Scimeca, Kieran Gilday and undergraduate Soham Garg – from the Department’s Biologically Inspired Robotics Lab – won the Special Innovation Award for their novel approach to robotic manipulation. This approach involved the use of grease and a reusable putty-like adhesive to enable complex manipulation solutions. The grease allowed Allen keys to achieve a non-permanent hold of bolts, and putty was used to pick up single items, such as a washer, from a box of parts.
The Cambridge team competed against 16 groups from around the world and were awarded second place in the Kitting and Adaptive Assembly challenges, set as part of the Industrial Robotics Category. The challenge required the robot to perform a quick and accurate assembly of technical components needed in the assembly of industrial products and other goods.
“Competing in the World Robot Summit was a fantastic opportunity to test CambridgeARM against robots from other world-class research teams,” said Josie. “Our approach was innovative and truly adaptive; we used a novel method of grease and reusable putty-like adhesive for our robotic manipulation that really impressed the judges. Our team did a fantastic job and it is great to be recognised on an international stage. Special thanks also goes to ARM for sponsoring this project and for making this work possible."
CambridgeARM practice run for World Robot Summit 2018:
Reproduced courtesy of University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering