The Inauguration Ceremony of Sammelbau Maschinenwesen
Getting to Know Each Other!
At the beginning of 2020, IAW moved into the new premises of the Sammelbau Maschinenwesen. The official inauguration had to wait, however, because as with so many celebrations in the past two years, the Corona pandemic got in the way. On September 16, 2022, the time had finally come: All employees of the Sammelbau Maschinenwesen had the opportunity to get to know each other and IAW displayed an impressive array of research exhibits.
For example, one of the mixed reality demonstrators of the AKzentE4.0 project could be tested in detail in the Robotic Lab. Visitors were immersed in the photorealistic replica of our workshop and were able to experience for themselves how it feels to control a humanoid assistance robot with their own body. This is made possible by the fusion of current VR technologies with an industrially used motion capture solution from the life science sector.
"GERT" was also present, our GERonTological Simulator, with the help of which the topic of old age can be experienced: The modular suits allow to simulate various limitations - such as reduced joint mobility. In this way, one can experience in just a few minutes how a body aged by 30-40 years might feel. In addition, the simulation glasses for eye diseases, including also age-related ones, were a real eye-catcher.
Visitors were also presented with the simulation models developed as part of the FlexDeMo project and were able to experience them using VR technology. Under the motto "Learning is becoming more digital", it was also possible to try out the current work status of a digital learning application for healthcare executives from the LUTZ project.
The event also included a presentation of a biologically inspired steering gesture concept from the Vorreiter project, which allows interaction with a highly automated vehicle via intuitive turning/pushing or swiping gestures. Visitors had the opportunity to try out the steering wheel and the interaction in a simulated test environment.
Colleagues were not the only ones who used the inauguration ceremony of the Sammelbau Maschinenwesen to get to know their neighbors. Our social humanoid robot named Pepper also took the opportunity to introduce herself to the neighboring institutes. Pepper recently joined the IAW team. Her range of tasks is very diverse, but she enjoys multimodal interactions with employees as well as visitors of IAW the most. Pepper is supported by her automatic speech recognition, an integrated visualization display with touch function, touch sensors as well as numerous cameras for person, environment and distance detection. Since she is also equipped with running wheels, she likes to explore her surroundings. In doing so, she never loses sight of her destination and is always on the lookout for the next opportunity for human-robot interaction. Pepper demonstrated this impressively during the inauguration ceremony. She took the opportunity to play and dance with visitors as well as to introduce herself and IAW. A selfie or two were also taken, ensuring that Pepper will never forget this eventful day.
The day was a complete success! We were very happy to get to know our neighboring institutes and look forward to many more years together in the Sammelbau Maschinenwesen.