University of CATANIA

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Expertise: Our organization has been involved in the last 15 years in several European and national projects in robotics. We are expert in the development of service robots for hazardous and outdoor operations. As regards agriculture applications, we are developing different machines for greenhouses and vineyards applications. The main target of these machines is to mitigate risks for operators due to chemicals used in crop cultivation and to reduce operator fatigue. Moreover it can enable operators to implement precision farming operation. Greenhouse and vineyard applications are both based on a robust outdoor mobile platform developed at DIEES laboratories. The platform has two rubber tracks and two low voltage DC motors. Its dimensions are suitable for maneuvering inside greenhouses and vineyards corridors. The platform, named U-Go robot, has about 200 kg payloads and has two onboard embedded PC. It can use sensors like DGPS, 2D laser scanner, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), stereo-cameras, ultrasound range sensors and so on. Using these sensors and suitable navigation algorithm, the platform is able to move along corridors using different level of autonomy. Facility: Our laboratory is equipped with several industrial manipulators and mobile robots (commercial and built by us) for indoor and outdoor activities. We have the capability to develop and test algorithms for robot control and also to implement all the needed hardware for mobile robotics in our laboratories. We have robots for outdoor navigation (ROBOVOLC, U-Go Robot), Localization (MORDUC), Robots for agriculture (Orange Picking Robot, Greenhouse and vineyards spraying robots, Lawnmowers MOW-BY-SAT, artichokes harvester), Robots for cleaning solar panels. Priority: Outdoor robotics, service robot, mobile platform, agriculture robotics