In a continuation of a partnership which has already seen remote demonstrations over BT’s 5G network and a robotics installation at Futurezone at its London HQ, leading telecommunications provider BT has included Extend Robotics in its recent Robotics Festival at Adastral Park in Suffolk.
The 2022 Robotics Festival was attended by inspirational robotics leaders from manufacturing, logistics, civil engineering and health, including MIT and NASA. Keynote talks were delivered from world-renowned speakers on vital topics like ethics and trust.
In addition to the Universal Robot UR5e tele-operated robotics arm supplied by RARUK Automation, Extend Robotics was exhibiting TIAGo. A near-humanoid, mobile robot supplied by the Open University, TIAGo is capable of a number of everyday tasks when remote operated by an individual.
Commenting on the Extend Robotics exhibit, Achilles Petras from BT Research said:
“That was one of the best demos I have seen… that was a good field to understand what is the cutting edge of interacting with a robotic arm [and] the physical world... fantastic experience.”
This is not the first time Extend Robotics has been featured at Adastral Park. In September 2021, we also exhibited how our tele-operated robotics solutions could be used to stack goods on shelves remotely – just one of the many possible use cases for our technology.
Dr Chang Liu, CEO of Extend Robotics, said: “Our human/robot interface software enables literally anyone to put on a headset and start controlling robots without the need for extensive training.
With so many use cases – like nuclear industries and handling of hazardous materials – we’re pleased to be able to showcase our technology to an audience of forward-thinking people.”
Speaking about the event José Gastey, Director of Manufacturing at BT said:
“Over the coming years, we will be going on this journey where robots, humans are going to end up producing, hopefully, a better world.
“And today we tackled all the issues this is bringing; how robots are changing, how responsible we need to be in developing them, how in the end we arrive to a better society through using robots.”
Peter Williamson, Managing Director of RARUK Automation, said: “RARUK Automation are proud to partner with Extend Robotics to provide additional functionality to customers looking to use robots in extreme or unusual environments.”
A huge thanks to BT, RARUK, Open University and Universal Robot for their ongoing support and partnership.