ROMAPE - Autonomous Mobile Robotics

Autonomous Mobile Robotics for stripping and painting of large industrial surfaces

CONTEXT
Based on the knowhow of Gipsa-lab, the ROMAPE project aims at optimizing the movements of an autonomous industrial robot in a harsh environment. The use case is the stripping and painting of complex surfaces of large structures, in particular merchant cargos or military ships in dry dock. The system will be able to scan the surface to be treated in real time, generate a trajectory of the robot arm and the base of the gondola and control the actions to be carried out in cleaning, stripping and then painting.

TECHNOLOGY
The project develops a software allowing the autonomous movement of a mobile base on which an articulated arm is placed in interaction with a surface thanks to a local reconstruction. The software will consist of three modules:
– Construction of a local model of the surface
– Generation of the trajectory of the moving base to advance along the surface thanks to constrained optimization and ensembliest approaches
– Tracking of the trajectory by the moving base

ADVANTAGES
Replacing the actions performed manually by operators under difficult health and safety constraints for which costs are high and skilled labour is scarce.

STATE OF PROGRESS
The project is developing a demonstrator for the first application.

APPLICATIONS
The technology is suitable for all applications where the model of the part to be processed is not repetitive, in an open environment. It performs without the learning phase beforehand. The algorithms will be developed to meet a need for surface cleaning/stripping followed by industrial paint coatings on all types of surfaces, primarily metal surfaces.

PERSPECTIVES

=> The project is engaged with AMBPR for the application of large scale painting in shipyards and major worksites.

=> Further partners in the building industry or for other applications are looked for.