In the context of the SOFTMANBOT project, STAM is responsible for the demonstration and validation of the robotic system in four real industrial environments. STAM, thanks to its wide experience both in funded research project and in collaborations with private companies, will represent the point of contact between end users and research partners during development and integration activities, ensuring the end users’ needs are correctly addressed and designing the final use cases’ layout for the integration of the SOFTMANBOT system.

In the first year of the project, STAM has led the initial collection of information on the end Users’ processes, through a comprehensive analysis of the end users’ production facilities, in terms of working environment, constraints and possible dangers or sources of disturbance. Despite some difficulties and delays, caused by the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, physical and virtual visits to the end users’ premises have been organized, allowing to closely see the execution of the production tasks and identify the dexterous movements to be replicated by the robots.

Following the initial analysis of technical requirements in the four project use cases, STAM is now collaborating in the design of the dedicated robotic grippers, working on the selection of sensors for the optimal handling of soft materials and on the development of dedicated algorithms to identify when the material is grasped correctly and when some slippage occurs.