IK4-TEKNIKER is a technological centre legally constituted as a private not-for-profit Foundation that aims at the development and transfer of technology to improve the competitiveness of industry. In line with its missions and origins, IK4-TEKNIKER not only provides companies with technological support, but is also involved in generating new business initiatives, which are usually technological and, often, “spin offs” of the centre itself.

Robotic technologies have been identified as drivers in competitiveness either in the industrial sector as well as in others, such as agriculture, health and transport. IK4-TEKNIKER has been participating in both national and European projects in the field of Advanced Industrial and Service Robotics. The research group mainly involved in the project is the Smart and Autonomous System Unit (SAI).

IK4-TEKNIKER acts as project coordinator of FourByThree, with extensive experience as coordinator in many other European projects such as ROBOFOOT (www.robofoot.eu) and MAINBOT (www.mainbot.eu).

Founded in 1988, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is one of the largest non-profit research institutes in the field of innovative software technology and applications based on artificial intelligence. The DFKI has research facilities in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen and a project office in Berlin.

DFKI Robotics Innovation Center (RIC), headed by Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchner and based in Bremen, is dedicated to the development of cognitive and adaptive robotic systems for various application areas. These include robots for deep-sea, offshore, and space exploration, but also adaptive automation for industrial production and logistics. The RIC has been involved in a number of ongoing and successfully completed projects related to automated manipulation and tele-operation of robotic manipulators in harsh environments.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (Fraunhofer IFF) is an autonomous institute of the non-profit Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, a provider of contract applied research. The Fraunhofer IFF specializes in research and development in the fields of robotics, sensor systems, virtual engineering, logistics and process and plant management.

The Fraunhofer IFF’s Robotic Systems Business Unit has extensive experience developing, engineering and integrating different robotic technologies and systems for use in challenging environment and under special conditions.The Robotic Systems Business Unit is a leading expert in the field of safe physical robot-human interaction in shared workspaces, including technologies such as tactile sensing, safe manipulators and safe workspace monitoring.

CNR, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche / Italian National Research Council, is participating in the FourByThree Project through two of its research groups/facilities.

CNR-ITIA performs strategic activities of scientific research and technological development for the competitiveness and sustainability of Italian and European manufacturing Industries. IRAS (Robotics Division) develops technologies for effective, robust and safe robot-environment and robot-human interaction. The integration of sensorial information into behavioral models and controls of robots enables the intuitive, robust and flexible use of robots in context-aware applications and a natural, transparent and safe workspace sharing.

CNR-ISTC, the CNR Institute for Cognitive Science and Technology located in Rome, participates through the Planning and Scheduling Technology Lab (PST), founded in 1997 and focused on automated and interactive techniques for planning problems, integrated timeline-based architectures, constraint programming, mixed-initiative problem solving.

King’s College London is one of the top 20 universities in the world. Its Centre for Robotics Research (CoRe) has a leading international reputation for research in robotics, mechanisms, computational intelligence, automation and sensing.

Current research projects are concerned with autonomy in robotics, intelligent mechanisms including anthropomorphic and metamorphic manipulation and grasping systems, autonomous robotic vehicles and manipulators, biologically inspired systems, advanced sensing and intelligent classification, as well as neuro visual perception.

Zentrum für Mechatronik und Automatisierungstechnik gemeinnützige (ZeMA GmbH), founded in 2009, is a public and industrial funded research centre focusing on mechatronics and automation located in Saarbrücken, Germany.

The research centre focuses on three different research areas. Sensors and actors belong to these areas as well as manufacturing processes and automation. The key competence is research on assembly processes and technologies. Within this group, the research team on robotic and handling technologies is focused on research in the field of human-robot collaboration, robot application and process planning and reconfigurable robot systems.

Founded in 1988, Deltatron is an engineering office in Helsinki, Finland, specialized in assembly techniques. It provides solutions for robotics, assembly automation, assembly logistics and product analysis. Deltatron is actively participating in the development of new human interface techniques for industrial robots by means of wireless sensors.

Founded in 1948, Pilz is a leading, innovative automation technology company on the area of safety of human, machine and the environment. This includes innovative products and comprehensive services from the areas of sensor, control and drive technology. Pilz has 31 subsidiaries and branch offices to support users on all continents.

One of these branches is Pilz Spain, founded in 1992. Through their services and consulting department, Pilz Spain has expanded and created its own engineering department to develop safe solutions in several markets.

Founded in 2007, Prosumerlab is a SME that focuses on knowledge management. It has developed its own methodology to gather and bring advanced users’ knowledge (prosumers’ knowledge) into different kinds of projects.

The projects carried out by Prosumerlab deal with transferring knowledge within or outside an organization, as well as reshaping existing products and services. Prosumerlab has worked with both public entities and private companies, in sectors such as healthcare, mobility and education.

Komat is an engineering company created in 1986 in Elgoibar (Gipuzkoa, Spain) that offers automation services, robotics and industrial computing applications. KOMAT has three main business areas: automation with PLC, industrial programming, robotics applications and electrical installations.

Komat is a specialist in the integration of robotics application demanding handling operations. Their extensive experience and constant relationship with end users allow them to have enough know-how to address the problem of automating complex processes requiring close human-robot collaboration.