We interviewed Roberto Conti, Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and the INBOTS project coordinator at IUVO, the WP 1 leader.
Which is the role of IUVO in the INBOTS project?
INBOTs project aims at creating a Community Hub on interactive robotics, bringing together more than 25 companies from 13 European countries experienced in that specific robotic field.
Since IUVO is a spin-off company of The BioRobotics Institute (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) that recently received an investment from a joint venture between COMAU (an Italian company belonging to the FCA Group, and leader in the field of industrial automation and robotics) and Össur (an Icelandic company that is a market leader in the field of prosthetics and orthotics), it is the appropriate candidate for leading “WorkPackage 1- Promotion of entrepreneurship and non-technical support to SMEs”. Indeed, WP1 is mainly focused on investigating non-technical barriers in the diffusion of different robotic solutions in real life applications. WP leadership means organising and supervising the work of all the WP participants.
What is the entry point for the WP1 tasks?
The entry point of this specific WP regard the definition of a clear and fruitful outcome for the whole robotics community. To this aim, what we agreed with all the WP participants, is the creation of a “white paper” providing a collection of “success/failure stories” where new entrepreneurs will take into account experiences, approaches and tools employed by start-ups and emerging companies in the field of interactive robotics.
What will be the working guidelines?
WP1 Working guidelines will follow the INBOTs project guidelines and policies. Periodic tele-meetings and continuous interactions between all the WP participants are the two pillars that support our work in the next months.
What are you pretending to achieve?
In this WP, IUVO in collaboration with all the partners, pretends to create a collection of experiences, methods and analyses for highlighting successful approaches in the field of interactive robotics which will hopefully pave the way for new entrepreneurs in this specific field.
Who will collaborate?
WP1 will be carried out bringing together the know-how and the experiences of all WP participants. Main contributions from all the partners will be in terms of finding, collecting and organizing data and experiences for the white paper.
Which are the main challenges?
The first challenge of this specific WP regards the definition of a clear and fruitful outcome for the whole robotics community. To this aim, in synergy with all WP participants and the Project Coordinator (CSIC), it has been decided that the main outcome is the elaboration of a “white paper” with the characteristics outlined in the previous paragraphs.
Finding and collecting appropriate material, organising the sources and defining a clear, readable structure of the document, are all challenges that IUVO and all other WP1 partners are going to face in the next months.