Publication date: 
2022/07/13
On his first trip to the Czech Republic since taking office, Federal Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck visited the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics at the CTU in Prague (CIIRC CTU) on Monday 11 July. He learned about particular examples of research cooperation with industry and the state-of-the-art infrastructure available to companies and researchers at the CTU within the Czech-German RICAIP centre.

The Federal Vice-Chancellor and Minister Robert Habeck spent more than two and a half hours at the CIIRC CTU. He saw a total of six robotic demonstrators that are being developed by scientists in cooperation with industrial companies in the experimental laboratory Testbed for Industry 4.0. The Prague Testbed is part of the RICAIP centre, thanks to which it receives a total of EUR 370 million in funding for technology alone. The RicaTech project will generate a total of CZK 370 million.  Vice-Chancellor Habeck was very interested in the specific setting and focus of the cooperation between academia and industry that is being developed within the testbed. He met with representatives of Škoda Auto, Siemens and T-Mobile, who explained the benefits of such cooperation for both parties using examples.

"We tried to show the Vice-Chancellor that the cooperation between our two countries in our institute has a clear form, tangible projects and results," said Professor Vladimír Mařík, Scientific Director of the CIIRC CTU. "This is due to the unique technologies that we have literally under one roof, as well as the ever-growing ecosystem of companies, not only Czech or German or large ones, but - and this is the main thing - also small and medium-sized enterprises," added Mařík.

The team of young scientists then introduced Habeck to the latest robotic experiments and research facilities. He saw, for example, the robotic 3D printing for the precise production of parts. For this purpose, the researchers used a standard industrial robot, which they supplemented with a positioning table for multi-axis additive manufacturing. They measure the accuracy of the material being applied, which could be recyclable plastic for example, with a so-called laser tracker and a touch probe. Further development will be carried out in cooperation with Škoda Auto.

Another experiment being developed with Siemens and used to test T-Mobile's 5G campus network is the Delta robot. It is a five-axis robot that performs tasks with high precision and great speed. Its applicability is mainly in the automotive industry. Because it operates on an industrial 5G network and edge cloud, fast transmission of large amounts of data is not a problem. Therefore, artificial intelligence including computer vision could be integrated into the robotic system. The operator can demonstrate the required movements to the robot by navigating with a hand controller and the neural network will help the robot to refine them. The robot's behaviour can then be accurately monitored and any deviations from the expected behaviour can be detected.

"RICAIP and testbed is a particular example of effective Czech-German scientific and industrial cooperation. Thanks to state-of-the-art technologies and shared know-how, we are involved in large international projects as well as offering services to small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of digitalization and automation," adds Dr. Tilman Becker, Director of the RICAIP Centre.

The Czech-German RICAIP Centre is the largest project in the field of robotics and industrial artificial intelligence, which is jointly financed by the European Union and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, in the amount of EUR 48.5 million (i.e. about CZK 1.2 billion) for a period of six years. RICAIP connects industrial testbeds in the Czech Republic, specifically at the CIIRC CTU and CEITEC BUT in Brno, with the testbeds of the German research institutions DFKI and ZeMA in Saarbrücken.

In addition, CIIRC CTU provided the background for an informal meeting between the Minister and representatives of the Czech media and for an analytical interview with Czech Television on current issues of the German and European economy and energy. Minister Habeck's visit was the first state visit abroad since the opening of the second phase of Testbed in April. A year ago, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife visited the CIIRC and the Testbed.

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Contact person: 
Name: 
Ing. Mgr. Eva Doležalová
E-mail: 
eva.dolezalova@cvut.cz