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, 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. Since the early nineties, Tekniker has been involved in setting up around twenty new business initiatives to a greater or lesser extent. Most of these initiatives were in the industrial sector.
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. Tekniker has been participating in both national and European projects in the field of Advanced Industrial and Service Robotics. Therefore, the acquisition of technologies in this field allows to Tekniker to build the technological basis for the next robotics generation, characterized by complex products with short production cycles, which require flexibility in mounting, accuracy and reliability beyond the capabilities of workers.
The research group mainly involved in the project is the Smart and Autonomous System Unit (SAI). SAI research is focused on developing intelligent robotic applications able to interpret the environment through multimodal sensors, implementing strategies for navigation and manipulation to adapt to changing conditions and allow safe interaction with people. SAI has an experienced team consisting of electrical, electronic, computer engineers and physicists.
Tekniker participates in the euRobotics AISBL and the Spanish Robotic Platform, HISPAROB, belonging to the board of Directors. Tekniker has acted as coordinator of FourByThree and other european projects such as ROBOFOOT or MAINBOT and has participated in other initiatives relevant to PICK-PLACE objectives, such as X-ACT and ROBOPARTNER.