BOOM-BOOM-BOOM, part 2
GIM Robotics is a proud member of three new Business Finland funded projects.
THREE IN A ROW
In 2022 GIM Robotics has joined in three national Business Finland funded projects: FUTURA, SANTTU and SWARM. These ambitious construction, mining, cargo handling and forestry related mobile machinery projects include each a mixed bag of research topics from the list of common keywords including digital twins, AI, operator assistive systems, autonomy, electrification, and whatnot. All three projects have one common denominator. Instead of just navigating there and back, these machines do some actual work which requires some sort of a manipulator, or as it can be called it in this context, a boom.
We got some complaints from our first Boom-Boom-Boom theme post about the FUTURA project two weeks ago. Not because it would have been bad, false, or otherwise not suitable for the channel, but because some guys seem to have gotten a sticky earworm as direct consequence from reading it. So, if you don’t have any memories of those musical masterpieces mentioned in that post, do not listen to them. There is a real danger that you might be humming boom-boom-boom the rest of the week.
As we are extremely happy to be among some Finnish flagship companies (OEMs, subsystem providers, etc.) and our top universities, we want to introduce these three projects to our fans – one project biweekly.
SANTTU - THE OBJECTIVES
This week we are going to present shortly our second 2022 Business Finland project, called SANTTU. This project focuses on the development of systems for operators of work machines and heavy industrial machines. The productivity of those machines is currently very dependent on the experience levels of the operators. Usually, there are several parts of the working cycle, which are repetitive in nature but still require even the most experienced operator’s attention, while he/she is trying at the same time to do more challenging tasks. Even a slight increase of autonomy will help the operator and improve the overall performance and hence productivity, especially if the operator is less experienced.
The project SANTTU aims: “to simplify the control and operation of the machines with semi-autonomous operator assistance systems. This can be used to reduce the cognitive stress on the operator as well as the stress on the machine. By combining physics-based (real-time) simulation, digital twins and artificial intelligence technologies, semi-automated systems can be created.” That in turn provides clear economic benefits.
SANTTU - THE FACTS
SANTTU is related to Business Finland Sandvik Shift’25 project, and it has co-projects in Sandvik Mining and Construction, Ponsse, Raute, and Mantsinen Group. Other companies and research organisations included are GIM Robotics, Mevea, FIMA Ry, Sustainable Industry X, LUT University (PI Professor Aki Mikkola), Oulu University (Professor Emil Kurvinen) and our alma mater, Aalto University (Professor Ville Kyrki). Like with Futura project, we are extremely proud to be on the above list of esteemed participants.
You can read more about SANTTU project from here:
SALES MANAGER
