The aim of the project "Robotic Systems for Decontamination in Hazardous Environments" (ROBDEKON) is the creation of a competence network, which bundles and sharpens the scientific and technological competencies of the Federal Republic in the thematic focus of robot-based decontamination.

The planned Competence Center ROBDEKON in intended to bring together representatives from science and industry in order to create an innovation environment for the development of new technologies for decontamination using robots. The main goal here is the transfer of knowledge and findings between the individual partners.

Contaminations due to substances that are hazardous to the environment and health can have very different causes. For example, by leaking toxic substances in chemical accidents entire property or its environment can become impassable for humans; Radioactive substances in nuclear installations are used to radioactively contaminate or even activate plant components and parts of the building envelope; Improper dumping of toxic substances can contaminate soil and groundwater, which can result in a considerable hazard for humans and the environment.

The protection of humans from contamination, the protection of the population and the environment, the efficient execution of decontamination work and the safe disposal are the highest premises. The use of robotic systems in hazardous environments is therefore the next logical step. In recent years, driven by industrial application scenarios in particular, there have been significant leaps in innovation in the field of robot technology.

Substantial progress has been made in the field of artificial intelligence over the past few years, allowing robots to perform a partially autonomous assigned task. The meaningful degree of autonomy can vary greatly and extends from advanced teleoperated systems to semi-autonomous systems to fully autonomous systems. Especially the synergetic cooperation of humans and robots ("Shared Autonomy") has increasingly come into the focus of science. This is accompanied by novel operating concepts that use moden forms of telepresence by means of virtual and augmented reality.

Among other things, the TMB will provide research infrastructure in thematically focused laboratories and realistic lab environments (Living Labs). In order to carry out decontamination scenarios, a technology demonstrator will be set up with the focus on dismantling nuclear facilities. Within the Living Lab, students, scientists and representatives from business and technology will be able to test a variety of scenarios and perform telemanipulators.

The ROBDEKON project in funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a total of almost € 12 million. The funding amount at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) amounts to more than € 3.5 million.

Actors:

• Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, Systems Techniologies and Image Exploration (IOSB, Prof. Beyerer)
• German Research Center for Artifical Intelligence (DFKI, Prof. Kirchner)
• Department of Deconstruction an Decommissioning of Conventional and Nuclear Buildings (KIT-TMB, Prof. Gentes)
• High Performance Humanoid Technologies (KIT-H2T, Prof. Asfour)
• Intelligent Process Automation and Robotics Lab (KIT-IPR, Prof. Hein)
• Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics Intelligent Sensor-Actuator-Systems (KIT-ISAS, Prof. Hanebeck)
• Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI, Prof. Dillmann)
• Götting KG
• Kraftanlagen Heidelberg GmbH (KAH, Dr. Hagenlocher)
• KHG Kerntechnische Hilfsdienst GmbH (KHG, Dr. Gustmann)
• ICP Ingenieurgesellschaft Prof. Czurda und Partner mbH (ICP, Dr. Egloffstein)

  
Associate partners:

• EnBW
• Ministry of Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector Baden-Württemberg
• Feuerwehr und Katastrophenschutz
• SH – Management
• Volvo