The second robotics and ROS meetup in Zürich was organized by ICCLab and hosted by Dr. Romana Rust and Gonzalo Casas from Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zürich, on May 14th 2019. There was a good turnout from representatives in both academia and industry, totaling about 45 people in attendance. For this second meetup we had three presentations: “ROS for Digital Fabrication in Architecture”, “ROS Integration into Magic Leap” and “Next Generation Security” from Wecorp.
Summary of presentation #1: ROS for Digital Fabrication in Architecture by Dr. Romana Rust and Gonzalo Casas from ETH Gramazio Kohler Research group
Dr. Romana Rust opened the first talk by showcasing ongoing and past projects of the Gramazio Kohler Research group. Specifically she presented the usage of industrial grade robots and ROS in additive digital fabrication and the ways they allow for a novel approach in building non-standardized architectural components.
Gonzalo Casas took over next to give us some insight into COMPAS. The COMPAS library allows researchers to focus on the computational aspects of a fabrication project regardless of the CAD tools used (COMPAS supports the most widely used ones). As explained in the talk, this facilitates collaboration between different groups which might use different CAD tools. Furthermore, the system architecture overview was given followed by a brief demo of the library in action. The slides can be found here.
Summary of demo: ROS integration into Magic Leap by Daniela Mitterberger from ETH Gramazio Kohler Research group
Next, Daniela Mitterberger gave the audience a look into the usage of Augmented Reality (Magic Leap) in digital fabrication and architecture. In the following slides the integration of ROS with Magic Leap and the overall communication architecture was presented, followed by a video showcasing the application of the system on an actual project. The system aims to assist real workers in the construction of complex components by providing augmented reality guidance through their headset without being an impediment in their mobility.
Summary of talk #2: Next Generation Security by Dr Max Werner, Samuel Garcin, Fernando Acero from WECORP
Dr Max Werner, Samuel Garcin, Fernando Acero from Wecorp came all the way from London to give the final talk of the evening. A brief look into the drone market landscape was given, followed by the company’s smart alarm solution using drones. This solution allows emergency services to respond faster to incidents and leads to lower false alarm rates. Two of Wecorp’s control engineers took over next to present a study case of a “Follow Me” functionality, where a person commands a drone to follow him. The ROS communication architecture was presented, accompanied by mentions of high-level algorithmic design and the sensors used on the drone. The presentation’s slides can be found here.
Closing Remarks
The event was closed with a networking session over drinks and finger food. Many thanks to Wecorp for sponsoring this part of the meetup.
All future events and updates can be followed by becoming a member of the Robotics and ROS in Zürich group. We look forward to continue meeting ROS-users/roboticists within the area.