Press Release, March 8, 2021

Collaborative robotics for draping
The 4-year EU project DrapeBot brings together human workers with robots to jointly
perform draping of fiber-reinforced parts.
STEYR. The Austrian research institute PROFACTOR leads a consortium of 9 partners in theEU-funded project DrapeBot. The goal is to realize human-robot collaboration for complex
draping processes. This is needed to build up fiber-reinforced products layer by layer. Multiple
industries nowadays rely on this type of process: aerospace, automotive, ship-building, windenergy, and others.
Challenges in robotic handling of textiles
Robots are nowadays commonly used in many industries. Over the last few decades they havebeen very successful in performing pre-defined repetitive tasks. Many scenarios involve rigid
parts with fixed shape. These lend themselves very well to handling by a robot. In contrast tothis, flexible and deformable materials pose multiple challenges for industrial robots.
“Managing textiles is an easy everyday-task for us humans, but it is incredibly difficult for arobot”, says Sebastian Zambal, project manager at PROFACTOR. The EU project DrapeBot
pushes the frontiers for the use of robots in draping of textiles made of carbon or glass fibers.
Fiber-reinforced materials enable efficient light-weight construction of many products. While
completely automatic draping by a robot is still out of reach, collaboration with a human has
the potential to boost efficiency. The idea is to let the robot do those parts of the work that issuited for it and have the human worker doing the rest.
Sensors for human-robot collaboration
An important aspect of DrapeBot is the development and use of advanced sensor systems.
These enable the robot to perceive its working environment and the human colleague. It
requires the development of advanced algorithms for processing and fusing of sensor data.
On the one hand, sensors are developed that assess more technical data such as boundaries
of fabrics and orientations of fibers. On the other hand, sensors need to acquire data that
contains information about the behavior and actions of the human worker. It is a special
challenge for the robotic system to correctly observe human actions and correctly interpret
what the human’s intentions are. Instead of running a fixed program, the robot needs toconstantly react and adapt its behaviour.
Trust in the robot as a colleague
An interesting research question of the DrapeBot project relates to how much the humanworker trusts in the robot. This trust is as important for a successful collaboration as it is amonghumans. For optimal collaboration, it is necessary that the human does not over-estimate therobot’s capabilities or “over-trusts” the robot. At the same time, the human should not mistrust
the robot. Both extremes lead to inefficiency in collaboration. DrapeBot aims at measuring trust
to assess weaknesses and strengths of the collaborative robotic system.

PROFACTOR GmbHIm Stadtgut D1 | 4407 Steyr-Gleink | Austria | Tel. +43(0)7252 885-0 | Fax +43(0)7252 885-101
office@profactor.at | www.profactor.at | Firmenbuch Nr. 129658z | Gerichtsstand: SteyrConsortium
The consortium of DrapeBot is as diverse as the projects’ goals. PROFACTOR is coordinating
the project and contributes with optical sensor systems. University of Padova, IT+Robotics,and CNR are working on sensors, robotic path planning and motion execution. Abelecontributes with know-how in gripper design. DLR, BaltiCo, and Dallara provide use-cases
from aerospace, ship-building, and automotive industries. Aalborg University deals withquestions related to trust estimation. The project’s website is accessible underhttps://www.drapebot.eu. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101006732. This projectis financed by research subsidies granted by the government of Upper Austria.

Photo: © Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), License: CC-BY 3.0
Photographer: Michael Haggenmüller (foto@studio-augsburg.de)

PROFACTOR GmbHIm Stadtgut D1 | 4407 Steyr-Gleink | Austria | Tel. +43(0)7252 885-0 | Fax +43(0)7252 885-101
office@profactor.at | www.profactor.at | Firmenbuch Nr. 129658z | Gerichtsstand: Steyr