It is estimated that around 100 billion items of clothing are currently produced worldwide, most of which will end up in recycling processes. Sorting these old textiles by hand requires an enormous amount of human labour. A research team is now developing new technologies that will enable robotic grippers to sort textiles more effectively.
Saturn, with its distinctive ring system, is one of the most impressive planets in our solar system. Roland Brockers will take the audience attending his public lecture on Thursday, 5 June (5 p.m., Lecture Hall 1, University of Klagenfurt) on an exciting journey to the ringed planet with the largest number of known moons in the solar system. Roland Brockers is Professor of Modular Robotic Systems in the Control of Networked Systems group and a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Technology in California. This public lecture continues his series of Space Exploration Lectures delivered during his teaching visit to Klagenfurt.
Some want to simplify the shopping experience, others want to prepare financial data, and yet others want to offer businesses customized AI tools. What unites these potential founders is that they all use AI technologies to solve challenging problems for various target groups. The six prospective founders are supported in developing their ideas by vor.GRÜNDEN, an initiative run by the Carinthian Economic Promotion Fund (KWF). Isabella Hold, spin-off manager at the University of Klagenfurt, is there to provide support.
Traditionally, wind turbines have to be shut down before they can be inspected for damage. This means that these wind turbines do not generate energy during the shutdown period. Furthermore, inspection costs for wind turbines tend to be high. The DORBINE project, funded by the FFG, involves a research team from the University of Klagenfurt working with industrial partner AIR6 SYSTEMS to develop a new technology that uses artificial intelligence to control swarms of drones that inspect wind turbines while they are in operation.
Alessandro Fornasier’s work involves helping robots and drones to navigate the world. As part of his PhD project, he used the theory of ‘equivariant systems’ to develop localisation algorithms that are more robust and accurate. In recognition of his research in the Control of Networked Systems working group, he has now been honoured with the ‘Award of Excellence’ presented by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.
To explore new terrain and perform tasks autonomously, be it in the air, on the ground or under water, robotic vehicles need to know where they are and what their surroundings are like. As part of his research for his doctorate, Christian Brommer, a member of the research group ‘Control of Networked Systems’ at the University of Klagenfurt, has developed a modular and robust framework model that is designed to maximise the autonomy of robotic vehicles exploring unknown terrain.
The quality of batteries affects many aspects of our daily lives: Will we arrive at our holiday destination in our electric car? Can we be reached on our smartphones? Does the hearing aid still have plenty of power late at night? Mohamed El Bahnasawi is working on making batteries smarter and more efficient as part of the EU Horizon Europe project ‘Battery Cell Assembly Twin (BatCAT)’. The aim is to use artificial intelligence to learn more about the processes in the batteries in order to be able to use them more efficiently in the future.
Explore and map an area, detect objects and find people in need and then provide them with first aid kits: These are the challenges involved in three competitions in the SAPIENCE project. Four research teams from four universities compete against each other in the competitions to learn from each other. At the first competition, which took place in London at the end of August, the Klagenfurt team was the only team to complete every task without an accident. What makes this special: The team, coordinated by doctoral student Luca Di Pierno, consisted exclusively of Bachelor’s students from the University of Klagenfurt’s Robotics & Artificial Intelligence programme, in addition to Luca and a Master’s graduate.
daisha/Adobestock (KI generated)
NASA/JPL-Caltech
aau/Müller
ultramansk/Adobestock
Foto: BMBWF/Sabine Klimpt Lichtblick KG www.klimpt.at 
Florian Gunzer
CNS