Safety on three levels

The SECURE network brings together these three competence areas in order to train fellows comprehensively on Embodiment, Situation, and Interaction. Fellows will deepen their knowledge in projects within one competence area and, through training events and peer collaborations following a novel peer network approach, gain extensive knowledge in other areas via an intersectoral and multidisciplinary research programme.

Each of the three safety methodology principles represents an associated competence area for training. On the level of actuators and sensors, i.e. the “Embodiment” competence area, concepts are explored that inherently increase safety by hardware and sensor design or by enhancing the robot’s sensing and acting capabilities. 

Abstracting from embodiment, projects in the second competence area “Situation” are concerned with perceiving and interpreting the current situation to recognise threats that cannot be sensed directly, yet, or identify risks that exist in the current situation. 

The third area “Interaction” extends this idea of anticipating risks by aiming to understand and predict human behaviour on the one hand and adapting the behaviour of the robot to seamlessly integrate into social interactions, on the other hand.

The novel combination of the three methodology principles and associated competence training areas within a single consortium will help to find synergies between different approaches within the same area and across disciplines, giving the fellows a unique view on robot safety.