The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) participates in the TORNADO project through its Human-Robot Interfaces and Interaction (HRI) research lab, contributing advanced expertise in the development of human-robot interaction technologies.
The main goal of the Human-Robot Interfaces and Interaction (HRI²) lab is to develop intelligent yet human-in-command robots that can collaborate and assist humans in their daily activities. The lab has a multidisciplinary approach, spanning theoretical, technical, and practical aspects of collaborative systems. From the one hand, the HRI² research focuses on the development of advanced machine learning and model-based control frameworks for mobile and fixed-base collaborative robots and wearable assistive devices, to boost their interaction autonomy. From the other hand, HRI² develops cutting edge algorithms and kinodynamic models to anticipate human socio-physical states. The development of intelligent interfaces with multimodal sensory processing capabilities is also central to the HRI² lab’s strategic vision, with the aim of creating timely and comforting (ergonomic) robot actions in response to human intentions and environmental variations.
In the TORNADO project, HRI² lab will deliver:
a) mechanisms for robust and adaptive Foundation Models (FMs) that can easily adjust on-line to new conditions and domain shifts during robot deployment, autonomously identifying when this is needed to prevent AI failures,
b) a ground-breaking system for autonomous, on-the-fly/during deployment adaptation of the active FM-enabled cognitive pipelines according to current conditions and goals, and
c) an advanced on-demand Learning from Demonstrations (LfD) system that will allow skilled humans to teach entirely new tasks to a TORNADO robot, while it is deployed.
Overall, HRI² delivers adaptive learning processes for seamless robot operation under changing conditions, allowing easy adjustment to previously unseen situations, scenes, materials or object shapes, during autonomous navigation or manipulation of small soft and deformable (SSD) objects. In addition, HRI² will take care of the technical management of the overall project.
