We’ve got an exciting news! A paper about TORNADO has just been submitted to the EEITE 2025 conference!
In this paper, titled “TORNADO: Foundation Models for Robots that Handle Small, Soft, and Deformable Objects,” we present TORNADO, a cutting-edge robotics platform that helps robots tackle challenges in dynamic environments, especially when handling small, soft, or squishy objects. The platform uses advanced models for perception and reasoning to enable robots to learn on the fly and adapt to new tasks easily. Plus, it comes with a human-friendly interface and explainable AI to make teaching robots even easier!
The system will be tested in real-world scenarios like handling parts in factories, assisting patients in hospitals, and managing products in distribution centers.
The paper is authored by a distinguished group of researchers from the project’s partner organisations:
Maria Moutousi, Andreas El Saer and Nikos Nikolaou (ITML), Alberto Sanfeliu and Anaís Garrell (CSIC-UPC), Lukáš Bláha and Martin Čech (NTIS-UWB), Evangelos K. Markakis and Ioannis Kefaloukos (ECE-HMU), Marta Lagomarsino and Arash Ajoudani (HRI² IIT), George Margetis and Emmanouil Adamakis (ICS-FORTH), Athanasios Poulakidas and Filopoimin Lykokanellos (INTRA), Artemis Stefanidou, Jorgen Cani and Georgios Th. Papadopoulos ( DIT-HUA), Panagiotis Radoglou-Grammatikis and Marios Siganos K3Y.
We’re excited about these first steps in our project.
Stay tuned and follow us to be part of the journey ahead!
