GRVC-CATEC: Aerial Robot Co-worker in Plant Servicing (ARCOW)

The needs of higher levels of automation in the industrial processes and manufacturing have led to the paradigm of robot co-worker. Aerial robots provide interesting advantages when compared to traditional ground robots and can contribute to factory automation due to their intrinsic flexibility and fast response. For instance, the upper part in factories are rather sparse and static whereas the floor of factories are often very dense and dynamic. This chapter presents the ARCOW project in which the University of Seville, FADA-CATEC and Airbus D&S joined efforts to develop and demonstrate how aerial robots collaborating with humans can be introduced in manufacturing processes. ARCOW is focused on two use-cases: light item logistics and localization of missing tools. This chapter describes the approaches, architectures and methods developed and validated in the different stages of EuRoC to accomplish this objective. The ARCOW system was extensively validated in the Airbus D&S Centro Bahia de Cadiz (CBC) factory in Spanish province of Cadiz and received the “Best drone-based solution” in the EU Drone Awards 2017.