Robotics Lab
Accelerate utilization of modern robotics
Since 2015, INVITE goals have included accelerating the use of advanced robotics in productions plants and laboratories of process industry. The enormous proportion of manual tasks present in pharmaceutical manufacturing, many of which should rather not be performed by humans for reasons of ergonomics, monotony or safety, has led to a particularly large demand in the pharmaceutical industry [1]. With this goal, INVITE participates in the alignment of Open Innovations Challenges [3] and has established a working group in ISPE [2] in 2018 with the participation of more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies.
INVITE is application-oriented. Only when research is crowned by application is it a success. Therefore, every activity starts with the exploration and evaluation of the benefit and attractiveness of the application. Based on our experience we designed a systematic approach to identiy those applications of highest value for production plants and laboratories.
If preliminary studies or feasibility studies are required for this purpose, we carry them out in our robotics laboratory and together with our research and development partners. In this way, technology fit can be maximized and implementation risk minimized before assigning the task to a solution provider. Pre-studies and feasibility studies are as focused as possible so that costs are minimized. In many cases, feasibility is not even necessary. In that way, the benefits assessed at the beginning are achieved at clearly calculable costs.
INVITE is partner of the industry. We provide consulting and concepts for individual tasks, for company-wide applications and industry-wide requirements. Of course, individual tasks have to be solved. In some cases, these solutions are then also used company-wide by our partners. However, if a solution is developed by one supplier for the entire industry, the attractiveness is maximized for all. It only has to be specified, developed and tested once. Especially in regulated areas, such as the pharmaceutical industry, such an approach dramatically increases the benefits and attractiveness of the solution. This is obviously true for the consuming industry as well as for the supplier. That is why INVITE seeks cross-company collaboration in consortia and open-innovation competitions. INVITE aims never to deliver the solution ourselves, but to give the industry access to the solutions they need.
INVITE thinks beyond state of technology. What if… you as a user could operate a robot from anywhere in the world.. perform any task you want… stay safe… flexible… but not with a multi million dollar equipment but applying ready-made virtual reality technology? What if… you as a user could teach a robot to handle thousands of different parts… easy.. efficient… without the need of support by a robotics engineer? What if… you as a user can trust a robotics systems that it can intrinsically prove the quality of the executed manipulations… qualified… traceable… easy to be used during validation in regulated industries?
At INVITE we explore emerging technologies in our robotics lab and together with our partners to provide the outlook to capabilities of future robotics to the industry.
We cannot and do not want to achieve these goals alone. In our partner network, we work with universities, start-ups, experienced automation companies and technology suppliers to accelerate the use of modern robotics where it is needed most.
[1] “Robotics of the future in the pharmaceutical industry”; TechnoPharm 10, Nr. 3, 150–157 (2020), Editio Cantor Verlag, Aulendorf (Germany)
[2] Special Interest Group “Future Robotics der ISPE D/A/CH” International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE)