At TUM MIRMI’s AI Robotic Security & Efficiency Centre, researchers Kübra Karacan, Robin Kirschner, and Alessandro Melone (rom left to proper) have analyzed the sensitivity of robotic manipulators. | Credit score: TUM
Researchers on the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, or MIRMI, on the Technical College of Munich have created a “Tree of Robots,” a brand new analysis scheme to measure the sensitivity of autonomous robots. Sensitivity is essential for secure and versatile human-robot interplay, and there hasn’t been a typical method to assess it, they stated.
The Technical College of Munich (TUM) researchers stated new scheme will allow the comparability of commercial robots and, finally, different robotic methods, reminiscent of cellular platforms, humanoids, and robotic fingers.
“Such a typical may pave the way in which for a high quality seal for the quickly increasing robotics market,” asserted Prof. Achim Lilienthal, deputy director of MIRMI and professor of clever methods notion at TUM. “Realizing the efficiency capabilities of a robotic system is a gigantic assist to business, the place firms need to make the very best use of robotic methods.”
“The TUM MIRMI take a look at methodology has the potential to grow to be an industrial testing normal,” he stated. “Realizing the efficiency capabilities of a robotic system is a gigantic assist to business, the place firms need to make the very best use of robotic methods.”
Categorization results in Tree of Robots
The researchers started by inspecting and categorizing single-armed robots from varied producers which can be utilized in each business and analysis.
Regardless of typically showing comparable, these robotic arms possess distinct traits of their sensors, motors, and inner management methods. This results in substantial variations of their basic capabilities: some excel in energy and precision, whereas others are designed for versatile and delicate interplay with their environment and workpieces.
For instance these variations and the continuing developments in robotics, researchers at TUM MIRMI’s AI Robotic Security & Efficiency Centre created the Tree of Robots. Impressed by Charles Darwin’s Tree of Life, this visualization illustrates the varied variations of assorted robotic species to their respective habitats.
The researchers recognized 25 particular measurements to explain a robotic’s sensitivity throughout bodily contact. These measurements assist decide if the power utilized to a floor aligns with the supposed power, for instance, or if a robotic may injure a human.
A spider diagram generated from these 25 measurements permits for a fast visible evaluation of a robotic’s sensitivity, even for these with out specialised data.
Primarily based on their efficiency, robotic methods are categorized as industrial robots, cobots, comfortable robots, and “tactile robots.” Surgical robots, as an example, are primarily evaluated on their precision. For warehouse or manufacturing facility functions, the emphasis shifts to energy and resilience—their skill to carry out repetitive actions over prolonged durations.
“We mix current movement metrics with our new tactile metrics to supply the first-ever overview of the totality of the essential capabilities for bodily interactions of a robotic system,” famous lab director Robin Kirschner.
A taxonomy consisting of the elements based mostly on system structure (gray), embodiment efficiency (inexperienced) and course of (blue). a, The robot-fitness-based classification: (i) the health metrics that outline the inexperienced spider plots, specifically, the robotic health spectrum; (ii) the species of an embodiment outlined by the general health rating plotted over movement and tactility health; (iii) genus teams clustering the robotic species into process-based health classes. b, Hierarchical morphology illustration. c, Necessities for course of automation which can be transferred into the required robotic health metrics by (i) identification of domain-specific processes; (ii) deduction of the required primary operations; (iii) high quality metrics describing the method that outline the required embodiment health metrics. | Credit score: TUM
TUM might be German testing middle for robots
The crew revealed a analysis paper titled “Categorizing robots by efficiency health into the tree of robots” in Nature in February 2025.
Prof. Lorenzo Masia, government director of TUM MIRMI, added: “Primarily based on the unique thought, I’m sure that the AI Robotic Security & Efficiency Centre at TUM MIRMI will turn into an impartial nationwide testing middle for robotics.”
A five-member board of administrators oversees TUM MIRMI’s analysis and innovation technique, core educating content material, and the institution of recent focus teams. The board contains:
- Prof. Masia, government director
- Prof. Lilienthal, deputy director and director of technique and partnerships
- Prof. Angela Schoellig, director of business and worldwide affairs
- Prof. Eckehard Steinbach, director of startups and infrastructure
