humanoid robotics: robotic sentinels to patrol bicycles path in prato. a new project by SANT'ANNA school biorobotics institute

They are called “B-Ghiro Sitter” and are designed to patrol bicycles path along the Bisenzio river flowing through Prato. The two humanoid robots designed by the researchers of the Biorobotics Institue at Sant’Anna School will be used for outdoor surveillance.

Prato City Council and Tuscany Region authorities have funded the "Riversibility” project to provide video surveillance 5G security solutions for the Bisenzio Valley area. The Biorobotics Institute researchers under the supervision of Filippo Cavallo, have developed camera-equipped bear robots for capturing images from the applications located in the robot’s belly. Images from the robots built-in cameras are transmitted to the Police station and operators can access the video recordings. Sensors are also installed in the robot body for alerting the operator in case of tamper or emergency issues.

The “B-Ghiro sitter” robots will play a central role in robotics research as they challenge the understanding of human-like information processing. Endowed with complex sensorimotor capabilities, these autonomous mobile security robots will rely on the Cloud technology extending their skills to provide services without direct operator supervision or remotely tele-operated by security personnel patrols that can see the video images from all the cameras simultaneously.

The “B-Ghiro sitter” robots will start patrolling the Serraglio area in early December. In the first place, these security robots are used for surveillance and to assist security guards, next they will be placed at information points offering a wide range of kiosk applications in Italian, English and Chinese, then they could help people with disabilities navigate the area (the robot is equipped with cameras, microphone and loudspeakers).