The Robotic Joint Lab is born: Italy’s first robotics laboratory for industrial network innovation

The Robotic Joint Lab is born, the first laboratory in Italy that will design advanced robots for the management of water, energy and environmental networks.

Inspect kilometers of underground pipes, monitor the state of plants in complex or dangerous environments, collect data with superhuman precision to prevent faults and optimize consumption. This is not a futuristic scenario, but the increasingly concrete field of action of robotics applied to strategic infrastructures. Drones equipped with thermo -in -sealing that fly over the electrical lines, or robotic quadrupeds such as Teddi, already used by Acea to analyze environmental data, are only the beginning of a revolution that promises to make networks more efficient, safe and resilient.

To transform these potential into concrete and large -scale solutions, an unpublished alliance between industry and research was born. In fact, the agreement between A.quantum, a company for the innovation of the Acea group, and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) for the creation of the Robotic Joint Lab, was signed. This is the first Italian joint workshop entirely dedicated to the development of robots and advanced technologies for the management of infrastructure in the water, energy and environmental sectors.

This is where the future protagonists of intelligent maintenance will take shape. The laboratory will be born from the union of the skills of the researchers of Iit and the Acea specialists, who will work side by side. The design and prototyping will take place in the IIT centers in Genoa, while the tests of tests and finalization will take place in Rome, in an industrial building made available by Acea and redeveloped to encourage collaboration between the two worlds. ACEA will also make its field tests available.

According to Acea, this initiative represents a fundamental step of the 2024-2028 strategic plan “Green Diligent Growth” of the company that aims to consolidate the role of the group as the leader in innovation at the service of the territories. The goal is “to make infrastructures increasingly resilient, intelligent and sustainable” explains Enrico Resmini, CEO of A.quantum. For its part, Giorgio Metta, scientific director of the IIT, sees in the laboratory the ideal model to “transform advanced knowledge into concrete solutions”, developing robotics and artificial intelligence systems capable of supporting the management of strategic networks. A project that puts scientific excellence and industrial competence to the system to win the challenges of the ecological and digital transition.

About the author

Dr. Kyle Muller

Dr. Kyle Mueller is a Research Analyst at the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department in Houston, Texas. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Texas State University in 2019, where his dissertation was supervised by Dr. Scott Bowman. Dr. Mueller's research focuses on juvenile justice policies and evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing recidivism among youth offenders. His work has been instrumental in shaping data-driven strategies within the juvenile justice system, emphasizing rehabilitation and community engagement.

Published in Science & Tech

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Taxonomy

• Technology
• Research
• Intelligent Networks
• Network Development
• Integrated Water Network Management
• Texas, United States
• artificial intelligence