At the University of Twente, there is enormous potential for the development of human-centred robotics technologies. In order to utilize this potential, the University of Twente has put a lot of effort over the past year into the realisation of a Robotics Centre.
The Robotic Centre is a result of the successful collaboration of the various robotics groups at the UT. The Centre will be a place, where researchers, students, and partners from industry will come together. In this way, the UT develops in a multidisciplinary way human-centred robotics technologies and services, for the sake of people and society.
Bart Koopman, chairman of the Taskforce Robotics at the University of Twente: “With the Centre, we want to enable our stakeholders to connect with one another, on the one hand, scientists and students, and on the other companies that participate and play a role in valorisation. It is a place where different initiatives at the University of Twente come together. With the Robotics Centre we look beyond the boundaries of our own fields.”
Themes
The Robotics Centre brings together several UT disciplines. Three themes are distinguished:
- Healthcare robotics
For instance, surgical robotics, image-guided surgical robotics, exoskeletons, prosthetics. - Industrial robotics
For instance, pipe inspection robots, high precision control and manipulation, maintenance robots, cobots. - Social Robotics
For instance, personal robots, surveillance robots, companion robots, teaching robots.
New Master’s programme Robotics
In addition to a Robotics Centre, the University of Twente also strengthens its position regarding robotics by launching a new Robotics master’s programme to its range of courses. This modern multidisciplinary technical programme responds to both the enormous market demand and the popularity of the field among current and prospective students. The University of Twente wants to educate the people we need to help us with the many challenges out there. Think of providing hands-on care in healthcare by using robotics, or providing fresh vegetables on the plate by deploying picking and harvesting robots where there is a shortage of human hands.
