University Duisburg-Essen

The Chair of Mechatronics (UDE-IMECH) at the University of Duisburg-Essen has been active in the field of robotics research, particularly in the area of large manipulators, since 1991. The first steps in the field of large-scale robot arms were implemented in the REACHRob project (2001 - 2004), where lightweight construction concepts from industrial robot technology were transferred to handling systems with highly mobile joints.

Since 2019, the Chair of Mechatronics and its consortium partner DST have been actively involved in the development of automated inland waterway vessels. In the overall context of the “Automated inland navigation” research area, current research activities are aimed at researching and demonstrating automated driving in inland navigation. The applicant partners DST and UDE are actively involved in shaping this research area and are already successfully working together on projects for the automation (AutoBin) and remote control (FernBin) of inland waterway vessels.