Narva College opens robotics lab to develop robots for local businesses

The University of Tartu’s Narva College has opened a robotics development lab to help businesses in the region train robots for use in production, ERR reported.

The lab, known as Robokoda, has about 10 robots equipped with cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence. They include mechanical arms that can draw, robot dogs that can walk on their hind legs and a humanoid robot that can dance.

“We have quite a lot of industrial manipulators here that can do the things needed in a factory,” college director Indrek Reimand said. “We do not want to be the ones replaced by robots; we want to train robots to improve production.”

Associate professor of intelligent robotics Sudath Rohan Munasinghe said he hopes to develop robots that can listen, understand what people say and act safely, allowing people to live alongside them.

Each robot has a red emergency stop button. Munasinghe said staff use it as a precaution when testing new technology, particularly if they notice unusual noise or vibration.

Narva College admits 20 students a year to its robotics and data science programme.