The Seven Samurai, the "banana flank pioneers" Manni Kaltz and Horst Hrubesch, the Rolling Stones, Marvel's Avengers - whether in fiction or reality: high-performance teams can overcome challenges and achieve goals that individuals would fail at despite their outstanding abilities. Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and other research institutions want to transfer these findings to robotics and explore the deep sea or distant planets with specialized robot teams.

"Autonomous robot networks will be a key technology in the future," says Michael Flad, head of the Cooperative Systems research group at the Institute of Automatic Control Systems (IRS) at KIT. Together with numerous partners, researchers at KIT want to assemble and coordinate robot teams in the Arches project in such a way that they can independently set up equipment or take samples in hostile environments such as Mars or the seabed.

Floating or flying drones are to scout out suitable locations for equipment or investigations, while other units move there and load, bring or remove material. "For such tasks, we need robotic systems with a wide range of capabilities," says Flad. For example, the robots need to be able to grasp and manipulate previously unknown objects, adapt to changing environments and, above all, distribute and coordinate tasks within a team. In addition to reliable algorithms that bundle information and enable coordination, this would also require interfaces that enable human operators and the robot team to plan and coordinate the mission together.

Flad sees future opportunities to widely apply the technologies developed in the Arches project in autonomous driving as well as in logistics and transportation. There is great potential here for machines that coordinate with each other and act together. Special robot systems are already being used in freight transport, for example when unloading container ships. However, these can only move in known environments and cannot react to unforeseen events. "Without cooperation between the autonomous systems and interaction between them and humans, who will still be present as an actor at least in the medium term, automated driving cannot bring any increase in traffic safety, time savings or comfort," says Flad. In addition, heterogeneous robot teams could be used to support helpers in disaster areas or in the dismantling of nuclear facilities. pb

On the KIT side, the following are involved in the ARCHES project, which is funded by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers: the Institute of Automatic Control Systems (IRS), the Institute of Anthropomatics and Robotics (IAR), the Institute of Technology and Management in Construction (TMB) and the Nuclear Waste Management, Safety and Radiation Research (NUSAFE) program. Partners are the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, the GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the German Aerospace Center.

As "The Research University in the Helmholtz Association", KIT creates and imparts knowledge for society and the environment. The aim is to make significant contributions to global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility and information. To this end, around 9,300 employees work together on a broad disciplinary basis in the natural sciences, engineering, economics, humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 25,100 students for responsible tasks in society, business and science through research-oriented university studies. Innovation activities at KIT bridge the gap between knowledge and application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity and the preservation of our natural resources.