en.Wedoany.com Reported - Spanish company Sisteplant has signed a scientific and technological cooperation agreement with the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) and the Center for Automation and Robotics (Centro de Automática y Robótica, CAR), affiliated with the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM), aimed at accelerating the development of autonomous mobile robots.
Sisteplant is a Spanish multinational with over 40 years of experience, specializing in digitalization and industrial engineering, having completed more than 10,000 projects. The company allocates 20% of its revenue and 20% of its employees to innovation, making it a benchmark in the field of industrial transformation. CAR (CSIC-UPM) hosts multiple research teams dedicated to automation and robotics, with its researchers actively participating in national and international scientific projects.
This collaboration aims to leverage the synergies between Sisteplant's expertise in engineering, automation, and industrial safety and CAR's cutting-edge research. Under the agreement, over the next 12 months, joint autonomous navigation tests will be conducted on ground robot platforms in diverse terrain and extreme environmental conditions to validate platform performance in demanding scenarios and accelerate technological maturity.
A core focus of the collaboration will be validating the next development phase of R-Bot. R-Bot is Europe's first platform-agnostic (agnóstica) robotic platform developed by Sisteplant, capable of integrating and managing a heterogeneous fleet of autonomous devices, including ground and aerial robots. Through this partnership, this mobile industrial inspection platform will undergo field testing in real-world scenarios to optimize its perception, mobility, and autonomous obstacle-handling capabilities.
Ángela Ribeiro, Research Professor at CAR-CSIC, stated: "CAR is committed to public-private collaboration to conduct joint research in innovation, addressing relevant issues for Spanish industry and businesses. The partnership with Sisteplant is a clear example of this."
Lluís Llauradó, R-Bot Product Manager at Sisteplant, commented: "The agreement with an authoritative institution like CAR represents a qualitative leap in R-Bot's technological maturity, as it validates R-Bot's application in high-risk industrial environments."
The validation will cover capabilities such as autonomous navigation, remote operation, asset inspection, GPS-denied operation, connection interruption recovery, and autonomous task execution. Within the framework of the European project EDIH Madrid Region 2.0, a total of 21 validation services are expected to be provided.
R-Bot integrates autonomous mobile robots into industrial processes by incorporating advanced sensors (thermal cameras, acoustic, ultrasonic, machine vision) and the company's industrial management systems (such as Prisma GMAO and Captor MES). The platform enables 24/7 autonomous inspection of hazardous environments without exposing technical personnel to risks, reducing inspection time by up to 90% and annual costs by up to 70%.
The collaboration with CAR will allow R-Bot to be thoroughly validated in demanding scenarios, accelerating its readiness for industrial sectors such as pharmaceuticals, power plants (oil and gas), automotive, and complex infrastructure maintenance. Through this initiative, Sisteplant reinforces its commitment to developing advanced technologies for smart industry, taking a key step in advancing R-Bot as an autonomous inspection and navigation platform tailored for real-world environments.
