CINACS is an international graduate colleg that investigates the principles of cross-modal interactions in natural and cognitive systems to implement them in artificial systems. Research will primarily consider the three sensory systems vision, hearing and haptics. This project, accomplished by the University of Hamburg and the University of Tsinghua, Beijing, is funded by the DFG and the Chinese Ministry of Education. [more information]

The HANDLE project aims at understanding how humans perform the manipulation of objects in order to replicate grasping and skilled in-hand movements with an anthropomorphic artificial hand. The goal is to evolve robot grippers from current best practice towards more autonomous, natural and effective articulated hands. The project will focus both on technological developments and fundamental multidisciplinary research in order to endow the proposed robotic hand with advanced perception capabilities, high-level feedback control, and elements of intelligence that allow recognition of objects and context.
The HANDLE Integrated Project is part of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and runs from 02/2009 until 01/2013. [more information]

The goal of MING-T is to research, develop, prototype, integrate and validate the interoperability and handover issues of the representative mobile digital broadcast standards developed in China and Europe. MING-T will address the issues of convergence between broadcast standards and mobile communications network technologies. The MING-T Project is part of the EU's sixth Framework Programme (FP6) for Research and Technological Development. [more information]

Aim of the project IVUS is the development of a 3D-Vision System for the use in service robots. The planned camera possesses an integrated processor with high computing capability. Pictures of the environment are reduced to symbolic values. Crucial is the acquisition of 3D-Information from pictures, without the use of auxiliary sensors. The main processor of the service robot is almost free of orientation tasks. Thus one important requirement for real time navigation of the service robot is realised. The project is part of the national research program Leitinitiative Servicerobotik funded by the BMBF. [more information]

EUROPRACTICE is a European Commission initiative, funded by the EU Information Society Technologies (IST), which is now also part of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The aim is to improve the competitiveness of European industry by the adoption of advanced electronics technologies. EUROPRACTICE has become internationally recognised as a quality brand name for European service-type projects in the Microsystems and Microelectronics fields. [more information]

The E-Learning-Consortium Hamburg is a board of experts from several university-level institutions in Hamburg. The group TAMS accomplished three projects founded by the E-Learning-Consortium:

• The Interactive Script
• Multimedia-based Cognitive Tutor
• Practical Course "Mobile Robots" with Simulation and Teleoperation

We proposed two kinds of climbing robots recently. One is a lightweight smart wall-climbing robot for rescue missions, which was developed as a flexible mobile platform carrying a CCD camera and other sensors. The second one is a new kind of pneumatic climbing robot to meet the requirements of glass-wall cleaning for high-rise buildings. The robot is actuated by pneumatic cylinders and attaches itself to walls with vacuum suckers. These projects are accomplished by the University of Hamburg and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. [more information]

The main concern of our insitute's research work is to examine the interaction of different modalities of sensory and cognitive systems like vision, writing, hearing, talking, touching/feeling or grasping. The interaction between people and technical information systems and communication systems is directly related to mulitmodality. One main focus of our work therefore is on applications in intelligent service robotics. There are several in-house projects like PhD, diploma and master theses which study service robotics and man-machine interaction. [more information]