IDLab wins ERC grant to develop disruptive wireless ‘ATTO cells’
Prof. Piet Demeester received a prestigious European grant to develop disruptive wireless ‘ATTO cells’, that will be instrumental in creating intelligent swarms of robots. Over the next five years, IDLab will receive 2.5 million euro to develop a fully functional ATTO proof-of-concept, aiming at ultra high-speed mobile connection of 100Gbps – in combination with extremely low mobile communication delays (less than 10 µs)
Over the past twenty years, mobile communication technologies have had a huge impact on society. What started off with the introduction of mobile telephony has led to the creation of technology that allows us to connect people and things to the Internet.
“Now we should prepare for the next step: integrating intelligent robotics into our daily lives,” claims professor Piet Demeester. “In a number of domains – such as manufacturing – robots have become indispensable already, but they still suffer from several shortcomings. Moving forward, flexible swarms of intelligent robots need to be created that interact in perfect harmony with human workers. And the same is to be done in numerous other sectors, such as healthcare, transportation, professional and domestic services, etc. We think ATTO cells could unlock that potential.”