Abstract: The nation’s energy industry can benefit form robotics and remote systems in various aspects — from discovery of new energy materials and its scale-up manufacturing to construction and operation of energy facilities. However, the current state of robotics industry, which is mainly focused on large-volume manufacturing, is incapable of supporting the flexibility automation and remote operations needs for the next generation energy industry. However, due to the recent confluence of new robotics systems and digital technologies, there is an emerging opportunity to form a robotics industry for custom development.

In this seminar, we will present a mixed-reality robotic digital twin (MRDT) platform, which can integrate robot hardware control, remote sensing and 3-D modeling, mixed-reality human-machine interface and simulation, and artificial intelligence integration. Based on an open-source robot operating system, MRDT can provide for easy development, heterogeneous compatibility, and network-distributed integration. We will provide the current state of the technology implementation and potential applications in broad areas.