Different applications, shared robotics challenges: ARISE joins TORNADO technical exchange

On 17 September 2026, ARISE joined six fellow European robotics projects for the TORNADO Technical Exchange Session – Cluster Projects Meeting, an online event designed to compare technical approaches, discuss shared challenges and identify opportunities for knowledge exchange.

The session brought together TORNADO, PRIMI, MANiBOT, AEROSUB, ROB4GREEN, ARISE and SWAG. Although the projects address different sectors and operational environments, their presentations revealed a common set of robotics challenges: how to improve autonomy, perception and manipulation; how to make robots adapt when conditions change; how to combine different sensing and control approaches; and how to move from individual technologies towards integrated systems that can operate safely in realistic environments.

Different use cases, similar technical questions

TORNADO opened the exchange with its work on adaptive, perceptive and safe robotic manipulation, including the handling of small, soft, deformable and unconventional objects.

Across the presentations, a recurring question was how robots can move beyond fixed, predefined behaviours and respond effectively to uncertainty. This includes understanding changing environments, selecting appropriate actions, manipulating objects with different physical properties and adapting behaviour when disturbances occur.

Safe interaction with people also emerged as an important common concern, particularly as robotic systems move beyond isolated industrial settings and into spaces where they must work alongside human operators.

These challenges connect directly with ARISE’s ambition to enable more autonomous and adaptable robotic systems for complex real-world tasks.

ARISE’s contribution to the exchange

ARISE was represented by Dr. Antonis Porichis from the University of Essex, who presented the project’s approach to advancing autonomous task performance through the integration of robotics and AI.

ARISE is developing advanced perception and control technologies around a reconfigurable robotic manipulator. Its technical framework combines soft end-effectors, hierarchical imitation learning and human-interaction-conditioned control, active perception, semantic mapping and path planning, Digital Twins, knowledge representation and Edge AI.

These technologies are being developed and validated in two demanding application areas: renewable energy and agriculture.

The project’s scenarios include tasks related to solar-panel installation and maintenance and hydroponic lettuce cultivation, ranging from collaborative handling of solar panels and maintenance operations to the manipulation of delicate crops. Together, these use cases test the system across very different requirements for force, precision, perception and human-robot interaction.

From individual components to integrated autonomy

The exchange also highlighted a challenge shared across advanced robotics projects: strong individual technologies are not enough on their own.

Perception, planning, control and manipulation need to work together as part of an integrated system that can respond to the demands of the environment in real time. For ARISE, this is particularly relevant because the same overall robotic platform must address tasks that differ significantly in their physical requirements.

A robot may need to apply substantial forces in one task and perform delicate manipulation in another. It may also need to adapt its behaviour according to the surrounding environment or the actions of a nearby human worker.

Comparing approaches across projects can therefore provide useful insights not only into individual technologies, but also into the broader challenge of integrating them into reliable and adaptable robotic systems.

Strengthening European robotics collaboration

For ARISE, participation in the TORNADO Technical Exchange Session supports a wider effort to build links with other European research and innovation initiatives working in AI, robotics and human-machine interaction.

Technical exchanges of this kind provide an opportunity to compare methodologies, share lessons from development and validation, and identify complementary approaches across projects tackling related problems from different perspectives.

By connecting research across sectors and application domains, these collaborations can help strengthen the wider European robotics ecosystem and create new opportunities for knowledge exchange as projects progress towards real-world deployment.