Meet the HumanTech team: Francesca Canale, convinced that HumanTech technologies will enable a more inclusive construction industry
Get to know Francesca Canale, Project Engineer at STAM. A robotics engineer passionate about artificial intelligence, machine vision, robot programming, and automation.
"Introducing HumanTech technologies in construction sites can empower and support workers, resulting in improved working conditions. This would lead to a more inclusive and diverse workforce, making the construction industry more appealing to women and young people."
Q: Francesca, tell us a little about yourself. Wat aspect of your profession do you enjoy the most?
A: As a robotics engineer, I enjoy challenging myself, experimenting with new concepts, and constantly learning new things about the ever-evolving world of robotics. Among the topics that I find most fascinating are artificial intelligence, machine vision, robot programming, and automation in general.
"As a robotics engineer, I enjoy challenging myself, experimenting with new concepts, and constantly learning new things about the ever-evolving world of robotics."
Q: Interesting! And about your company, what is its main mission? What is the team involved in HumanTech?
A: STAM is a private engineering company based in Genoa, Italy. Our main mission is to provide engineering services to industries and to support our clients in addressing new businesses and technology challenges. The enthusiasm and the experience of our staff is our most valuable asset.
The STAM team directly involved in the HumanTech project is the Robotics and Mechatronics one, which is active in several R&D projects concerning topics such as collaborative robotics, AI-based image processing, robotic sorting and augmented reality.
Q: Great. Now, tell us about your role at HumanTech. What do you do and what is the most rewarding thing about it?
A: We contribute to the HumanTech project mainly by leading task 5.1 (“Development of the ontology for demolition task planning”), which deals with developing a robotic task planner for the automatic execution of demolition activities.
The most rewarding aspect for me is to have the opportunity to apply my robotics knowledge in a domain which is entirely new to me: the construction industry.
Q: What is the activity you are developing that excites you the most?
A: I think the most exciting activity will be to demonstrate our technologies on actual construction sites. In particular, we will validate our demolition task planner in scenarios involving cutting openings in existing walls during building renovations. This task, which is typically carried out using human-operated tools and exposes workers to hazardous conditions, will be performed autonomously with our HumanTech demolition robot and overseen remotely by a human operator.
Q: That sounds exciting. To conclude, what is the positive impact you hope to generate through this project?
A: I believe that introducing HumanTech technologies in construction sites can empower and support workers, resulting in improved working conditions. This would lead to a more inclusive and diverse workforce, making the construction industry more appealing to women and young people. I consider this one of the most significant and impactful outcomes that HumanTech aims to achieve.
Learn more about our work at HumanTech and the team behind it.
Know Jason Rambach, our project coordinator from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Bharath Sankaran, CTO and Co-founder of Scaled Robotics, Gabor Sziebig, Research Manager at SINTEF, Gloria Callinan, Project Support Officer at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Fabian Kaufmann, Researcher at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), and Florendia Fourli, CEO and Managing Director of Hypercliq.
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Meet the HumanTech team: Florendia Fourli, passionate about innovation, technology, and creative problem solving
Florendia Fourli is the CEO and Managing Director of Hypercliq, a company specialising in AI-powered solutions for data management. She founded it in 2011, together with Mirco Sanguineti, CTO, and George Kartsounis, R&D coordinator.
"We help companies collect and create value from data by developing large-scale data management platforms that allow them to visualise and analyse data to make better decisions and provide innovative services to their clients."
In this interview, she explains the work her team is doing at HumanTech, the positive impact they expect it to have and her views on the viability of a net zero future for the construction industry.
Keep on reading!
Q: To start with, can you tell us a bit about your background, what you are passionate about and what drives you personally and professionally?
A: I have an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a BSc in Computer Science, and I've taken on many roles in the IT industry over the past 20 years, including AI researcher, software developer, and project manager. I'm passionate about innovation, technology, and creative problem-solving and challenges that require mental shifts and continuous learning drive me both professionally and personally.
Q: That sounds very interesting and ambitious. Now, tell us about your company, Hypercliq. What is its role in HumanTech?
A: Our role is to design and support HumanTech’s overall System Architecture. This will be the glue that binds all the innovative technologies our partners are working on into a cohesive, integrated whole that can provide value to the construction sector while making it safer and greener. Our team also manages the intellectual property rights created in the consortium to ensure their protection and the unimpeded exploitation of the project results.
Q: And what is the most rewarding thing about your work on the project?
A: The most rewarding is closely following the research going into the various innovative components to facilitate their integration into the HumanTech System at later project stages.
Q: We look forward to seeing how your work develops once the project progresses further. In particular, what are the activities that excite you the most? And what is the positive impact you think they can generate in the construction sector?
A: Analysing the various interactions and interfaces between humans, robots and wearables and defining the interoperability modules that will enable them is very exciting, as it can have a big impact on the safety and well-being of construction workers. In addition, establishing links between the digital representation and the physical aspects of construction sites is an activity with great potential to add value, not only to the construction industry but also to other sectors where it can be applied.
I hope we will create a system that protects and empowers its workers while also improving efficiency in using resources and lowering the environmental impact of the construction industry.
"I hope we will create a system that protects and empowers its workers while also improving efficiency in using resources and lowering the environmental impact of the construction industry."
Q: Q: Sounds great! What are the next milestones you hope to achieve?
A: We are actually very close to achieving an important milestone, which is the first version of the HumanTech System Architecture. After this, we hope to be efficient in refining it and implementing the required interfaces for the system to come together as an integrated solution.
Q: Well, good luck with the work ahead of you! We would like your opinion on the feasibility of the construction industry becoming net zero.
A: Construction errors and nonoptimal material usage contribute greatly to excess waste and CO2 emissions. Technological innovations being developed in HumanTech, such as digital twin monitoring and data sharing on-site, can greatly reduce these aspects and allow us to envision a net zero future.
"Technological innovations being developed in HumanTech, such as digital twin monitoring and data sharing on-site, allow us to envision a net zero future for the construction industry."
Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges to achieving it? And the keys?
A: The biggest challenges lie with the adoption of these technologies by the industry. The key is introducing technologies that keep humans in the centre and in control, which is exactly the aim of HumanTech.
Q: That's right. We hope our innovations make a great difference and contribute to accelerating the green transformation in the sector while making it safer for its workers. Finally, can you tell us about other projects aiming to make the industry safer and more sustainable you have worked on that have inspired you?
A: BIONIC was a project my team worked on, which focused on developing smart wearables for construction workers. BIMprove is another project that has laid the groundwork for HumanTech.
Learn more about our work at HumanTech and the team behind it.
Know Jason Rambach, our project coordinator from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Bharath Sankaran, CTO and Co-founder of Scaled Robotics, Gabor Sziebig, Research Manager at SINTEF, Gloria Callinan, Project Support Officer at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), and Fabian Kaufmann, Researcher at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU).
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AI and Robotics in Construction: Workshop at the European Robotics Forum 2023
At HumanTech, we are organising a workshop during the European Robotics Forum 2023 on AI and Robotics in Construction.
🗓️ Date and time: 15 March 2023, 11:05-12:25 (GMT+1 / CET)
📍 Location: Odeons Kvarter 1, 5000 Odense C - Odense, Denmark
We are delighted to invite you to the AI and Robotics in Construction workshop we have organised with our sister projects BEEYONDERS and RoBétArmé, also part of the European Commission's Horizon Europe programme, during the European Robotics Forum 2023 (ERF2023) — the most influential event of the robotics community in Europe.
The workshop will take place on 15 March from 11:05 until 12:25 in Odense, Denmark.
We aim to debate the following key aspects:
- What are the most critical applications for AI and robotics in construction, and which are the main technological challenges that need to be addressed in this scope?
- What are the essential benefits of AI and robotics in construction? Is the future full robotic automation or human-robot collaboration?
- How can construction companies and workers take advantage of the solutions offered by these technologies, and what concrete steps do they need to take in the coming years to do so?
We will discuss the potential benefits of AI and robotics for achieving automation in construction based on the research and development activities we are carrying out at HumanTech, RoBétArmé, and BEEYONDERS. After briefly presenting our three projects, we will address key aspects of this topic: from the benefits and challenges of integrating these technologies into construction sites to their impact on efficiency, waste and emissions reduction and increased safety in the sector.
In addition, partners from industrial projects will share lessons learned and best practices, focusing on the end-users view of AI and robotics in construction. Finally, there will be a panel discussion and feedback rounds with the attendees, where we will delve deeper into the key questions of the workshop.
We will be joined by:
- Dr. Dimitrios Biliouris, Project Adviser, European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
- Dr. Dimitrios Giakoumis, RoBétArmé project Coordinator
- Dr. Jason Rambach, HumanTech project Coordinator
- Antonio Alonso Cepeda, Beeyonders project Coordinator
- Jonas Bentzen and Mads Essenbaek, Project Manager and Leader, respectively, Christiansen & Essenbæk A/S
- Fernando Sigchos Jiménez, Secretary General, European Builders Confederation
- Patrick Roth, New Business and Innovation Manager, Implenia
- Dr. Bharath Sankaran, CTO & Co-founder, Naska.AI
- Dr. Gabor Sziebig, Research Manager, SINTEF
- Mr. José Carlos Jiménez Fernández, Civil Engineer, Tecnalia
- Dr. Francisco Javier Pérez Grau, Head of Perception and AI, FADA CATEC
Join us!
Register nowDownload the full agendaJoin the discussion
*Update: Find out how the workshop went in this article!
