Inclusive Robotics for a Better Society

Selected Papers from INBOTS

Conference 2018 16 18 October 2018
Pisa Italy José L. Pons
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Biosystems & Biorobotics

José L. Pons Editor

Inclusive Robotics
for a Better Society
Selected Papers from INBOTS Conference
2018, 16–18 October, 2018, Pisa, Italy
Biosystems & Biorobotics

Volume 25

Series Editor
Eugenio Guglielmelli, Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics, Campus Bio-Medico
University of Rome, Rome, Romania
The BIOSYSTEMS & BIOROBOTICS (BioSysRob) series publishes the latest
research developments in three main areas: 1) understanding biological systems
from a bioengineering point of view, i.e. the study of biosystems by exploiting
engineering methods and tools to unveil their functioning principles and unrivalled
performance; 2) design and development of biologically inspired machines and
systems to be used for different purposes and in a variety of application contexts. In
particular, the series welcomes contributions on novel design approaches, methods
and tools as well as case studies on specific bio-inspired systems; 3) design and
developments of nano-, micro-, macro- devices and systems for biomedical
applications, i.e. technologies that can improve modern healthcare and welfare by
enabling novel solutions for prevention, diagnosis, surgery, prosthetics,
rehabilitation and independent living. On one side, the series focuses on recent
methods and technologies which allow multi-scale, multi-physics, high-resolution
analysis and modeling of biological systems. A special emphasis on this side is
given to the use of mechatronic and robotic systems as a tool for basic research in
biology. On the other side, the series authoritatively reports on current theoretical
and experimental challenges and developments related to the “biomechatronic”
design of novel biorobotic machines. A special emphasis on this side is given to
human-machine interaction and interfacing, and also to the ethical and social
implications of this emerging research area, as key challenges for the acceptability
and sustainability of biorobotics technology. The main target of the series are
engineers interested in biology and medicine, and specifically bioengineers and
bioroboticists. Volume published in the series comprise monographs, edited
volumes, lecture notes, as well as selected conference proceedings and PhD theses.
The series also publishes books purposely devoted to support education in
bioengineering, biomedical engineering, biomechatronics and biorobotics at
graduate and post-graduate levels. Indexed by SCOPUS and Springerlink. The
books of the series are submitted for indexing to Web of Science.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10421

José L. Pons
Editor

Inclusive Robotics
for a Better Society
Selected Papers from INBOTS Conference
2018, 16–18 October, 2018, Pisa, Italy

123
Editor
José L. Pons
Cajal Institute,
Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Científicas
Madrid, Spain

ISSN 2195-3562 ISSN 2195-3570 (electronic)

Biosystems & Biorobotics
ISBN 978-3-030-24073-8 ISBN 978-3-030-24074-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24074-5
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
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Organization

INBOTS project consortium (the conference was organized by all the partners
of the project).

v
Contents

Promote Entrepreneurship and Nontechnical Support to SMEs

IUVO: A Spin-Off Company on Wearable Robotics Technologies . . . . . 3
R. Conti, L. Saccares, F. Giovacchini, S. Crea, and N. Vitiello
Movendo Technology: A Technology Transfer Case Study
Based on the Product Hunova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Jody A. Saglia, Carlo Sanfilippo, and Simone Ungaro
COMAU: Collaborative Robotics Market and Applications
in Industrial Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
A. Bisson
Key Intellectual Property Aspects of Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
E. Bonadio

Promote Debate on Legal, Ethics and Socio-economic Aspects

Inclusive Robotics and AI – Some Urgent Ethical
and Societal Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Mark Coeckelbergh
AI, Robots and IPRs – An Approach to Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
S. D. Mediano Cortés
The Industrial Robot Evolution in the World. A First
Dendrogram for a Cluster Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
José Ignacio López-Sánchez, Jose Luis Arroyo-Barriguete,
and Manuel Morales-Contreras
Inclusive Robotic and Work: Socially and Legally Responsible
Technological Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ma Yolanda Sánchez-Urán Azaña

vii
viii Contents

Taxing Robots: Clarifications on Legal and Economic Capacity,

Capacity to Act and Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Álvaro Falcón Pulido
Taxing Autonomous Vehicles: The Californian Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
María Amparo Grau Ruiz
Robotics as an Instrument for Social Mediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Mario Toboso, Ricardo Morte, Aníbal Monasterio, Txetxu Ausín,
Manuel Aparicio, and Daniel López
(Technical) Autonomy as Concept in Robot Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Michael Funk and Mark Coeckelbergh
Conceptual Analysis: Technology, Machine and Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Aníbal Monasterio, Daniel López, Manuel Aparicio, Ricardo Morte,
Txetxu Ausín, and Mario Toboso
Discursive Frameworks for the Development of Inclusive Robotics . . . . 74
Manuel Aparicio, Mario Toboso, Txetxu Ausín, Daniel López,
Ricardo Morte, and Aníbal Monasterio
Robotics and Minors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Ana Lambea Rueda
Women and Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
María Christi Amesti Mendizábal
Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Wearable Robotics: Perspectives
from the Work of the COST Action on Wearable Robots . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Heike Felzmann, Alexandra Kapeller, Ann-Marie Hughes,
and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga
Cartography of the Values Involved in Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Daniel López, Aníbal Monasterio, Mario Toboso, Manuel Aparicio,
Txetxu Ausín, and Ricardo Morte
AI and Discrimination. A Proposal for a Compliance System
for Protecting Privacy and Equality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Helena Ancos
Loud and Cloud: Human Responsibility for Cloud
Robotics Ecosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
E. Fosch-Villaronga and C. Millard
“Meet Me Halfway,” Said the Robot to the Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
E. Fosch-Villaronga and M. A. Heldeweg
Contents ix

Promote Highly-Accessible and Multidisplinary Education Programs

Emerging Pedagogies in Robotics Education: Towards
a Paradigm Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Dimitris Alimisis
ANSYMB - Interdisciplinary Teaching
for Human-Centered Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Andre Seyfarth, Guoping Zhao, and Christian Schumacher
Design and Impact of a Commercial Educational
Robotic Exoskeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Volker Bartenbach and Camila Shirota
On-Line Educational Resources on Robotics: A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Maria Pozzi, Domenico Prattichizzo, and Monica Malvezzi

Coordinate Standardization and Benchmarking

Medical Robotics and the Daunting Certification Process . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Arantxa Renteria
User Involvement, Device Safety, and Outcome Measures During
Development of Walking Exoskeletons: Current Practices . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Anna L. Ármannsdóttir, Maria-Teresa Manrique-Sancho, Juan C. Moreno,
Antonio J. del-Alma, Philipp Beckerle, Edwin H. F. van Asseldonk,
Jan F. Veneman, and Kristín Briem

Promote Societal and Socio-economic Uptake of Robotics

How Do Older People Think and Feel About Robots
in Health- and Elderly Care? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Susanne Frennert and Britt Östlund
The CYBATHLON - Bionic Olympics to Benchmark
Assistive Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Kilian Baur, Florian L. Haufe, Roland Sigrist, Katrin Dorfschmid,
and Robert Riener
The Role of Education for the Social Uptake of Robotics: The Case
of the eCraft2Learn Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Dimitris Alimisis, Dimitrios Loukatos, Emmanouil Zoulias,
and Rene Alimisi
Supernumerary Robotic Fingers to Compensate and Augment
Human Manipulation Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Domenico Prattichizzo, Monica Malvezzi, and Gionata Salvietti
x Contents

SecondHands: A Collaborative Maintenance Robot for Automated

Warehouses. Implications for the Industry and the Workforce . . . . . . . 195
Giuseppe Cotugno, Dario Turchi, Duncan Russell, and Graham Deacon
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Promote Entrepreneurship and
Nontechnical Support to SMEs
 IUVO: A Spin-Off Company on Wearable
Robotics Technologies

R. Conti1(&), L. Saccares1, F. Giovacchini1, S. Crea2, and N. Vitiello2

1
IUVO S.r.l, Pontedera, Italy
roberto.conti@iuvo.company
2
The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pontedera, Italy
nicola.vitiello@santannapisa.it

Abstract. In this paper IUVO, a spin-off company of the BioRobotics Institute

(Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) is presented and the challenges faced by a start-up
company active in a highly dynamic field like the one of wearable robotics; a
quick discussion on how research projects can have a very positive impact on
this kind of companies is also presented. IUVO’s mission is to develop inno-
vative wearable robotics technologies and foster their market exploitation in
different business areas, such as medical, industrial and consumer. The
involvement of IUVO in research projects is described (with specific focus on
two projects) in the context of the hard-to-meet challenges that an early stage
company faces.

1 Background

IUVO is a spin-off company of the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore

Sant’Anna (SSSA) in Pisa, Italy, [1]. The background of IUVO is strongly rooted in the
knowhow of the Wearable Robotics Laboratory of the BioRobotics Institute of SSSA
[2]. Founded almost 10 years ago, the Wearable Robotics Laboratory identified the
ageing of the population as one of the most critical challenges that current industri-
alized societies will have to face in the next decades. Within this framework, the
mission of the Wearable Robotics Laboratory is the invention, prototyping and clinical
validation of wearable robots for assisting, rehabilitating or augmenting human
movement. To this aim, the Wearable Robotics Laboratory has been involved in
several National and European projects.
Designed by Vitiello et al. [3], NEUROExos is an elbow exoskeleton for post-
stroke physical rehabilitation that incorporates four passive degrees of freedom to
improve the users’ interaction with the device (Fig. 1). Relying on the same SEA
approach, HANDEXOS [4], represents the contribution of the Wearable Robotics
Laboratory toward the design of mechatronics systems for the rehabilitation of the hand
(Fig. 1). The goal of such exoskeleton is to train a safe extension motion from the
typical closed position of the impaired hand. Finally, as Fig. 1 depicts, the APO [5] is
an Active Pelvis Orthosis that bilaterally assists the flexion-extension of the hip. It has
been developed with the aim of assisting in walking activities.
Despite the fact that the aforementioned exoskeletons have different applications
and engage different human joints, common technological requirements have to be
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
J. L. Pons (Ed.): INBOTS 2018, BIOSYSROB 25, pp. 3–7, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24074-5_1
4 R. Conti et al.

Fig. 1. Some of the mechatronic systems designed and realized by the Wearable Robotics
Laboratory.

satisfied. Indeed, as wearable robots, exoskeletons have to always guarantee comfort

and safe interactions with the user. As a consequence, multiple requirements, such as
wearability, ergonomics, actuation systems, interaction control and energetics, have to
be fulfilled.
As a result of the development of the aforementioned exoskeletons, the Wearable
Robotics Laboratory has acquired competences in the following areas:
– design and integration of mechatronics systems;
– development of novel mechanisms and sensing technologies, such as the opto-
electronics pressure sensors;
– design and size of series-elastic actuators (SEA);
– development of software and intelligent human-in-the-loop control strategies;
– design of physical human-robot interfaces;
– fast prototyping of hardware and software components.

2 About IUVO

IUVO was founded on January 2015 by Prof. Nicola Vitiello and his colleagues of the
Wearable Robotics Laboratory, belonging to the BioRobotics Institute. Thanks to its
status as a spin-off, IUVO has an agreement with SSSA for the exclusive license to
commercially exploit patent applications and know-how of several wearable tech-
nologies. In August 2017, Comau (an Italian company that is a member of the FCA
Group and leader in the field of industrial automation and robotics) and Össur (an
Icelandic company that is a market leader in the field of prosthetics and orthotics)
invested in IUVO through a joint venture, which holds the majority share of the
company. The two investing companies have the ultimate goal to foster a wide
adoption of wearable robotic technologies in daily-life scenarios.
 IUVO: A Spin-Off Company on Wearable Robotics Technologies 5

3 Vision

One of the major challenges for the EU and US society is the demographic shift of their
population and of their workforces [6]. As Fig. 2 depicts, in countries like Italy and
Spain it is estimated that by 2035 more than the 25% of the workforce will have
between 55–64 years with respect to a current share of 15%. In IUVO’s vision,
exoskeletons represent the long-term, sustainable answer to enhance the way people
move and perform their tasks [7]. In particular, IUVO has the ambition to contribute to
performance augmentation of various populations in the society by fostering a large
adoption of interactive robotic technologies such as exoskeletons. Thanks to the
advancement of robotics and artificial intelligence technologies a new industrial rev-
olution is starting. Within this context, IUVO, thanks to the strategic alliance with two
large companies, wants to pave the way to a successful company in interactive robotics.
Indeed, the cooperation between IUVO, Comau and Össur aims at bringing together
IUVO’s engineering competences in the field of wearable technologies, Comau’s
automation skills and Össur’s extensive experience in bionics and bracing.

Fig. 2. The trend of the share of workers aged between 55 and 64 in the labor force is shown.
Workers between 15 and 64 years old compose the labor force.

4 Challenges

As early stage company, IUVO has to deal with common problems of start-up
companies:
– cash-flow management. Cash flow issue can either delay the development of
products, hiring key staff, or moving to new offices;
– drafting and updating of the business plan. A strategic tool that helps companies to
achieve both short-term and long-term objectives;
– recruiting the right people for key roles. This is crucial not only for the business
survival, but also to let the business grow;
– prioritization. Prioritizing projects is fundamental for prevention of the company
not growing.
6 R. Conti et al.

In parallel, as a company working on innovative wearable robotics products (a

relatively new field in dynamic evolution), IUVO has also to deal with aspects par-
ticular to its business sector:
– need for product benchmarking. Nowadays a consolidated benchmarking
methodology for exoskeletons has not been reached yet. Benchmarking not only
allows for assessment and comparison of the performance of different devices but
also represents the bases for the assessment of developed devices with respect to
standardization requirements and certifications, a fundamental step for the dis-
semination of exoskeletons in the market [8].
– need for a regulation and risk management framework. As [9] reports, even if the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved marketing of robotic
exoskeletons like ReWalk®, the Indego® and Ekso®, regulations for powered
exoskeletons are still under development, the risks and the long-term effects of these
devices are yet to be clearly understood, and specific industrial standards are lacking.
– need for standardization of the exoskeleton terminology. Up to now there are no
guidelines on exoskeleton terminology. The NIST Exoskeleton Terminology Task
Group, the Wearable Robotics Association (WearRA) Standards Committee and the
technical committee ISO/TC 299 Robotics are working in this direction [10].

5 Role of Research Projects

For IUVO as a company product-oriented industrial projects represent a primary asset.

Nevertheless, due to the complexity and the innovative level of the exoskeleton
technology, research-oriented projects have an equivalent importance. Currently,
IUVO is involved in two research projects that can have a strategic relevance for its
growth. Founded by the European Commission, under the Horizon 2020 Program, the
two ongoing research projects are:
– EUROBENCH [11], which aims at creating the first benchmarking framework for
bipedal robotic systems in Europe;
– INBOTS [12], with the objective to bring together specialists with different expertise
(i.e. technical, legal, business, socioeconomic, standardization) to debate and create
a responsible research and innovation paradigm for interactive robotics.
Without explicitly defining the primary importance the aforementioned projects can
have for IUVO, secondary benefits arise due to the presence of IUVO in the projects’
consortiums. In particular, collateral benefits are:
– The advantage to be part of the top expertise community of the sector;
– The advantage of having a privileged relationship with potential end users;
– The opportunity to be involved in the projects’ follow up;
– The occasion to attract top experts to join IUVO;
– The opportunity for IUVO to directly compare itself with other companies;
– The improvement of IUVO’s visibility;
– The improvement of IUVO’s brand value.
 IUVO: A Spin-Off Company on Wearable Robotics Technologies 7

References
1. http://www.iuvo.company/
2. https://www.santannapisa.it/en/wearable-robotics-laboratory
3. Vitiello, N., Lenzi, T., Roccella, S., De Rossi, S.M.M., Cattin, E., Giovacchini, F., Vecchi,
F., Carrozza, M.C.: NEUROExos: a powered elbow exoskeleton of physical rehabilitation.
IEEE Trans. Robot. 29(1), 220–235 (2013)
4. Chiri, A., Giovacchini, F., Vitiello, N., Cattin, E., Roccella, S., Vecchi, F., Carrozza, M.C.:
HANDEXOS: towards an exoskeleton device for the rehabilitation of the hand. In:
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent RObots and Systems (IROS), pp. 1106–
1111 (2009)
5. Giovacchini, F., Vannetti, F., Fantozzi, M., Cempini, M., Cortese, M., Parri, A., Yan, T.,
Lefeber, D., Vitiello, N.: A light-weight active orthosis for hip movement assistance. Robot.
Auton. Syst. 73, 123–134 (2015)
6. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/The-Impact-of-Workforce-
Aging-on-European-Productivity-44450
7. https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/wearable-robotic-exoskeletons-to-be-developed/
8. Conti, R., Giovacchini, F., Saccares, L., Vitiello, N., Pons, J.L., Torricelli, D.: What do
people expect from benchmarking of bipedal robots? Preliminary results of the
EUROBENCH survey. In: Carrozza, M., Micera, S., Pons, J. (eds.) Wearable Robotics:
Challenges and Trends, WeRob 2018. Biosystems & Biorobotics, vol 22. Springer, Cham
(2019)
9. He, Y., Eguren, D., Luu, T.P., Contreras-Vidal, J.L.: Risk management and regulations for
lower limb medical exoskeletons: a review. Med. Devices Evid. Res. 9, 89–107 (2017)
10. https://exoskeletonreport.com/2017/08/update-exoskeletons-testing-standards-terminology-
chance-get-involved/
11. http://eurobench2020.eu/
12. http://inbots.eu/
 Movendo Technology: A Technology Transfer
Case Study Based on the Product Hunova

Jody A. Saglia(&), Carlo Sanfilippo, and Simone Ungaro

Movendo Technology, Genova, Italy

jody.saglia@movendo.technology

Abstract. This short abstract describes the new company Movendo Technol-
ogy that was created as a result of a technology transfer initiative from the Italian
Institute of Technology (IIT). Movendo Technology develop and commercialize
the product hunova, which is an advance total body robotic rehabilitation
platform.

1 Introduction

Movendo Technology originated from the work of managers and developers within IIT
(Italian Istitute of Technology), who in October 2016 started a new entrepreneurial
venture. Movendo has been granted an exclusive licence for the IP rights related to the
product hunova, a total body rehabilitation robot developed within the Rehab Tech-
nologies Lab at IIT.
More than 40 units have been already sold and installed in ortho, neuro and
geriatric clinics, in Europe, US and Middle East. The market is rapidly growing and
many clinics are showing interest in adopting the technology. We invest substantial
resources in clinical research and there are a number of clinical trials on different
pathologies being carried out in collaboration with key clinical partners. The tech-
nology is proving to be effective from a clinical as well as a research standpoint and it
allows to measure and quantify the level of injury and recovery of every single patient,
with the further advantage of being adaptable to specific patient needs (hunova stan-
dardizes and personalizes the process). These features increase quality and efficacy of
the rehabilitation therapy that the clinical facility delivers to patients, resulting in lower
management costs, higher patient throughput and better outcomes.
The company was set up in October 2016 and the first months of operations were
dedicated to structuring both in terms of personnel to cover the various company
functions and in terms of organization of company processes. During the year 2017 the
ISO 13485 certifications, the CE marking and the FDA approval were also obtained in
order to market the product in the EU and US markets.
The company has set up the Italian market and plans to set up international
branches in Germany and the United States. In the rest of Europe and the world
Movendo will work through the negotiation and implementation of distribution
agreements.
In 2017 the Company was awarded the second prize at the euRobotics Tech
Transfer Award 2017 in Edinburgh, it was included in the ADI Design Index 2016, it

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

J. L. Pons (Ed.): INBOTS 2018, BIOSYSROB 25, pp. 8–11, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24074-5_2
 Movendo Technology 9

competed for the 2018 Golden Compass edition, received the prestigious Good Design
Award given by the Chicago Athenaeum and was awarded the Second Prize for the first
European Silver Economy Award.

2 Hunova

The diseases related to the lower limbs and spine are often treated by involving more
body districts at the same time since they are closely connected. In fact, the treatment of
the lower limb cannot be done without considering the trunk and the pelvis. hunova is
an easy to use and intuitive medical device developed to bring robotic rehabilitation
into clinicians’ daily practice. Hunova [11] is designed to provide accurate and
repeatable rehabilitation in conjunction with objective measurement of parameters
related to lower limbs, trunk and the vestibular system. The device integrates two
robotic modules where each one is a serial 2-dof robotic mechanism which allows to
control the inclination of the lower limb platform (mono and bipodalic) and the seat.
Both robotic modules are equipped with customized 6-axis force/torque sensors to
measure and control the interaction between the patient and the system. The device also
integrates an IMU body sensor which allows to track the position of different body
segments and a touch screen for biofeedback and touch-interactive training. Before
hunova had been developed, there were not devices or tools that allowed to treat
patients in both ways (standing and sitting position), passively and actively at the same
time and with the possibility to quantify the level of recovery by measuring biome-
chanical and functional performance. hunova technology is based on Arbot [1–10],
which was developed at IIT for ankle rehabilitation and offered the possibility of doing
different kind of exercises with a single device. Arbot was the first step to underline
both the need of having a device that integrates different kind of exercises and the need
of measuring objective parameters. Even though Arbot had been considered a
groundbreaking innovation by several doctors and physiotherapists, it had been pointed
out that a robotic device which allows only ankle rehabilitation does not justify its
potential commercial price. However, it had been highlighted that the functionalities
could be extended to balance and trunk training. A survey run by our team had shown
that a big portion of rehabilitation activities in the rehab centers is focused on ankle,
knee, balance, core-stability and trunk/spine. It turned out that there was not a single
advanced robotic device that could address total body rehabilitation, starting from
lower limbs, through pelvis, and trunk, up to the vestibular system. Based on these
findings we decided to develop the new innovative device hunova. Today, hunova is
applied to all fields of motor rehabilitation namely ortho, neuro, geriatrics and sport.
A huge effort of the development is being spent to develop new protocols in close
collaboration with key clinical partners and opinion leaders in order to deliver stan-
dardized rehabilitation care. While the actual focus of our technology is rehabilitation
following an injury, we foresee a future application of hunova and its companion
devices and products to the field of medical fitness where the goal is to assess human
performance and health and act upon it in order to prevent injuries and disabilities and
maximize wellness and quality of life. hunova is an excellent case study of how it is
possible to develop a successful product starting from initial promising scientific
10 J. A. Saglia et al.

findings (Arbot), working closely with the end-users and all stake-holders in order to
leverage the technology with the goal to realize a product which can improve people’s
quality of life.

hunovaTM : a total body rehabilitation robot

3 Conclusion

Movendo Technology represents one of the successful case studies developed by the
Italian Institute of Technology in terms of technology transfer, as well as an exceptional
example of translational research and product development seeing the collaboration of
technical, clinical and business teams.

References
1. Saglia, J.A., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: Geometry and kinematic analysis of a redundantly
actuated parallel mechanism that eliminates singularity and improves dexterity. Trans.
ASME: J. Mech. Des. 130(12), 124501–124505 (2008)
2. Saglia, J.A., Tsagarakis, N.G., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: Inverse-kinematics-based control of
a redundantly actuated platform for rehabilitation. J. Syst. Control. Eng. IMechE Proc. Part I
223(1), 53–70 (2009)
3. Saglia, J.A., Tsagarakis, N.G., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: A high performance 2-DOF over-
actuated parallel mechanism for ankle rehabilitation. In: IEEE International Conference on
Robotics and Automation, Kobe, Japan, 12–17 May 2009 (2009)
4. Saglia, J.A., Tsagarakis, N.G., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: A high performance redundantly
actuated parallel mechanism for ankle rehabilitation. Int. J. Robot. Res. Spec. Issue Med.
Robot. 28(9), 1216–1227 (2009)
 Movendo Technology 11

5. Saglia, J.A., Tsagarakis, N.G., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: Control strategies for ankle
rehabilitation using a high performance ankle exerciser. In: IEEE International Conference
on Robotics and Automation, Anchorage, Alaska, 3–8 May 2010 (2010)
6. Saglia, J.A., Tsagarakis, N.G., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: Assessment of the assistive
performance of an ankle exerciser using electromyographic signals. In: 32nd International
Conference on IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, 31 August–4 September 2010 (2010)
7. Saglia, J.A., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: Actuation force control of a redundantly actuated
parallel mechanism for ankle rehabilitation (abstract). In: International Conference & Course
on Orthopaedic Biomechanics, Clinical Applications & Surgery, Brunel University, West
London, UK, 6–9 June 2010 (2010)
8. Saglia, J.A., Tsagarakis, N.G., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: Control strategies for patient
assisted training using the ankle rehabilitation robot (ARBOT). IEEE-ASME Trans.
Mechatron. 18, 1799–1808 (2012)
9. Taglione, E., De Marco, E., Pasqualetti, F., Rapalli, A., Squeri, V., Masia, L., Caldwell,
D.G., Catitti, P., Saglia, J.A.: Ankle rehabilitation using the high-performance robotic device
IIT-ARBOT: study protocol and preliminary results. In: 9th World Congress of the
International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM 2015) (2015)
10. Saglia, J.A., Tsagarakis, N.G., Dai, J.S., Caldwell, D.G.: Linear actuator and rehabilitation
device incorporating such an actuator, WO Patent App. PCT/IB2010/050,310
11. Saglia, J.A., D’angella, S., Ciaccia, L., Sanfilippo, C., Ungaro, S.: Driving system for
controlling the rotation of an object about two perpendicular axes of rotation and
rehabilitation machine for rehabilitation of the lower limbs and the trunk incorporating such
a driving system, WO2016151527 (A1), 29 September 2016
 COMAU: Collaborative Robotics Market
and Applications in Industrial Environments

A. Bisson(&)

Comau S.p.A., Grugliasco, TO, Italy

andrea.bisson@comau.com

Abstract. In this paper will be presented Comau, a world leader in industrial

automation and robotics, that is currently developing its strategy for Industry
4.0, called HUMANufacturing. This strategy covers also collaborative robotics
that is one of the main topic of the fourth industrial revolution.
In this work will be described the story and a summary of Comau business, its
vision and its strategy to satisfy the market requests of collaborative robots, by
exploiting the strong company know-how on industrial robotics.

1 About Comau

Comau S.p.A. was founded in 1973 as COnsorzio MAcchine Utensili, formed by the
same Torino-based engineers and companies that helped building the landmark Volga
Automobile Plant in Russia. Comau is a company that is member of Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles Group and it is a world leader in industrial automation and robotics [1].
Comau robotics products comprehends industrial robots that extend from small
payload robots to the massive capacity of 650 kg. From articulated industrial robots
suitable for any application to dedicated robots for spot and arc welding, palletizing or
press to press automation, each robot is designed with a reduced footprint, large work
envelope, highly precise movements and positioning, great reliability and low main-
tenance costs. Maximum on-the-floor performance is achieved thanks to Racer family
of compact robots with their enhanced precision, lower ratios and innovative software
approach [2].

2 Comau Vision

In today’s rapidly changing market, according to Industry 4.0, there is a constant

demand to meet the challenges and needs of customers, while developing modular
elements to make their jobs quicker and more efficient. Comau’s approach to Industry
4.0 is known as HUMANufacturing: the concept of the factory of the future where
humans are at the center of the production process, machines communicate each others
and are no longer confined within barriers.
As a world leader in the design of advanced automation solutions with over 40
years of experience, Comau focuses on creating a safe environment in which humans
and machines collaborate for flexible, efficient production. In preparation to this

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

J. L. Pons (Ed.): INBOTS 2018, BIOSYSROB 25, pp. 12–16, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24074-5_3
 COMAU 13

change, Comau has developed numerous innovative solutions including automated

guided vehicles, collaborative robots (cobots), smartphone and smartwatch applica-
tions, and wearable technologies [2].

3 Cobot Market and Expectations

One way in which companies are creating a more fluid work environment including
both humans and robots is through the development and implementation of collabo-
rative robots. Currently making up 2% of the overall robot market, cobot sales are
expected to grow exponentially, with a CAGR of 78% in the next few years (Fig. 1),
reaching an estimated volume of 137 thousands cobots sold worldwide in 2022 [4, 5].

Fig. 1. Collaborative robots market forecast based on Comau extrapolations from IFR data [4, 5].

Cobots handle a plethora of applications spanning several automation fields,

including automotive, consumer goods, metal fabrication, and more and help to
improve the safety of operators on the production line and, on a psychological level,
improve also their perception of the work environment by making them feel better
protected and relieving them of tiring tasks. Moreover, the usage of cobots has a lot of
economic benefits such as: shop floor space optimization, reduction of barriers, no
additional programming efforts, and optimized working processes.
14 A. Bisson

4 Adoption of Cobots in Industrial Environments

It has been several years that Collaborative Robots appeared on the market, and since
the beginning, their adoption has been typically in research laboratories and in Small
and Midsize Enterprises (SME), mostly for their simplicity to install and to use with a
consequent saving of money, because of really few safety barriers needs.
Since few years, instead, the adoption of Cobots raised a lot also on assembly
applications within manufacturing lines, alongside with industrial robots in big
industries. The causes of this increasing trend are mainly for ergonomics and pro-
ductivity reasons: Cobots can lighten human operator from repetitive and tedious tasks,
by working together with them and allowing the workers to focus more on higher value
aspects, like the quality of the product.
Other aspects that are pushing the usage of Cobots, especially within automotive
industries, are the saving of very expensive plant space and the possibility to have a
less crowded and more flexible working cell, because of the lower number of safety
devices required, allowing to reconfigure in a more easy way the manufacturing pro-
cess to fulfil the line changes needed with product evolution.
On the other hand, instead, the reasons that are braking the adoption of cobots, in
particular for automotive assembly lines, are the following:
• The maximum speed for cobots is quite slower than speed of industrial robots. This
is a big efficiency problem, in particular when no human operators are working
close to the cobot;
• The accuracy needed within the manufacturing process is higher than the accuracy
that cobots can provide;
• Reach and payload of cobots on the market are not always compatible with needs.
For all pros and cons explained in this paragraph, choosing a collaborative robot to
detriment of an industrial robot could not be always the best choice.

5 Comau Aura Collaborative Robot

In order to satisfy these requests, Comau has analyzed the market and developed
AURA (Advanced Usage Robotic Arm), a collaborative robot with 170 kg of payload
and 2.8 m of reach (Fig. 3), exploiting its know-how in automotive industry: this is
today the cobot with the highest payload and reach on the market.
Aura robot mixes all the pros coming from cobots and industrial robots, because it
is safe like a cobot and it has also the same performances in terms of speed and
accuracy of a standard industrial robot: in fact, underneath there is a Comau hollow
wrist robot NJ4 170-2.9 (Fig. 2).
 COMAU 15

Fig. 2. Comau AURA collaborative robot underneath.

Aura can be used, as needed, in a collaborative or a non-collaborative high-speed

mode: if no human operator is in the working area, the robot can run at 2 m/s of speed,
otherwise it can run up to 500 mm/s as maximum collaborative speed.
Moreover, Aura is fully covered with a sensitive skin consisting in a pressure and a
proximity sensor and, on the top of that, there is a protective soft foam: all these
protections allow to work side by side with the robot without safety risks.
This skin solution has been patented by Comau and it has been certified PLd CAT.3
by TÜV SÜD according to EN ISO 13849 [3].
One of the most important feature of Aura is the possibility to cover the gripper
with the same certified skin technology used on the robot, in order to fulfill the
collaborative application requirements of the customer. Another useful functionality is
the hand-guidance, that allows the human operator to move the robot and to record a
specific trajectory, without using the Teach Pendant.

Fig. 3. Comau AURA collaborative robot.

All these features allows Aura collaborative robot to combine the pros common to
cobots and the pros common to industrial robots.
16 A. Bisson

6 Conclusions

When a customer has to build an automated assembly line, frequently he has to choose
whether to buy industrial or collaborative robots. This choice is imposed by many
factors like the automation goal (e.g. ergonomics driven, production rate driven, etc.),
area and type of human-robot collaboration. Other important aspects that impact the
choice are the cycle time, the geometrical configuration of the working area (i.e. the
reach), the payload, the accuracy and the flexibility of the process. We have seen also
that Comau Aura collaborative robot combines all the pros coming from both the world
of industrial and collaborative robotics.

REFERENCES
1. http://www.comau.com/
2. https://www.comau.com/Download/this-is-comau/Comau_Corporate_Brochure.pdf
3. https://www.comau.com/IT/le-nostre-competenze/robotics/automation-products/
CollaborativeRobotsAura
4. https://ifr.org/downloads/press/Executive_Summary_WR_2017_Industrial_Robots.pdf
5. https://ifr.org/downloads/press/Executive_Summary_WR_Service_Robots_2017_1.pdf
 Key Intellectual Property Aspects of Robotics

E. Bonadio(&)

London, UK
Enrico.Bonadio.1@city.ac.uk

Abstract. This short paper focuses on intellectual property (IP) issues of

robotics, expanding in particular on how companies in this field could rely on IP
rights to promote and recoup investments and maximise profits. Particular
attention is paid to how a wise IP protection and enforcement strategy could
benefit firms involved in interactive robotics.

1 About

I am a Senior Lecturer in Law at City, University of London (The City Law School),
where I teach various modules on intellectual property (IP) law. I am Deputy Editor in
Chief of the European Journal of Risk Regulation, and have published extensively in
the field of IP law (books, academic articles, book chapters, policy reports, and jour-
nalistic articles). My research currently focuses on intellectual property (IP) aspects of
robotics, amongst other topics. I am a Solicitor qualified to practice in England and
Wales as well as in Italy, and practiced as IP attorney for several years in top-tier
international law firms.

2 IP Issues for Robotics

Robotics innovation often require years of intensive research and financial investments.
The lengthy and expensive process of delivering profitable products highlights the
importance of, and need to protect, IP rights (including patents, trade secrets, copyright,
trademarks and designs) to recoup investments and fend off competitors seeking to
capitalise on others’ research and development. Robotic entrepreneurs indeed often
face competition for investment and end users: which means that having a strategic
comprehensive IP plan can benefit such entrepreneurs and help reaching commercial
success.
While there are phases within the life of robotic firms where a cooperative and non
IP-focused policy (especially at a pre-commercialisation stage) is better suited to
support growth, IP strategies are certainly key in shaping and strengthening this
industry.
Patents protect innovation and give their owners a monopolistic right to prevent
others from exploiting the patented technology. It is a legal monopoly which gives
innovators a tool to maximise profits out of the developed technology. Not only big
companies in the robotics field do seek patents. Smaller robotic entities also rely on

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

J. L. Pons (Ed.): INBOTS 2018, BIOSYSROB 25, pp. 17–20, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24074-5_4
18 E. Bonadio

patents to attract investors and protect their investments in technology against larger
players.
Robotic companies may also rely on the law of trade secrets, especially where the
technical solutions they develop cannot be easily reverse-engineered by competitors.
This tool could actually prove to be a better option than seeking patents as the legal
protection could potentially last indefinitely, as opposed to the limited patent term (20
years).
Moreover, some elements of a robotic device can be copyright protected. Partic-
ularly relevant here is the protection of software codes embedded in robots. Protecting
robot brands and ornamental features is also crucial to safeguard products’ goodwill
and reputation, especially in business-to-consumer industries. And robotics, as is
known, is increasingly becoming an industry where products are sold directly to
millions of end-users. It could be argued that the desirability and acceptance by con-
sumers of products such as a nanny-robot, a caretaker-robot or a medical-robot will also
depend on a reliable brand, which consumers know, appreciate, trust and remember.
Just filing a patent, design or trademark application may not be enough – taking
legal action against competitors that try to free-ride on the investments made by
someone else is necessary. In the context of my research, I have analysed several of
these lawsuits, especially patent-related disputes. Even if many of these litigations have
been settled, such settlements have often occurred with a consent judgement by the
court that has left the complainant that enforced its IP in a relatively stronger position
than the alleged infringer.

3 Interactive Robotics and IP: The Importance of Protecting

the Eye-Catching Elements of Robots

Patents and trade secrets are certainly the most important IP rights for the robotic
industry, including interactive robotics. There is no doubt about that.
Yet, as the field of interactive robots is gradually expanding, and gets even more
consumer-facing in business-to-consumer scenarios, the IP strategies should also focus
on the external dimension of such robotic companies and products. This means that
firms and entrepreneurs in this field should take into account the opportunity to protect
extensively commercial brands and the aesthetic characteristics of the robots. The way
this is done is via registering their trademarks and designs with the relevant intellectual
property offices.
What about trademark registration? How can this IP right add value to robotic
companies and their interactive products? In general, registering trademarks is crucial
to protect products’ goodwill and reputation, especially in business-to-consumer
industries. Notably, interactive robotics is increasingly becoming an industry where
products are sold directly to countless end-users (consumers). The commercial success
of products also depends on a reliable brand which consumers know, trust, appreciate
and remember. For this reason, robotics companies with a strong brand name and solid
reputation are indeed investing on and registering trademarks, worldwide (such reg-
istrations giving a protection which may be perpetual, as the registrations can be
renewed every 10 years). Several European robotic companies, for example, have
 Key Intellectual Property Aspects of Robotics 19

already registered their brands with both national trademark offices and the European
Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). It is expected that the number of trade-
mark registrations for both the company names and the specific robotic products will
grow further in the coming years, as the industry keeps building up and strengthening a
pan-European customer base.
Given the growing propensity of companies in this sector to register trademarks and
build overarching brand identities, and the increasing availability of robots amongst
final consumers, disputes about robotics trademark infringements may soon reach
courts, in Europe and elsewhere.
As mentioned, today’s interactive robots are becoming much more consumer
facing, which means that a robot’s physical appearance and its ‘look and feel’ plays a
central role in influencing consumers’ choice. Robot designs that meet certain
requirements, including novelty and individual character, can be registered with the
EUIPO, such registrations protecting the ornamental features of the machines.
Under EU law, for example, it is possible to obtain an EU design registration which is
valid in all Member States (up to 25 years), with a shorter protection of 3 years also
offered to unregistered designs. The exclusive rights given by the registrations can then
be enforced against third parties that use designs that are perceived by an informed user
as giving the same overall impression.
Some interactive robotics companies in Europe have indeed taken advantage of this
chance and obtained EU design registrations protecting the ornamental features of
products such as vacuum cleaners and grass-trimmers. Also, designs rights may soon
be regularly sought by companies active in the field of wearable robots, i.e. devices that
are used to enhance people’s motion and physical abilities. Despite having functional
elements, these products may be devised in a way which makes them more appealing to
final consumers – and design rights could exactly be the appropriate legal tool in the
hands of such firms to protect the eye-catching elements of their products. In other
words, these rights may help these companies to keep pace with the likely “fashion-
alisation” of this area of robotic industry.

4 Interactions with Other Works Packages

I am involved in Work Package (WP) 1 within the INBOTS project. I am working

closely with my WP1 colleagues, including Arantxa Renteria from Tecnalia and other
colleagues, that are in the process of organising interviews with owners and managers
of interactive robotic firms aimed at collecting stories and experiences from real
entrepreneurs in this field, especially about possible success/failure story about IP
protection.
I am also working closely with my university colleague Dr Luke McDonagh (we
are both senior lecturers in law at The City Law School, City University of London) in
INBOTS WP2 (which aims at promoting “debate on legal, ethic & socio-economic
aspects”), who is also dealing with IP issues in that work package. While my role in
WP1 is to possibly assist firms in the field of interactive robots by highlighting the
practical IP issues faced by these companies, Dr McDonagh deals with more theoretical
aspects of IP protection and enforcement. Despite being in different WPs, the two of us
20 E. Bonadio

work closely as we are both interested in the question of how IP laws at the national
and EU levels influence the development of interactive robotics – including the
question of whether legal reforms are required to encourage further innovation within
the EU. We are also looking at how IP laws can cope with the rise of assisted invention
and creativity e.g. the issue of ownership of the excusive economic rights where an
interactive (smart) robot actively assists in the creation of a new invention or creative
work (music, dance, art, etc.).
Dr McDonagh and I have started our own round of semi-structured interviews with
owners and managers of robotic companies and entrepreneurs. Our focus is on the IP
strategies used by such companies to protect assets such as inventions, trade secrets,
copyright, brands and designs. The information we expect to gather relate to the size of
the patent portfolio, the geographical scope of patent protection as well as whether legal
disputes have occurred, or are likely to occur, where the firm is complainant or
defendant.
With a view to strengthening the coordination efforts between the various WPs that
also deal with IP aspects of interactive robotics, it would be recommendable to create
an inter-WP committee focusing on IP issues. The ultimate aims of such committee will
be (i) to maximise the efforts of all INBOTS reviewers that deal with IP issues and
avoid possible duplication of jobs; and (ii) finalising a section to be inserted in the
White Book that comprehensively deals with the key IP aspects of interactive robotics.

5 Author’s Experience

Dr Enrico Bonadio’s academic and professional experience could be of help to new

entrepreneurs in the interactive robotics field. His knowledge and understanding of this
industry, and in particular of the legal strategies pursued by robotic companies, may
support enterprises in this field and help them grasp technicalities of the law, and turn
them in fruitful opportunities.

References
1. Keisner, C.A., Raffo, J., Wunsch-Vincent, S.: Economic Research Working Paper No. 30,
Breakthrough technologies – Robotics, and intellectual property
2. https://www.finnegan.com/images/content/8/6/v3/866/
IntellectualPropertyConsiderationsfortheRoboticsIndustry-revised.pdf
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 The “Soo” Canal not only has the heaviest freight
traffic of any artificial waterway in the world, but is
also on the route of the passenger steamers that
carry thousands of tourists through the Great Lakes.
 The longest bascule bridge in the world is
operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway at Sault
Ste. Marie. Each section is 169 feet long, and is
raised by electric power to permit vessels to pass
through the canal.
 The moose in the thick forests of Canada feed off
the trees and smaller shrubs. The moose have such
short necks and long front legs that they cannot
browse on grass without getting down on their knees.
 Ontario has so many lakes that canoes can be
paddled for hundreds of miles with practically no
portages. Since the days of the French explorers,
these lakes have formed part of the water route from
the East to Hudson Bay.
It is interesting to go through these factories and see the work of
Lake Superior in harness. In the pulp mills, where more than a
hundred huge truck loads of news-print are turned out every day, I
saw the logs ground to dust, mixed with water, and made into miles
of paper to feed printing presses. The output is so great that every
three months enough paper is made to cover a sidewalk reaching all
the way round the world.
In the saw-mills millions of feet of lumber are being cut into
boards for the markets of the United States, and in the veneering
works birch logs as big around as a flour barrel are made into
sheets, some as thin as your fingernail, and others as thick as the
board cover of a family Bible. Here we see that the logs are soaked
in boiling water and then pared, just as you would pare an apple, into
strips of wood carpeting perhaps a hundred feet long. These strips
are used for the backing of mahogany and quartered oak sent here
from Grand Rapids and other places where furniture is made. One
often thinks he is getting solid mahogany or solid oak, whereas he
has only the knottiest of pine or other rough wood on which is placed
a strip of birch, with a veneer of mahogany or oak on top. The thick
birch strips are used also for chair and opera seats.
Near the saw-mills is the Clergue steel plant, with its smoke
stacks standing out against the blue sky like the pipes of a gigantic
organ. The works cover acres and turn out thousands of tons of
metal products every day. They are supplied by the mountains of iron
ore lying on the shores of Lake Superior not far away, with great
steel unloaders reaching out above them.
Sault Ste. Marie is one of the oldest settlements in the Dominion
of Canada. Here in 1668, Father Marquette established the first
Jesuit mission in the New World, and the priests who followed him
were the first white men to travel from lower Canada to the head of
the Great Lakes, where now stand Port Arthur and Fort William. The
town of to-day is a bustling place of almost twenty-five thousand
population. It is connected with its American namesake on the
opposite bank of the river by a mile-long bridge of the Canadian
Pacific Railway.
On both sides of the Saint Mary’s River are the locks of the
famous “Soo” Canal, where the Great Lakes freighters and
passenger boats are lowered and raised twenty feet between the
levels of Lakes Superior and Huron. The first canal was built around
the rapids in 1798, to accommodate the canoes of the Indians and
fur traders. Along it ran a tow-path for the oxen that later pulled the
heavier loads. That canal was destroyed by the United States troops
in the War of 1812.
The present canal was opened in 1897, providing a new link in
the chain of waterways from the head of the Lakes to the Saint
Lawrence. The Canadian lock is nine hundred feet long and when
finished was the longest in the world. Since then it has been
surpassed by one eleven hundred feet in length on the American
side. The United States locks handle about ninety per cent. of the
freight traffic, which has so increased in the last twenty years that it
has been necessary to add three more locks to the original one on
our side of the river. Two of these locks are longer by three hundred
feet than the famous Panama locks at Gatun or Pedro Miguel. Each
is big enough to accommodate two ships at one time. Nevertheless,
during the open season one can often see here a score of steamers,
some of them of from twelve to fifteen thousand tons, waiting to go
through.
The “Soo” is noted for having the heaviest freight traffic of any
artificial waterway in the world. The tonnage passing through it in
one year is three times as large as that of the foreign trade shipping
of the port of New York, four times as great as the freight passing
through the Suez Canal, and five times as great as that of the
Panama Canal. For six months of the year an average of more than
one steamer goes through every fifteen minutes. The chief freight
commodity is ore from the iron mines of Lake Superior, which often
comprises seventy per cent. of the total. Coal and wheat are next in
importance.
In coming to the “Soo” from Cobalt and Sudbury, I have been
travelling through the new Ontario, the “wild northwest” of the
Ontario we know on the shores of Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron.
The land near those bodies of water is about as thickly settled as
Ohio. It has some of the best farms of North America, producing
grain, vegetables, and fruits worth millions of dollars a year. At every
few miles are modern cities. The whole country is cut up by railways,
and one can go by automobile through any part of it. The cities and
town hum with factories, and the entire region is one of industry and
thrift.
This new Ontario is the frontier of the province. It is the great
northland between Georgian Bay and Hudson Bay, extending from
Quebec westward through the Rainy River country to Manitoba. This
vast region is larger than Texas, four times the size of old Ontario,
and much bigger than Great Britain or France. It is divided into eight
great districts. The Thunder Bay and Rainy River districts in the west
are together as long as from Philadelphia to Boston, and wider than
from Washington to New York. The Algoma district, in the southern
end of which the “Soo” is located, is almost as wide, extending from
Lake Superior to the Albany River, while the Timiskaming district
reaches from Cobalt north to James Bay, and borders Quebec on
the east.
Until the first decade of the twentieth century this vast territory
was looked upon as valuable only for its timber, of which it had
nearly two hundred million acres. It was thought to be nothing but
rock and swamp, covered with ice the greater part of the year. Its
only inhabitants were Indian hunters, Hudson’s Bay Company fur
traders, and lumbermen who cut the trees along the streams and
floated them down to the Great Lakes. Then a new line of the
Canadian Pacific Railway was put through, the great nickel mines
were discovered, the silver and gold regions were opened up, and
the Dominion and provincial governments began to look upon the
land as an available asset.
Exploration parties were sent out by the Ontario government to
investigate the region from Quebec to Manitoba. They reported that
a wide strip of fertile soil ran through the wilderness about a hundred
miles north of the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This land is
of a different formation from the rest of northern Ontario. It is a clay
loam, from which the region gets its name, the Great Clay Belt. This
belt is from twenty-five to one hundred miles wide, and it extends
westward from the Quebec-Ontario boundary for three hundred
miles or more. It is estimated to contain as much land as West
Virginia.
The Clay Belt is just north of the height of land of the North
American continent, which divides the rivers flowing north from those
that flow south. The streams on the southern side of the ridge flow
into the Great Lakes, and some even to the Gulf of Mexico. On the
north slope they flow into Hudson Bay, or by the Mackenzie and
other rivers into the Arctic Ocean. The Clay Belt has seven good-
sized rivers and is well watered throughout.
 If there is a moose within sound of the hunter’s
birch-bark horn, he will think it one of his brethren
calling and be so foolish as to come near and be shot.
These animals are still plentiful in Canadian forests.
 The trout-filled streams of interior Ontario and
Quebec are a Mecca for the fishermen of both the
United States and Canada. In the tributaries of the St.
Lawrence the fresh-water salmon also provide good
sport.
 In midsummer the Clay Belt is as hot as southern Canada or the
northern part of the United States. As a matter of fact, Cochrane, its
chief town, is fifty miles south of the latitude of Winnipeg. Everything
grows faster than in the States, for owing to the high latitude the
summer days are fifteen or sixteen hours long, the sun rising a little
after three and setting between eight and nine. The clay loam is
particularly fitted for growing wheat, and certain districts have yielded
forty bushels an acre. Oats, barley, and hardy vegetables are raised
successfully. The country looks prosperous, and there are well-filled
barns and fine herds of livestock as evidences of its productivity.
When the first settlements were made, Northern Ontario had no
railroads to market its produce. Four thousand miles of track have
since been built, including two lines now a part of the Canadian
National. One of these goes through the very centre of the Clay Belt
and has settlements all along it. At almost every river crossing is a
lumber mill, for Northern Ontario’s vast forest stretches and the
water-power in its streams have made it an important producer of
lumber and wood pulp. The trees of the Clay Belt are mostly of a
small growth, therefore chiefly valuable for pulp and easier to handle
in clearing the land.
Ontario has set aside thirteen million acres of forest reserves,
nine tenths of which is in the northern part of the province. The
Nipigon and Timagami reserves are each larger than Rhode Island
and provide camping grounds unequalled in the Dominion. Lake
Timagami is dotted with hundreds of islands and is a favourite haunt
of canoeists. Farther west, near the Manitoba boundary, the beautiful
Lake of the Woods is another famous camping and hunting district.
Immense herds of caribou roam through Northern Ontario. They
are to be seen in droves of hundreds and sometimes of thousands.
They have cut their trails across the country, and a hunter to whom I
have been talking tells me that from his camp at night he can often
hear the rushing noise they make as they move through the woods.
In the forests farther south moose are found in great numbers.
These animals are browsers rather than grass eaters, their necks
being so short that they have to get down on their knees when they
eat grass. Deer and smaller animals also abound, wild ducks and
geese are plentiful, and the streams are filled with fish. Indeed, it is
little wonder that each year sees thousands of campers making their
way to this “sportsman’s paradise.”
 CHAPTER XIX
THE TWIN LAKE PORTS

I am at the nozzle of the mighty grain funnel down which

Canada’s wheat crop is pouring into the boats of Lake Superior. The
prairie provinces of the Dominion produce in one year almost a half
billion bushels of wheat, and after the harvest a steady stream of
golden grain rolls into the huge elevators of Port Arthur and Fort
William, its sister city, three miles away.
These cities are on the north shore of Lake Superior, two or
three hundred miles from Duluth, and within four hundred miles of
Winnipeg. Port Arthur is situated on Thunder Bay, opposite the rocky
promontory of Thunder Cape, and Fort William is a short distance
farther inland at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River. Both towns
have harbours deep enough for the largest lake steamers, and
during eight months of the year a great caravan of boats is moving
back and forth between here and the East. By the Canadian Pacific
and the Canadian National railways, Port Arthur and Fort William
have connection with every part of the wheat belt, and almost the
entire amount of wheat exported, or about seventy per cent. of the
total production, is brought here for storage and transportation.
The two cities are so full of the spirit of the breezy West that one
feels it in the air. The region is in step with twentieth-century
progress. The people look at the future through the right end of the
telescope, and most of them have microscopes in front of the lenses.
Everyone is building air castles—not in Spain, but upon Lake
Superior—and although he acknowledges that he has not yet got far
beyond the foundations, he can in his mind’s eye see cities far
surpassing those of the present.
 Speaking of the enthusiasm of the Port Arthurites—the night I
arrived I walked up the street and entered a stationery store. While
making a purchase I happened to remark that the town was
beautifully located.
“It is,” said the clerk, “and if you will come with me I will show you
one of the finest views in the world just behind this store.”
Supposing it to be a walk of a minute or so, I consented. The
clerk grabbed his hat and out we went. He tramped me two miles up
the hills back of Port Arthur, leading me on and on through one
district after another, until I wondered whether I was in the hands of a
gold brick agent or some other confidence man. At last, when we
were out among the real estate signs, he struck an attitude and
exclaimed:
“Behold Port Arthur.”
It was moonlight and I could see the ghost-like buildings
scattered over the hills, while down on the shore of the lake was the
skyline of the business section with the mighty elevators on the edge
of the water beyond. It was a fine moonlight view of Thunder Bay,
but being tired out after my trip from the “Soo,” I was not
enthusiastic.
 The government-owned wheat elevator at Port
Arthur is the world’s largest grain storage plant. The
greater part of all the wheat grown on the western
prairies comes to this city or to Fort William for
shipment down the lakes.
 The beautiful falls of Kakabeka are almost as high
as those of Niagara. They generate hydro-electric
power that is carried to Fort William, twenty-three
miles away, to light the city and run its factories.
 “The lake freighters are like no other craft I have
ever seen. Between the bow and the stern is a vast
stretch of deck, containing hatches into which wheat
or ore is loaded. This boat is six hundred feet long.”
Fort William and Port Arthur are rivals. Port Arthur was built first.
Formerly the site of an Indian village, it was founded by the
Canadian Pacific Railway. Shortly after its birth the baby town
decided to tax that great corporation. This made the railway people
angry, and it is said that the then president of the line decided to
discipline the infant by moving his lake terminus to Fort William,
which was then a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post. He
thereupon shifted the railway shops to Fort William, saying that he
would yet see the grass grow in the streets of Port Arthur. For a time
the grass did grow, but later the Canadian Northern road, now a part
of the Canadian National, was built through, and Port Arthur now has
traffic from both roads. Most of the business of the Canadian Pacific
is still done at Fort William.
Fort William and Port Arthur are connected by a street-car line
and the land between them has been so divided into town lots that
they may some day unite the two cities. Both places believe in
municipal ownership, and each manages its own electric lights,
telephones, and waterworks. Fort William is the larger, Port Arthur
having four or five thousand less people.
During my stay here I have gone through some of the wheat
elevators. Fort William has twenty-two and Port Arthur ten, with a
total storage capacity between them of fifty-six million bushels. Plans
are under way to make this enormous capacity even greater. The
terminal elevator of the Canadian National Railways, built on the
very edge of Lake Superior, is the largest in the world. It consists of
two huge barn-like divisions between which are more than one
hundred and fifty herculean grain tanks. These are mighty cylinders
of tiles bound together with steel, each of which is twenty-one feet in
diameter and will hold twenty-three thousand bushels of wheat. This
great tank forest covers several acres, and rises to the height of an
eight-story apartment house.
The storage capacity of the elevator is eight million bushels of
wheat, which is more than enough to supply a city the size of Detroit
with flour the year round. The elevator can unload six hundred cars
of wheat, or about six hundred thousand bushels, in a single day,
including the weighing and binning. It has scales that weigh forty-
three tons at a time.
The wheat comes to the elevator in cars, each of which holds a
thousand or fifteen hundred bushels. By a car-dumping machine the
grain is unloaded into the basement of the huge buildings at the
sides of the tanks. From there it is raised to the top of the elevator in
bushel buckets on endless chains at the rate of six hundred and fifty
bushels a minute, or more than ten every second. It is next weighed,
and then carried on wide belt conveyors into the storage towers. The
machinery is so arranged that by pressing a button or moving a lever
a stream of wheat will flow to any part of the great granary. The grain
runs just like water, save that the belts conduct it uphill or down.
When ready to be transferred to a steamer, the wheat is drawn
from the bottom of a bin, again elevated to the top of the building,
weighed, and then poured into the vessel through spouts. It is not
touched by hand from the time it leaves the car until it is taken from
the hold of the ship, and the work is done so cheaply that it costs
only a fraction of a cent to transfer a bushel of wheat from the car to
the boats. For ten or eleven cents a bushel it can be carried a
thousand miles or more down the lakes and put into the hold of an
ocean steamer that takes it to Europe.
In one of the elevators of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Fort
William a train of wheat is handled every twenty minutes during the
season. I timed the workers as they unloaded one car. It contained
sixteen hundred bushels of wheat, or enough, at twenty-five bushels
an acre, to equal the crop of a sixty-four acre farm. Nevertheless, it
was elevated, weighed, and put in the tanks within less than eight
minutes.
The open navigation season on the Great Lakes lasts from May
to December, and during this time as much as five million bushels of
wheat a day have been put on freight boats at Fort William or Port
Arthur for trans-shipment to the East. Some of the freighters unload
their cargoes at Georgian Bay ports, on the east side of Lake Huron,
from where the wheat goes by rail to Montreal. Other ships
discharge at Port Colborne, Ontario, from where the grain is carried
on barges through the Welland Canal and thence down the St.
Lawrence and its canals to Montreal. Still other shipments go
through United States ports. A few small steamers take their cargoes
all the way by water from the head of the Lakes to Montreal; the
grain carried in this way is only between two and three per cent. of
the total.
The all-water route and the combined rail-and-water route from
the head of the Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard are much cheaper
than the all-rail route, due to high railway freight rates in eastern
Canada. A bushel of wheat can be sent over the thirteen hundred
miles between Calgary and Fort William for about fifteen cents, while
the overland freight rate from Fort William to Quebec or Montreal, a
distance of only a thousand miles, is twenty-one cents. The rate on
the all-water route from Fort William to Montreal is ten cents
cheaper, or eleven cents. From Fort William to New York via Buffalo
it is fourteen cents, but vessels sailing from New York offer lower
ocean rates and can get cheaper marine insurance, so that more
than half of Canada’s export wheat is shipped abroad via the United
States.
Whenever we have put a high tariff on Canadian wheat, the
amount exported to our country declines. We now admit Canadian
wheat free of duty on condition that none shall be consumed in the
United States. This does not mean that it may not be manufactured.
At present fifty per cent. of all that is imported is made into flour, and
then reëxported.
Some of the lake freighters in the Port Arthur and Fort William
harbours are like no other craft I have seen. They have an elevated
forecastle at the bow for the crew, with the engines and officers’
quarters in the stern. In rough weather one can pass from bow to
stern only by means of a life rope, and orders and reports are given
by telephone. In the stretch of deck between is a series of hatches,
sometimes thirty or more, through which the cargoes are loaded or
discharged. A single vessel will often carry three hundred thousand
bushels of wheat, or the equivalent of six or seven trainloads of forty
cars each. Among the boats in the lake grain trade this season were
a number of small ocean-going freighters from Norway, attracted
here by the cargoes available at profitable rates.
Besides the great fleet of grain-carrying ships, passenger
steamers run from Port Arthur and Fort William to Georgian Bay,
touching at all the important ports on the route. I steamed for
eighteen hours through Lake Superior coming here on one of the
boats from the “Soo.” That lake is so large that at times we lost sight
of land and it seemed as though we were in mid-ocean. At other
times we could see the irregular coastline, which is rock-bound and
picturesque. The water of Lake Superior is as clear as crystal; it is
icy cold the year round.
 CHAPTER XX
WINNIPEG—WHERE THE PRAIRIES BEGIN

Stand with me on the top of the Union Bank Building, and take a
look at the city of Winnipeg. You had best pull your hat down over
your ears and button your fur coat up to your neck for the wind is
blowing a gale. The sky is bright, and the air is sharp and so full of
ozone that we seem to be breathing champagne. I venture you have
never felt so much alive. The city stretches out on all sides for miles.
Office buildings and stores are going up, new shingle roofs shine
brightly under the winter sun, and we can almost smell the paint of
the suburban additions. Within fifty years Winnipeg has jumped from
a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post of two hundred people to a
city of more than two hundred thousand, and it is still growing. The
value of the buildings erected last year amounted to more than half
that of the new construction in Montreal.
Now turn about and look up Portage Avenue. Twenty years ago
that street hardly existed. To-day it has millions of dollars’ worth of
business blocks, any of which would be a credit to a city the same
size in the States. That nine-story department store over there is the
largest in western Canada. Farther down Main Street are the
Canadian Pacific hotel and railway offices, and beyond them the
great terminals of the Canadian National Railways. “Yes, sir,” says
the Winnipegger at my side, “you can see how we have grown. It
was about the beginning of this century that we began to build for all
time and eternity. Before that most of our buildings were put up
without cellars and had flimsy foundations. We had not realized that
Winnipeg was bound to be the greatest city of Central Canada.
“Look at those wholesale houses,” he continues. “Did you ever
see anything like them? Most of them started as two- or three-story