Tactile Internet in CeTI2

De­mo­cra­ti­sing Skills – our Re­search Fo­cus

The general imperative of the Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI) is to build communication platforms supported by novel digital technologies and AI as well as basic research on lifespan development of human sensory perception and action  to enable skill exchanges between humans and machines collaborating in real and virtual spaces. CeTI has made significant progress in its first phase, CeTI1, with plans for an ambitious second phase.
CeTI2 continues world-class interdisciplinary research, nurtures young talents, exerts multifaceted societal impacts, and promotes industry partnerships leading to economic growth.

A hand wearing a smart glove and a man reaching towards the glove

Our Mission

The aim of CeTI2 is to develop innovative solutions for major global challenges, including pandemics, ageing societies, skill shortages, climate change, and geopolitical issues. Building on CeTI1, we will explore use cases such as immersive remote collaboration, sensory augmentation for elderly care, AI-driven workforce support, and reduced travel through advanced telepresence.

Portrait of Merle Fairhurst

CeTI is an interdisciplinary space where great ideas find the energy, creativity and know-how to translate into inspiring tactile solutions for the digital age.

Merle Fairhurst | TU Dresden

Our research objectives

CeTI2 aims to achieve several breakthroughs beyond its first phase: develop new human-machine interfaces to integrate multiple senses and allow the prediction of human behaviour for novel skill learning; augment the capabilities of the Tactile Internet by incorporating the senses of smell and advanced touch, e.g. social affective touch, to address new use cases; broaden the scope of one-to-one human-robot interactions that predominated CeTI1 and investigate complex multi-human to multi-robot collaborations; build our own AI-enabled open-source communication platform for fixed and mobile communication networks to allow for fast prototyping of groundbreaking new paradigms to overcome the fundamental barriers known for current systems; and overcome key constraints of current computing systems, escaping the evolutionary trap of linear developments using the knowledge created in CeTI1.

Encompassing of the sense of smell and the extended sense of touch for immersive and realistic human-machine interactions in real and virtual worlds and investigation of the interplay of different sensory components and their importance for the learning and remote transfer of skills.

Significantly improve the sensitivity, durability, and efficiency of sensors and actuators using advanced materials, and develop novel interfaces to improve anticipatory capabilities and situational awareness for more effective remote interactions.

Advance semantic and goal-oriented communication as well as neuromorphic and analogue computing to overcome the foundational limits of Shannon, Turing, Landauer, and Einstein.

Design and develop a sustainable, trustworthy, and sovereign communication and computing platform for the Tactile Internet.

Research advanced AI or alternative non-AI methods for the Tactile Internet technologies and use cases to maximise sustainability and trustworthiness.

The concept of virtual research rooms

CeTI2 is organized into four levels: Foundations (F), Methods (M), Components (C), and Use Cases (U). Each level has five Virtual Research Rooms (VRRs), where experts collaborate. Lower levels focus on basic research, while higher levels emphasize interdisciplinary teamwork in fields like psychology, medicine, and engineering. This structure builds on CeTI1 and has been expanded to address new research challenges efficiently.

Use Cases

U1 – Surgery

U1 addresses the shortage of surgical skills in an ageing society by using CeTI2 technologies to develop a surgical skill model for cognitive robots and immersive skill learning in a metaverse environment.

U2 – Care

U2 focuses on regaining and transferring skills to improve the quality of care for patients, the elderly, and the disabled by means of impairments analysis and care robotics.

U3 – Work

U3 enables a new work environment for industry and craftsmanship through novel robotic platforms, communication and computing advancements, and human interaction interfaces.

U4 – Edutainment

U4 creates multisensory experiences that empower users in educational, cultural, and domestic environments in order to create connectedness and facilitating human–robot collaboration.

U5 – Space

U5 puts C floor outputs to the test in extreme environments while supporting humans in space to deal with social isolation and perform complex skills over huge distances.

Components

C1 – Humans

C1 supports the design of TI-enabled virtual or remote environments that promote the learning or execution of complex and collaborative sensorimotor skills that are facilitated by digitised multimodal feedback.

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C2 – Peripherals

C2 integrates novel material sensors and actuators to provide highly expressive olfaction and haptics when interacting with virtual and remote environments for the U-floors.

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C3 – Robotics

C3 conducts research on networked and AI-enabled robotic platforms to support the U floor with mobile, social, and massively collaborating robots.

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C4 – Metaverse

C4 addresses foundational research on central metaverse facets and their impacts on human perception, collaboration and emotion will result in an open technological prototyping and evaluation framework.

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C5 – Network of Networks

C5 supports the U floor with communication technologies for human learning and skill transfer with COTS and CeTI2 technologies. Low-cost solutions are considered to boost the democratisation idea of CeTI2.

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Methods

M1 – Models of Human Behaviour

M1 develops formal and computational models for predicting complex goal-oriented actions and multi-agent collaborations across time scales to advance Human-in-the-Loop computations for digital technologies.

M2 – Human–Machine Interface

M2 focuses on the dynamics of remote human–machine interaction and robust approaches for interfaces, aiming to improve anticipatory capabilities and situational awareness for more effective interactions.

M3 – Artificial Intelligence

M3 supports research on cross-cutting AI topics with significance for a larger number of related research rooms, and it fosters collaboration with other AI initiatives.

M4 – Information Theory

M4 addresses the fundamental limits identified by Landauer and Shannon, as well as information-theoretical security for distributed computing, storage, and the transport of information.

M5 – Softwarised Networks

M5 builds the CeTI Core Communication Platform (C3PO), implemented in open-source software, to enable rapid integration of new research concepts and achieving technological sovereignty.

Foundations

F1 – Human Sensory Perception and Action

F1 establishes empirical foundations for principles of expectancy and situation guided multisensory perception and action to advance digital technologies for users of different ages and skill levels.

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F2 – Sensors and Actuators

By providing novel sensors and actuators, F2 aims to create immersive and responsive systems facilitating seamless human–machine interactions, driving innovation in medicine, industry, and the Internet of Skills.

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F3 – Electronics

F3 builds miniaturised, flexible, and wireless sensor nodes that can be powered by energy harvesting and thus are “zero-energy”. Furthermore, we will explore novel concepts for efficient analogue computing.

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F4 – Computing

F4 addresses Landauer’s and Turing’s fundamental limits. It explores novel computing platforms and models to tackle the energy consumption and computability issues of digital systems.

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F5 – Communication and Sensing

F5 researches the physical-layer aspects of communication (electromagnetic, molecular, and entanglement-assisted) and the benefits of joint communication and sensing.

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