About us

AEA srl is a company which was founded in 1980 with the aim of providing innovative solutions to the design and development of automatic systems for testing and quality control, having the capability to specify, design, manufacture and service the special purpose equipments that are required. Together with General Impianti (a company that is focused on energy, IT services, environmental control) and SUMMA (who focuses on development and services) AEA is part of the Loccioni Group, a system of companies whose synergy can supply the world of industry with turnkey solutions for the improvement of products and processes quality. The Loccioni Group has roughly 330 employees, with a sales volume in 2009 of 50 M€ and operates in more than 40 countries around the world. 4% of the returns are invested in R&D activities. The two main markets of AEA are the automotive and household appliance industries. AEA is one of the world leaders in the design and production of quality control systems for home appliances and their components, and in the automotive sector is world leader in the design and production of systems for the quality control of diesel and fuel injectors. In both sectors, robotics is a key element in order to supply efficient and flexible solutions, and, therefore, for AEA robotics is one of the core competences along with measurement and testing.

What motivates us

Applications involving the use of non contact sensors, manipulators and mobile robots are increasing. However, research efforts are still needed in order to provide a reliable solution that could be a complement to operators in manufacturing environment.

AEA is a well-known supplier of innovative solutions for testing products and wants to be ready to supply advanced solutions based on service robots able to manipulate objects, to measure the necessary quantities and to move in environments where the safety aspect is crucial. The ECHORD experiment offers AEA the possibility to achieve these goals through a collaboration with an important research institute and to develop hardware and software components necessary to build a complete and functional solution. For AEA, the experiment results will create a new line of business based on mobile robots and interactive manipulators where the know-how of measurements for quality control will be joined with the mobile manipulation robot technology.