Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Digital Engineering took part in the international forum “Cloud Cities. A BRICS Urban Future Forum”. Acting as experts were Associate Professors Andrey Somov (Intelligent Sensing Group) and Dzmitry Tsetserukou (Intelligent Space Robotics Lab.), as well as Professor Andreas Panayi (Cyber-Physical Systems Lab.).

Andrey Somov spoke about Skoltech's gaming R&D projects during the panel discussion “Create Your Own Universe. A New Dimension in Game Development.” He emphasized the involvement of Master's and PhD students in research within this field and provided examples of successfully commercialized projects. The topic of collaboration between the gaming industry and science was also addressed.

“We are working on integrating user feedback directly into the game development process. Our shared view with the industry is that this will help a product better meet market demands”. 

Dzmitry Tsetserukou participated in two discussions:

At the “Smart Traffic Flows” session, he presented a report titled “Autonomy 6.0: A Swarm of Heterogeneous Unmanned Vehicles Controlled by Generative AI.”

“According to Associate Professor Tsetserukou, Level 5 autonomy, where a human is no longer needed as a driver, is just an intermediate stage. The next step, Autonomy 6.0, involves transportation swarms managed by generative AI. Autonomous taxis, buses, and trains will provide seamless passenger mobility, while seamless delivery will be handled by a swarm of trucks, shuttles, rovers, and—for the final step—humanoid robots”

In the discussion “From Online Stores to Smart Shelves. Future Technologies in Retail,” the expert introduced the concept of “Retail 6.0: Robots with Generative AI for Retail.

“The “Retail 6.0” concept describes a future where retail stores are managed by intelligent robots under the control of generative AI. This will automate not only physical tasks (stocking shelves, inventory counting, packaging) but also complex processes: demand forecasting, creating personalized promotions, and real-time optimal store layout planning.”

“A promising direction for Retail 6.0 is autonomous parcel pickup points operated by anthropomorphic robots. Such a concept project, Point Robotics, is currently being implemented by a team of Master's students from the “Engineering Systems” program.”

Andreas Panayi, speaking at the “Next-Generation Transport Infrastructure” session, explained how digital twins can be used for designing and managing transport infrastructure, fundamentally changing the approach to testing and implementing new solutions.

“For example, in our joint project with VNIIZhT, a system of prescriptive analytics collects data on the performance of various systems and, together with digital twins, makes informed conclusions about their status. An on-board server operates in real-time, predicting failures and sending recommendations to the dispatcher. The system indicates which malfunctions may occur within 24 hours and which require immediate removal of the train for maintenance".

The “Cloud Cities. A BRICS Urban Future Forum”, dedicated to robotic technologies and artificial intelligence, was held in Moscow for the third time.