In 2016, the European Union co-funded 17 new robotics projects from the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for research and innovation. 16 of these resulted from the robotics work programme, and one project resulted from the Societal Challenges part of Horizon 2020. The robotics work programme implements the robotics strategy developed by SPARC, the Public-Private Partnership for Robotics in Europe (see the Strategic Research Agenda).

A wide variety of research and innovation themes are represented in the new projects: from healthcare via transportation, industrial- and logistics robotics to events media production using drones. Some deal with complex safety matters on the frontier where robots meet people, to ensure that no one comes to harm. Others will create a sustainable ecosystem in the robotics community, setting up common platforms supporting robotics development. One project deals exclusively with the potentially radical changes facing society with the rise of new autonomous technologies. The projects are either helping humans in their daily lives at home or at work, collaborating with humans to help them with difficult, strenuous tasks, or taking care of dangerous tasks, reducing the risk to humans.

The research and innovation projects focus on a wide variety of Robotics and Autonomous Systems and capabilities, such as navigation, human-robot interaction, recognition, cognition and handling. Many of these abilities can be transferable to other fields as well.

At the European Robotics Forum 2017, on 22-24 March 2017, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, all projects presented themselves during a dedicated workshop.

Watch the video with all Horizon2020 projects presentations:

Watch the video with FP7 projects results:

Every week, euRobotics will publish a video interview with each project, so that you can find out more about their activities.

We are looking forward to following these new projects and accompanying them to bring benefits to Europe’s citizens and economy.

Teams participating in the ERL Service Robots local tournament at certified Leon@Home Test bed. Copyright: Universidad de León.

The European Robotics League has closed a successful first season. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for research, the ERL brings a common framework for two indoor robotics competitions, ERL Industrial Robots and ERL Service Robots and one outdoor robotics competition, ERL Emergency Robots.  The three competitions are designed to target three clear objectives: the European societal challenge of an aging population, the strengthening of the European robotics industry and the use of autonomous systems for emergency response.

The last tournament of the ERL season 2016/17 took place at the Leon@Home Test bed located at the Módulo de Investigación en Cibernética of the Universidad de León, Spain. The ERL Service Robots local competition organised by Dr Vicente Matellan and the Leon Robotics Group was held from the 13-17 March and consisted of several trials, which mainly took place on the last day.

Caption: (Left) Leon@Home Test bed. (Right) Módulo de Investigación en Cibernética (MIC). Copyright: Universidad de León

The teams competed in different Task Benchmarks (TBM) and Functionality Benchmarks (FBM), comprising “TBM1: Getting to know my home”, “TBM4: Visit My Home”, “FBM2: Navigation Functionality” and “FBM3: Speech Recognition”. Robots were required to generate a map of their environment, detect random changes in the location of furniture and other items, interact effectively with humans and demonstrate different behaviors when dealing with known and unknown people, and help them with general tasks throughout the day.

The three teams that participated in the local tournament were SPQReL, University of Rome (Italy) and University of Lincoln (UK), Outsider Bots, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Spain) and University of Luxemburg (Luxembourg), and Leonbot, Universidad de León (Spain).

Caption: (Left) Example of a  semantic Map of the environment. (Right) Objects used in TBM1. Copyright: Universidad de León

The final score for each team was calculated as the MEDIAN of the best performance in each TBM and FBM trials. The teams’ scoring and standings for the season 2016/2017 are available on the ERL Service Robots and ERL Industrial Robots web page.

The ERL Service and ERL Industrial Awards (Season 2016/17), sponsored by Texas Instruments University Program, were handed to the winning teams during the euRobotics Awards Ceremony held on 23 March, at the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh.

ERL Tournaments dates (Season 2017/18)

The European Robotics League has announced the tournament dates for the new season. The local and major tournaments are based in Europe and are open to international participation from Universities, Research labs, Industry and/or end-users. The events are open to the public and anyone interested is welcome to contact the local organisers and attend as a spectator.

There are eight tournaments already confirmed for this season 2017-2018 and new ones are expected to be confirmed in the next months.

ERL Service Robots

Major Tournament

• 28-31 August 2017: as part of the IEEE RO-MAN 2017 event held in Lisbon, Portugal

Local Tournament

• 26-30 June 2017: BRL Anchor Personalised Assisted Living Studio, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Bristol, UK
• 11-15 September 2017: Leon@Home test bed, Universidad de Leon, Leon, Spain
• ERW 2017, 20-26 November 2017: PAL Robotics, Barcelona, Spain.
• 4-7 December 2017: ECHORD++ RIF Peccioli test bed, Peccioli, Italy.

ERL Industrial Robots

Local Tournament

• 11-15 September 2017: b-it-bots@Work Test Bed, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Science, Sankt Augustin, Germany
• ERW 2017, 21-25 November 2017: Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

ERL Emergency Robots

Major Tournament

• 15-23 September 2017: Piombino, Italy. (Download ERL Emergency 2017 brochure)

ERL Emergency 2017 promo video:

This season 2017/18, Worthington Sharpe Ltd., silver sponsor of ERL Emergency Robots 2017,  will provide one Wing Ground Control Station (GCS) for loan to a selected applicant team. Teams wishing to borrow the Wing GCS must apply to the ERL consortium, following the application procedure set on ERL Emergency web page. Applications received will be evaluated by the consortium and Worthington Sharpe Ltd. to select the team who will be granted the loan equipment.

PAL Robotics, a platinum sponsor of ERL Service Robots, announced at the ERL Awards ceremony that the company will offer on a very affordable rental scheme limited units of TIAGo robots for different teams to use in the competition.

Companies and academic institutions interested in sponsoring ERL events can contact Dr Fausto Ferreira for information on the sponsorship and exhibitor packages.

To find out more about the European Robotics League, please visit www.robotics-league.eu.

 ERL History

The ERL is the natural evolution of a series of highly successful previous competitions that were established via FP7 funded projects: RoCKIn, euRathlon and EuRoC.  All three projects aimed to foster scientific progress and innovation in cognitive systems and robotics through the design and implementation of new competitions.

The European Robotics League is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n° 688441

Watch the European Robotics League promo video:

www.robotics-league.eu

About euRobotics and SPARC

euRobotics is a non-profit organisation based in Brussels with the objective to make robotics beneficial for Europe’s economy and society.  With more than 250 member organisations, euRobotics also provides the European Robotics Community with a legal entity to engage in a public/private partnership with the European Commission, named SPARC.

SPARC, the public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Commission and euRobotics, is a European initiative to maintain and extend Europe’s leadership in civilian robotics. Its aim is to strategically position European robotics in the world thereby securing major benefits for the European economy and the society at large.

SPARC is the largest research and innovation programme in civilian robotics in the world, with 700 million euro in funding from the European Commission between 2014 to 2020, which is tripled by European industry to yield a total investment of 2.1 billion euro. SPARC will stimulate an ever more vibrant and effective robotics community that collaborates in the successful development of technical transfer and commercial exploitation.

www.eu-robotics.net

www.eu-robotics.net/sparc

Robotics Innovation Facilities, or RIFs, are robotic labs, financed via the ECHORD++ project by the European Commission. They offer access to high-tech robotic equipment and expertise at zero risk; using the RIF is not only free of charge, they also safeguard their users’ intellectual property. Companies, institutions, and organisations can apply to use RIFs.

Currently, there are three RIFs within the ECHORD++ project located in Italy, France, and the UK. Two 360° Lab Tours are now available, the last video will be released late March.

RIF@Bristol, United Kingdom

The Bristol Robotics Laboratory is a joint lab of the University of the West of England (UWE, Bristol) and the University of Bristol, and is the largest academic centre for multi-disciplinary robotics research in the UK. View the 360° Lab Tour:

RIF@Pisa-Peccioli, Italy

The BioRobotics Institute is a research park created by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna to house the research activities of outdoor and indoor settings. It is located at the Polo Sant’Anna Valdera, near Pisa. View the 360° Lab Tour:

RIF@Paris-Saclay, France

The Interactive Robotics Laboratory in Saclay is located within the premises of CEA LIST, about 20km southwestern from Paris. The 360° Lab Tour video will be available late March.

About ECHORD++ (The European Coordination Hub for Open Robotics Development)

The aim of ECHORD++ is to strengthen the knowledge transfer between scientific research, industry and users in robotics and to stimulate their cooperation. The EU-funded project with a runtime of five years (2013 – 2018) funds small-scale research projects called experiments, Public end-user Driven Technological Innovation (PDTI) and established Robotics Innovation Facilities (RIFs), open labs which provide state-of-the-art robotic hardware and software as well as scientific and technical support.

More information on the RIFs is available on the ECHORD++ website.

Source: Special Eurobarometer 427 – Autonomous Systems

A major study into European attitudes toward automation has found that while almost two thirds of people polled feel generally positive about robots, public acceptance of them in the EU is in decline. This comes despite the finding that personal experience with robots is on the rise, and the more personal experience people have with robots, the more favourably they tend to think of them.

The study looks at ways in which public attitudes about robotics may have changed over the last two years. In the last quarter of 2014, the Special Eurobarometer polled some 27,801 people from the 28 Member States of the European Union to gauge public attitudes and acceptance in regard to robots and automation. While 64% of people interviewed in the recent poll have a positive view of robots, this is down from the 70% reported in the previous 2012 study. With the exception of Malta, where figures remain at 2012 levels, all countries experienced a decline in the proportion of respondents who have a positive view of robots.

Views about robots, by country. Source: Special Eurobarometer 427 – Autonomous Systems

Though the public continues to see robots as beneficial, regulation and jobs remain key issues 

While 85% agreed that robots are necessary to do dangerous or difficult jobs, this has declined 3% since 2012. Similarly, while 72% now think they are a good thing for society, 76% believed this to be the case in 2012.

A vast majority (89%) of respondents believe that robots are a form technology that requires careful management, similar to 2012 levels (91%). Likewise, 70% of respondents believe that robots steal people’s jobs – the same as in the previous study.

Source: Special Eurobarometer 427 – Autonomous Systems

Mixed feelings on workplace assistants

People’s attitudes are shifting on the acceptance of robots as workplace assistants. Since 2012 several countries have recorded a sizeable decline in the proportion of respondents who say they would feel comfortable using this technology at work, including Slovakia (61%, -19 pp.), Finland (55%, -11 pp.), Slovenia (52%, -8 pp.), Denmark (65%, -8 pp.) and the Czech Republic (63%, -8 pp.). However, noticeable increases were also recorded in Luxembourg (49%, +12 pp.), Austria (49%, +8 pp.) and Malta (42%, +5 pp.).

Greater acceptance of autonomous cars for transporting goods than for people

The study also looked at whether respondents would be willing to accept self-driving vehicles in the future. While only 35% of respondents reported that they would feel comfortable travelling in an autonomous car themselves, 42% were warm to the idea of having goods transported this way.

Comfort level (1-10) with travelling in an autonomous car. Source: Special Eurobarometer 427 – Autonomous Systems

Comfort level (1-10) with transporting goods in an autonomous car. Source: Special Eurobarometer 427 – Autonomous Systems

Drones seen as bad for privacy but good for delivery

While 66% of respondents are concerned that civil drones are a threat to privacy, a majority (57%) also believe that they are an efficient way of transporting and delivering goods.

Attitude to civilian drones. Source: Special Eurobarometer 427 – Autonomous Systems

Divided continent?

The study makes use of extensive comparisons: between European states, in terms of age, employment, income and internet use. Geographically, analysis shows that people polled in southern European countries tend to be more negative and less engaged with robotics than their northern counterparts. And certain social groups also emerge as more negative and less engaged: “house persons” (42%), retirees (37%), unemployed respondents (35%) and manual workers (29%).
Robot use is on the rise, and the more people know them the more they like them

One European in seven has now used a robot either at home, at work or elsewhere; up from one in eight in 2012. Overall, when looking at the total use of robots, 24 Member States recorded an increase in the level of use of robots since 2012, with the largest increases occurring in the Czech Republic (21%, +7 pp.), Luxembourg (17%, +7 pp.) and Italy (24%, +6 pp.). Only Germany (7%, -2 pp.) registered a fall in the level of use.

The research shows that the more exposure to robots you have, the more positively you feel about them ; 82% of respondents have a positive view of robots if they have experience with them, where as only 60% of respondents have a positive view if they lack robot experience.

And experience with robots maps to consumer interest, too: 29% of respondents say they would purchase a robot if they have used one already, but only 7% of respondents would do so if they have no experience.

Access the full report: Special Eurobarometer 427: Autonomous Systems

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Check out the first videos below and stay tuned for the rest of the series. You can also read about all the approved projects here.

Flourish
Title: Aerial Data Collection and Analysis, and Automated Ground Intervention for Precision Farming
Duration (months): 42
Presenter: Roland Siegwart, ETHZ
Partners: Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zurich, CH | Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, DE | Albert-ludwigs-universitaet Freiburg, DE | Robert Bosch Gmbh, DE | Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, FR | Universita Degli Studi Di Roma La Sapienza, IT | Agenzia Servizi Settore Agroalimentare Delle Marche, IT

Centauro
Title: Robust Mobility and Dexterous Manipulation in Disaster Response by Fullbody Telepresence in a Centaur-like Robot
Duration (months): 42
Presenter: Sven Behnke, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, DE
Partners: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, DE | Fondazione Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, IT | Scuola Superiore Di Studi Universitari E, IT | Perfezionamento Sant’anna, IT | Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan, SE | Linkopings Universitet, SE | Rheinisch-westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, DE | Progenox Gmbh De, DE | Kerntechnische Hilfsdienst Gmbh, DE

AEROWORKS
Title: Collaborative Aerial Robotic Workers
Duration (months): 36
Presenter: Margarita Chli, University of Edinburgh, UK, Kostas Alexis, ETHZ, CH
Partners: Lulea Tekniska Universitet, SE | Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zurich, CH | Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan, SE | Universiteit Twente, NL | The University Of Edinburgh, UK |University Of Patras, EL |Ascending Technologies Gmbh, DE | Skybotix Ag, CH |Alstom Inspection Robotics Ag, CH | Skelleftea Kraft Ab, SE

CogIMon
Title: Cognitive Interaction in Motion
Duration (months): 48
Presenter: Jochen Steil, University of Bielefeld, DE
Partners: Universitaet Bielefeld, DE | Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne, CH | Fondazione Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, IT | The University Of Birmingham, UK | Fondazione Santa Lucia, IT | Imperial College Of Science, Technology And Medicine, UK | Eberhard Karls Universitaet Tuebingen, DE

Smokebot
Title: Mobile Robots with Novel Environmental Sensors for Inspection of Disaster Sites with Low Visibility
Duration (months): 42
Presenter: Achim Lilienthal, Orebro University, SE
Partners: Orebro University, SE | Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, DE | Fraunhofer-gesellschaft Zur Foerderung, DE | Angewandten Forschung E.v, DE | The University Of Warwick, UK | Taurob Gmbh, AT | Stadt Dortmund, DE

A downside, however, is that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker recently proposed shifting the overall Horizon 2020 program to reduce the research aspect and use the saved funds to pay for general economic stimulus. The results of his push are, at present, unknown.

Here are the 17 robotics-related projects, whose funding was started in 2014 and will continue to 2018:

• AEROARMS – developing an aerial robotic system with multiple arms and advanced manipulation capabilities for application in industrial inspection and maintenance. Corporate partners: Elektra UAS, Alstom Inspection, Sensima Inspection.
• AEROWORKS – developing an aerial robotic team to autonomously conduct infrastructure inspection and maintenance tasks, while additionally providing intuitive and user-friendly interfaces to human-operators. Corporate partners: Ascending Technologies, Skybotix, Alstom Inspection, Skelleftea Kraft.
• COMANOID – investigates the deployment of robotic solutions in well-identified Airbus airliner assembly operations that are laborious or tedious for human workers and for which access is impossible for wheeled or rail-ported robotic platforms. Corporate partners: European Aeronautic Defence & Space (EADS).
• CENTAURO – developing a human-robot symbiotic system, where a human operator is tele-present with its whole body in a Centaur-like robot, which is capable of robust locomotion and dexterous manipulation in the rough terrains of various disaster situations. Corporate partners: ProgenoX, Kermtechnische Hilfsdienst.
• CogIMon – This Cognitive Interactive in Motion research aims at human-robot interaction with systemic integration of teams of humans and compliant robots. Corporate partners: none.
• EurEyeCase – Large numbers of patients suffer from various types of vitreo-retinal eye diseases and the majority of these intra−ocular interventions lie on or even beyond the boundaries of human skills in terms of manipulation and positioning precision. Hence the need for robotic technology to augment surgeons’ skills. Corporate partners: Medical Robotic Technologies, ACMIT, Optomedical Technologies, Medizinisches Laserzentrum Lubeck.
• FLOBOT – developing a floor washing robot for professional users. The project integrates existing solutions to produce a professional floor washing robot for a wide area of industrial, civil and commercial premises. Corporate partners: FIMAP, Robosoft Services, 7 Manutencoop Facility Management, Groupe Services France.
• Flourish – to bridge the gap between the current and desired capabilities of agricultural robots by developing an adaptable robotic solution for precision farming. The system will be able to survey a field from the air, perform targeted intervention on the ground, and provide detailed information for decision support. Corporate partners: Robert Bosch, Agenzia Servizi Settore Agroalimentare delle Marche.
• RETRAINER – to tune and validate advanced robot-based technologies to facilitate recovery of arm and hand function in stroke survivors. Will allow the users to use their own arm and hand as much and as soon as possible after the trauma so to achieve the best outcomes in rehabilitation. Corporate partners: Robert Bosch, Agenzia Servizi Settore Agroalimentare delle Marche. 
• RobDREAM – improve industrial mobile manipulators’ perception, navigation, manipulation and grasping capabilities by automatic optimization of parameters, strategies and selection of tools within a portfolio of key algorithms. Corporate partners: KUKA, Convergent Information Technologies.
• RoMaNS – This (Robotic Manipulation for Nuclear Sort and Segregation) project will solve an urgent market and societal need cleaning up the past half century of nuclear waste. Corporate partners: National Nuclear Lab.
• SARAFun – a project to enable a non-expert user to train/integrate a new bi-manual assembly task on an ABB YuMi robot in less than a day. The robot will be equipped with sensory and cognitive abilities as well as reasoning abilities required to plan and execute any assembly task in a human like manner. Corporate partners: ABB.
• SecondHands – a robot assistant that is trained to understand maintenance tasks so that it can either pro-actively or as a result of prompting, offer assistance to maintenance technicians performing routine and preventative maintenance. Corporate partners: OCADO Group.
• Smokebot – a project to develop and equip mobile robots with novel environmental sensors for inspection of disaster sites with low visibility. Corporate partners: Taurob GmbH.
• SoMa – a plan to provide soft, uncertain interactions between robotic manipulation and the environment. Corporate partners: OCADO Group and The Walt Disney Company.
• Sweeper – using modules from the FP7 CROPS project, this new project is to detect, grasp and harvest sweet peppers under various growing situations. Corporate partners: de Tuindershoek, Irmato Group.
• WiMUST – a Widely scalable Mobile Underwater Sonar Technology project to expand and improve the functionalities of current cooperative marine robotic systems, effectively enabling distributed acoustic array technologies for geophysical surveying with a view to exploration and geotechnical surveying for civil and commercial applications. Corporate partners: Graal Tech, Evo Logics, CGG Veritas Services, Geo Marine Survey Systems, GeoSurveys.

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The European Commission and 180 companies and research organisations (under the umbrella of euRobotics) have launched the world’s largest civilian research and innovation programme in robotics. Covering manufacturing, agriculture, health, transport, civil security and households, the initiative – called SPARC – is the EU’s industrial policy effort to strengthen Europe’s position in the global robotics market (€60 billion a year by 2020). The EC further describes how robots can contribute to a range of applications in a memo here.   This initiative is expected to create over 240,000 jobs in Europe, and increase Europe’s share of the global market to 42% (a boost of €4 billion per year). The European Commission will invest €700 million and euRobotics will invest €2.1 billion.

European Commission Vice President @NeelieKroesEU, says: “Europe needs to be a producer and not merely a consumer of robots. Robots do much more than replace humans – they often do things humans can’t or won’t do and that improves everything from our quality of life to our safety. Integrating robots into European industry helps us create and keep jobs in Europe.” (SPEECH/14/421)

President of euRobotics Bernd Liepert says: “SPARC will ensure the competitiveness of European robotics industries. Robot-based automation solutions are essential to overcome today’s most pressing societal challenges – from demographic change to mobility to sustainable production”.

Robotics enables companies to continue manufacturing in Europe, where they might otherwise move operations to lower-cost countries. But the potential of robotics goes far beyond the factory: from helping nurses in hospitals to inspecting dangerous power plants and tedious farm work. Autonomous cars and drones are other examples of robots.

Background

The project is launched at the AUTOMATICA 2014 conference in Munich.

SPARC is open to all European companies and research institutions. The partnership launched today is based on a contract signed with euRobotics aisbl on 17 December 2013 (press release).

The first call for proposals related to SPARC are run under the pillar LEIT – Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies of the new EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020.

The next funding call will be published in October 2014 with an April 2015 deadline. Stay tuned via @RoboticsEU – find out more about EU support to robotics and examples of funded projects.

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EU invests in new technology to support silver generation
At 94, Grandma Lea could not live alone anymore, but she wanted to stay at home. She still does thanks to the EU-funded GiraffPlus (@giraffplus) system, which uses a combination of wearable devices, sensors throughout the home and a mobile robot to assist older people in their homes, and to connect them to family, friends and healthcare professionals who need to keep an eye on the person’s health and activities. The system should be in commercial production by the end of 2015. The EU market for robots and devices assisting elderly people is estimated to reach €13 billion by 2016.

“People ask why I don’t just live with my daughter, but she has grandchildren of her own and many new responsibilities. With this valuable assistant that I call ‘Mr Robin’ I’m more relaxed about the years ahead, and so are my children and grandchildren”, explains 94-year-old Lea Mina Ralli, also known as Grandma – ‘nonna’ in Italian – Lea. She has been using the GiraffPlus system for 5 months and often writes about ‘Mr Robin’ on her blog (in Italian). In our ageing society, many elderly people are in the same situation, and robotics can offer a safe and affordable solution.

€3 million of EU funding was invested in GiraffPlus to test how robots and other devices could help older people live safer, more independent lives. The sensors are designed to detect activities like cooking, sleeping or watching television and monitor health – blood pressure or sugar levels for example. They also allow the person’s caregivers to monitor their wellbeing remotely and to check for falls. A robot moves around the home and allows family, friends and carers to virtually visit the person.

Silver generation and economy

Vice-President of the European Commission @NeelieKroesEU, responsible for the Digital Agenda, says: “None of us is getting any younger. But we all want to know that we will not lose our dignity, respect and independence as we age. The EU is investing in new technology that can support the silver generation – adding not just years to our life, but also life to our years!”

Europe’s over-65s have a disposable income of over €3,000 billion and much of this will be ploughed back into the caring economy. According to Stephen Von Rump, CEO of Giraff Technologies AB, the EU market for robots and other devices assisting our elderly will reach €13 billion by 2016.

“GiraffPlus will be in 15 homes by the end of 2014”, says Amy Loutfi, the project coordinator based at Örebro University, Sweden. “So far we have had six homes in Europe – two homes each in Spain, Sweden and Italy – that have lived with the GiraffPlus system. We currently are in the middle of the evaluations, but we see that various aspects of the system are appreciated differently by the different users. This goes to show that a one-size fits all approach to technology at home is not necessarily the best, and technology should be both adaptable and tailored to user’s needs”.

Current plans are to put the system into commercial production next year, based on an upfront fee and monthly subscriptions that would make it competitive when set alongside increasingly expensive full-time care.

The GiraffPlus consortium includes public and private partners from Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and UK.

Background

The European Commission strongly supports independent living through the use of new technologies – including robotics – as part of the Digital Agenda strategy @DigitalAgendaEU. On top of the new research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 #H2020, two important initiatives are dedicated to taking new technologies to the market and homes and to embedding them in our systems for health and social care.

The Active Assisted Living Joint Programme (@AAL_JP) is an initiative driven by the EU’s member states for applied research on ICT products and services for ageing well. Over a hundred projects have been funded since 2008 and it should be continued under H2020: €25 million of EU funding is foreseen in 2014 and the same amount again in 2015.

The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (@EIP_AHA) is a multi-stakeholder partnership to implement innovative ICT-driven technologies for active and healthy ageing at European scale, and to remove barriers that prevent their deployment. One of its six Action Groups focuses on independent living, while others deal with related topics like the prevention and early detection of falls and age-friendly communities and environments.

Read more about Standards for caring robots and The ethics of robotics.

Funding available under Horizon 2020

Through Horizon 2020 #H2020, many more projects on independent living, including robotics, will be funded. One of the focus areas of Societal Challenge 1 – Health, demographic change and wellbeing is “personalising health and care” (PHC). It notably supports citizen empowerment through self-management of health and disease, health promotion and disease prevention.

The PHC calls have a total budget of €549.3 million for 2014 and €537 million for 2015. Two specific challenges are specifically devoted to robotics (PHC 10-2014 and PHC 19-2014) and two other are dedicated to ICT solutions for independent living (PHC 20-2014 – PHC 21-2015).

Read more about EU support to ageing well with ICT.

Read more about EU support to robotics – @RoboticsEU and find information on the public-private partnership in robotics between the European Commission and the robotics academia and industry to boost research and innovation in this strategic field and on the funding opportunities for 2014-2015 (ICT-23-2014 and ICT-24-2015 to be published on 15 October 2014 TBC).

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