European Robotics Forum – Robohub https://robohub.org Connecting the robotics community to the world Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:07:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 #ERF2017 workshop: Developing the next level Model Driven Robotic Software Ecosystem https://robohub.org/erf2017-workshop-developing-the-next-level-model-driven-robotic-software-ecosystem/ Thu, 20 Apr 2017 09:00:16 +0000 http://robohub.org/erf2017-workshop-developing-the-next-level-model-driven-robotic-software-ecosystem/

The first public RobMoSys Workshop took place on at the ERF in Edinburgh with more than 50 participants. The room was packed. When the interaction discussions began, the crowd split into small groups to discuss different topics of interest to share experiences and expectations in this workshop.

After a warm welcome and introduction of the two new EU Horizon 2020 ICT26c projects, RobMoSys and ROSIN by Anne Bajart from the European Commission, the open call peculiarities of the individual projects were outlined by Christian Schlegel from HS Ulm (RobMoSys) and by Mirko Bordignon from Fraunhofer IPA (ROSIN). When the interactive part began, the community was asked to share expectations in small groups, focussing on these topics:

Table 1: Better Models, better Tools, better Systems: Building Blocks Supplier Perspective
From the perspective of a building block supplier: how to make his building block composable and how to explicate and assure properties?

Host: Herman Bruyninckx (KU Leuven)

 Table 2: Better Models, better Tools, better Systems: System Builder Perspective
From the perspective of a system builder who composes systems out of building blocks: How to express and assure relevant system-level properties?
Host: Christian Schlegel (HS Ulm)

Table 3: Use-Cases, Scenarios and their Pain Points (Industry Perspective)

What are Use-Cases/Examples that have an impact?
Host: Francesco Ferro (PAL Robotics)

Table 4: Link between ROSIN and RobMoSys

Q&A towards both projects and their relationship
Host: Mirko Bordignon (Rosin, Fraunhofer IPA), Sara Tucci (CEA)

Further information on the outcome of the ideas and the open calls of RobMoSys will be continuously updated on the RobMoSys website.

ROSIN website can be found here.

Photos from event

]]> #ERF2017 in tweets https://robohub.org/erf2017-in-tweets/ Wed, 12 Apr 2017 11:54:43 +0000 http://robohub.org/erf2017-in-tweets/ The European Robotics Forum in Edinburgh late March brought together over 800 people from industry, academia and government. #ERF2017 is the premier event for European Robotics, with a staggering 1M impressions on twitter.

The 3-day event packed it’s lot of talks, workshops, and panel discussions.

The event kicked off with a dive into deep learning and its applications in robotics with keynotes by Senior Research Scientist at DeepMind Raia Hadsell, CEO of FiveAI Stan Boland, and Member of the Scottish Parliament Keith Brown.

The theme of the forum this year was “living and working with robots”. A theme that was tackled in nearly every session, and through dedicated events solely focussed on the legal, ethical, and societal opportunities and challenges surrounding the deployment of robots in our everyday lives.

The forum is also the main showcase for success stories from European Projects funded under FP7 and H2020. We’ll be featuring the projects in video pitches captured at forum in an upcoming post, but in the meantime, you can read about the seven success stories here.

In fact, the robot LINDA designed as part of the STRANDS project was roaming the exhibit floor, taking pictures of attendees.

The exhibit floor was also the main venue for networking, and featured dozens of robots from KUKA, Shadow Robotics, Softbank, Pal Robotics, Clearpath Robotics, Schunk, Tharsus, and many more.

Beyond the exhibit floor, networking extended to the conference dinner. True to tradition, the event featured a Bag Pipe concert at the National Museum of Scotland. In fact, the organisers of #ERF2017 opted to wear the kilt, along with the robot TIAGo from Pal Robotics.

The evening was the opportunity to hand out awards for Tech Transfer, Entrepreneurship, and for the European Robotics League.

The European Robotics Forum is organised by euRobotics under SPARC, the Public-Private partnership for Robotics in Europe. This year’s conference was hosted by the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. And you know it was a success when Rory Cellan-Jones from BBC orders a Pint from a robot in your exhibit hall.

You can see all the pictures from the conference here.

]]> Simple, creative robotics: Fotokite and ‘Walk to Beat’ receive top awards for innovative designs at European Robotics Forum https://robohub.org/simple-creative-robotics-fotokite-and-walk-to-beat-receive-top-awards-for-innovative-designs-at-european-robotics-forum/ Tue, 28 Mar 2017 11:50:54 +0000 http://robohub.org/simple-creative-robotics-fotokite-and-walk-to-beat-receive-top-awards-for-innovative-designs-at-european-robotics-forum/

Credit: euRobotics

The 2017 European Robotics Forum in Edinburgh brought together over 800 people from robotics academia and industry. In an effort to bridge the two, euRobotics hosted an Entrepreneurship and TechTransfer award. Startups from around Europe competed for top prizes in front of a panel of experts.

The euRobotics Technology Transfer Award, now in its fourteenth year, showcases the impact of robotics research and puts the spotlight on successful technology transfer between science and industry. Innovations in robot tech and automation — through the result of research and industry working together —  are eligible for the prize.

The euRobotics Technology Transfer Awards were handed by MEP Victor Negrescu (Romania), winner of last year’s MEP Award on Digital Agenda. As a former digital entrepreneur himself, Victor Negrescu is a promoter of a stronger voice for European entrepreneurs and researchers.

Technology Transfer Award winners and coordinators together with MEP Victor Negrescu. Credits: Visual Outcasts

Fotokite, a tethered drone, won first place. The company is designed to make aerial photography accessible for everyone. Similar to a kite, the drone is tethered and foldable making it easy for anyone who wants to take photos from a bird’s-eye view. The company raised over 400K USD in crowdfunding in 2015 and have since started shipping their product.

Christopher McCall, who pitched for Fotokite, said: “We make a new type of tethered drone which is 100% autonomous, flies for several hours, and can be used by broadcast journalists, or for inspection.” Adding that, “It’s incredible to win the Tech Transfer Award at ERF.” Watch the Fotokite in action:

https://youtu.be/FX1BpdAmRss

The Entrepreneurship award helps small innovative companies pitch their ideas for the next big thing in robotics to a panel of technology investment experts. It’s all about learning skills, gaining visibility, and bringing in the cash prize.

Entrepreneurship Award winners, coordinators and juries. Credits: Visual Outcasts

The third prize was awarded to ReHand Technologies, maker of prosthetic, orthotic and rehabilitation devices. The second prize went to Haxtron for their robot Pr0be, a spherical autonomous aerial robotic platform. The winner this year was Neha Chaudhry from the company Walk to Beat. Inspired by her late grandad who suffered from Parkinson’s for 8 years, her product is a robotic walking stick with an innovative technology that gives out pulses in the handle  – it’s discreet and looks good, so people feel empowered instead of disabled.

Commenting on winning first prize, Neha Chaudhry said, “This was totally unexpected! I’m producing and designing for assisted living using smart technology products. Our product is simple: to help improve people’s lives. And with this [Walk to Beat] it’s for people who are struggling with Parkinson’s. Winning this award is great exposure for our company and we’re delighted.”

The euRobotics TechTransfer and Entrepreneurship Awards 2017 are funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

European Robotics League finalists

The European Robotics League (ERL) consists of two indoor robotics competitions, ERL Industrial and ERL Service, and one outdoor robotics competition, ERL Emergency. Points are awarded by attending local and major tournaments, not a central event, with three main objectives: strengthening the European robotics industry, push innovative autonomous systems for emergency response, and addressing societal challenges of ageing populations in Europe. The European Robotics League is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

Current finalists for ERL Industrial Robots are autonOHM for the best-in-class task: “Fill a box with parts for manual assembly, and b-it-bots for the best-in-class functionality “navigation functionality.” Finalists for ERL Service Robots include homer@UniKoblenz and SPQReL.

Read the ERL Awards press release: Top service and industrial robots to win the European Robotics League Awards (Season 2016/17)

ERL Service and Industrial Robots Awards. Credits: Visual Outcasts

“Challenges such as these are the pivot from research to industrial applications. Trialling in real-world environments is key to this kind of innovation.” said Reinhard Lafrenz, Secretary General euRobotics.

“Through competitions, we can attract top talent in robotics to exchange knowledge while solving real-world challenges. We gave two ERL awards, in the service and industrial leagues at ERF. We’re also looking forward to the upcoming 2017 ERL Emergency Competition in Piombino, Italy,” said Prof. David Lane, ERF2017 General Chair and Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.

Organisers:

The European Robotics Forum is organised by euRobotics under SPARC, the Public-Private partnership for Robotics in Europe. This year’s conference is hosted by the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.

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

]]> Live coverage of #ERF2016 https://robohub.org/live-coverage-of-european-robotics-forum-2016/ Fri, 18 Mar 2016 16:00:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/live-coverage-of-european-robotics-forum-2016/

The next edition of the European Robotics Forum is kicking off in Ljubljana.

This 3-day event, from March 21-23, is a meeting point for at least 600 scientists, companies and robotics officials from the European Commission.

The programme is designed to provide an opportunity for companies and researchers to meet and interact in workshops and seminars, expand their networks, and build new business and collaborations.

The Opening Session will discuss ”the state of robotics” by forecasting disruptive innovations made possible by scientific developments, identifying needs from demands in economy, industry, and society, while keeping the focus on Europe and European collaboration.

There will be more than 60 workshops presented across a whole range of what robotics has to offer in the future. Speakers at the event include: Dr Bernd Liepert (President of euRobotics aisbl and CINO of KUKA), Khalil Rouhana (European Commission, DG CONNECT, Directorate A), and Jasper Wesseling (Directorate-General for Enterprise and Innovation, Ministry of Economic Affairs, The Netherlands).

The full list of workshops and talks can be found on the ERF website.

Sabine and Kassie from Robohub are covering the conference, check back here for our latest coverage, including images, videos, blogs and tweets:

]]> Agricultural robotics at the European Robotics Forum 2012 https://robohub.org/agricultural-robotics-at-the-european-robotics-forum-2012/ Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:34:00 +0000 http://robohub.org/?guid=3b9c5ab4a9d71b8edc1a7945fe49ccb7 A press release issued by the European Robotics Platform website regarding agricultural robotics as a presence at the European Robotics Forum 2012 makes plain not only that there is a significant level of agricultural robotics activity in Europe but also that it is driven by a vision very similar to that outlined here. Recommended reading!

]]>