“The Smart City Robotics Competition was a fantastic showcase of how robotics and autonomous systems are shaping the cities of the future. It was brilliant to witness the ingenuity of student teams as they tackled real-world challenges in service robotics, from serving coffee to grocery order fulfilment.”
This was the verdict of euRobotics project officer Inge Rehorst, who represented the association and acted as an episode judge at the latest Smart City Robotics Competition in Milton Keynes (MK), UK last month.
The competition, which bore the European Robotics League (ERL) brand, was the centrepiece of a series of activities to mark MK Tech Week. These included a smart city and robotics symposium (see separate report: Forefront of innovation), an expert panel discussion which featured Radhika Gudipati from ARIA, the UK R&D funding agency, and Duncan Russell from the Smart City Consultancy, together with other speakers. The week included a day of STEM-related activities for school-age children. The competition itself drew a lot of public and media interest, too, and several film crews were present.
For Inge, another highlight was the chance to take a trip on an autonomous vehicle through the streets of Milton Keynes: “It was exciting to trial the Ohmio Autonomous Shuttle as a passenger. Experiencing this technology first hand really brought home how close we are to seeing autonomous mobility integrated into our everyday lives – and how trials like this help accelerate innovation.”