ERL Emergency Robots 2017 (#ERLemergency2017) major tournament in Piombino, Italy, gathered 130 participants from 16 universities and companies from 8 European countries. Participating teams designed robots able to bring the first relief to survivors in disaster-response scenarios. The #ERLemergency2017 scenarios were inspired by Fukushima 2011 nuclear accident. The robotics competition took place from 15-23 September 2017 at Enel’s Torre del Sale, and saw sea, land and air robots collaborating.

Teams worked very hard during the practice and competition days:

Great to see many more women roboticists in #ERLemergency2017 teams than #eurathlon2015. See e.g. team #Piombino https://t.co/FsnC3e5ijN— Alan Winfield (@alan_winfield) 25 September 2017

Robots could be found also in the exhibition area:

SWARMs at ERL 2017! #erlemergency #Piombino @SantAnnaPisahttps://t.co/ly8ciQQgh6pic.twitter.com/anQ9Ck7knI— SWARMs Project (@SWARMS_Project) 21 September 2017

Or enjoying the sea:

.@mady_delvaux: European #robotics research is performing well, robots will impact human life, #erlemergency2017 is a positive example pic.twitter.com/gciEjcS0XW— SPARC robotics (@SPARCrobotics) 17 September 2017

The public got to know the teams,

Let’s support the #erlemergency2017 teams! pic.twitter.com/5XbsegCATB— SPARC robotics (@SPARCrobotics) 17 September 2017

And to see some emergency robots in action with the demo of TRADR project:

The competition site benefitted from the visit of some personalities:

Since they are the new generation of roboticists, children were not forgotten either: they enjoyed the free classes given by Scuola di Robotica.

At the Piombino Castle, the public attended more #robotics presentations.

Anne Bajart @RoboticsEU presented EU funded #robotics projects @CLsPlusPlus#erlemergency2017 #Piombino pic.twitter.com/RnTbCeIIl9— ERL robotics league (@ERLrobotleague) 18 September 2017

After days of hard work, passion and enjoyment, the winners of the Grand challenge were announced: