EUROPEAN ROBOTICS LEAGUE AWARDS 2020
The European Robotics League is a pan-European robotics competition launched under the umbrella of SPARC – the Partnership for Robotics in Europe. It now includes a novel major tournament category: ERL Smart Cities, in addition to the on-going competitions, ERL Consumer (previously Service), ERL Professional (previously Industrial) and ERL Emergency Service Robots.
The top-ranked teams awarded for ERL Smart Cities were praised during the European Robotics Forum (ERF2020) Banquet Dinner at the Museo Automovilístico de Málaga, on 4 March.
EUROBOTICS AWARDS
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AWARD 2020
The aim of the euRobotics Technology Transfer Award is to showcase the impact of robotics research and to raise the profile of technology transfer between science and industry. Outstanding innovations in robot technology and automation that result from cooperative efforts between research and industry are eligible for the prize. The presentations for the euRobotics Technology Transfer Award 2020 took place at ERF2020 in Malaga in a dedicated session on 3 March (16:15 – 17:45). Based on both the written application and the presentation, the jury determined the winners and the awards were handed on 4 March, during the Banquet Dinner at the Museo Automovilístico de Málaga.
1st Prize
Odense University Hospital, Blue Ocean Robotics & UVD Robots – UV Disinfection Robot – Saving Lives Every Day
The UV Disinfection Robot is a result of a project that was initiated based on a tender from a hospital partnership that includes Odense University Hospital (OUH). The objective was to reduce the spread of infections including Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) e.g. in patient rooms. The UV-Disinfection Robot consists of a UV-C light system and a mobile platform, and is currently the only known autonomous mobile UV disinfection system.
Right now, Danish disinfection robots from UVD Robots in Odense are being shipped at great speed to areas most affected by the coronavirus, and the first robots are already active in hospitals at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan. The robot helps authorities prevent infection spread with more effective disinfection. With ultraviolet light, UVD robots can move around autonomously and disinfect and kill viruses and bacteria. Read the press release
THE TEAM
- Claus Risager (CEO – Blue Ocean Robotics)
- Per Juul Nielsen (CEO – UVD Robots)
- Hans Jørn Kolmos (MD, DMSc – Odense University Hospital)
2nd Prize
Voliro AG – Voliro – Hands in the Sky
Voliro develops the next generation of autonomous flying robots, an omnidirectional platform with the unique capability to approach, touch, and interact with the environment. This shifts the abilities of service drones from “fly and see” to “fly, see and touch”.
THE TEAM
- Mina Kamel
- Timo Mueller
- Anurag Vempati
3rd Prize
Vrije Universiteit Brussel & Axiles Bionics – From AMP-Foot to Axiles Bionics
Each year, 75.000 people undergo a major lower limb amputation in the EU. The clear majority of these new amputees quickly discover that current prosthetic feet are unable to restore their full freedom of movement. 12 years ago, the BruBotics research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel started working on a novel Ankle Mimicking Prosthetic (AMP-) Foot. Today, the spin-off Axiles Bionics is bringing the bionic prosthesis to the amputees who need it.
THE TEAM
- Prof. Dirk Lefeber (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
- Lennert Vierendeels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
- Dr. Pierre Cherelle (Axiles Bionics)
- Jacques Langhendries (Axiles Bionics)
Finalists
drag&bot GmbH – A software platform for easy setup and programming of industrial robot systems
drag and bot GmbH is a spin-off of the Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart. The goal of the project was to develop a brand-independent software solution for easy and intuitive setup, programming and operation of industrial robot systems. The graphical user interface allows a fast and flexible creation of programs by drag and drop from pre-defined function blocks. The long term vision of drag&bot is that no local installation of drag&bot is required and robot programming can be offered as SaaS model.
THE TEAM
- Martin Naumann
- Pablo Quilez
- Witalij Siebert
- Daniel Seebauer
Fraunhofer IPA & Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH – Transfer of bin picking technology “bp3” from research to industry
The extraction of chaotically stored workpieces out of bins is called bin picking and is still challenging. Fraunhofer has been working in this area for over 15 years and cooperated with Liebherr in bringing the solution into the industry. The goal of the project was to transfer the bin picking technology and the corresponding know-how to Liebherr to be able to provide a robust solution from a one-stop provider with full support capabilities while still doing research to improve the performance.
THE TEAM
- Felix Spenrath (Fraunhofer IPA)
- Manuel Mönnig (Fraunhofer IPA)
- Thomas Mattern (Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH)
qb robotics – The qb SoftHand Industry: A Collaborative Robotic Hand for industrial applications
qbrobotics successfully realized a technology transfer starting from soft-robotics devices realized inside the research laboratories of University of Pisa (E. Piaggio Center) and Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) to start the commercialization of an innovative industrial gripper: the qbSoftHand Industry. Its intended application is as end-effectors for collaborative robots (co-bots) allowing to realize complex tasks and manipulation replicating the exact movement of the human hand.
THE TEAM
- Fabio Bonomo
- Federico Baiamonte
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD 2020
The Entrepreneurship workshop provides the ability for small innovative companies to pitch their ideas for the next big thing in robotics to a panel of technology investment experts. Entrants stand the chance to gain valuable skills in how to pitch an investment idea together with the potential to gain interest in their company from the investment community. The presentations for the Entrepreneurship Award 2020 took place at ERF2020 in Malaga in a dedicated session on 3 March (16:15 – 17:45). Based on both the written application and the presentation, the jury determined the winners and the awards were handed on 4 March, during theBanquet Dinner at the Museo Automovilístico de Málaga.
1st Prize
- ABLE Human Motion (Alfons Carnicero)
Spinal cord injury is a catastrophic event that thrusts 5 million people worldwide into a life challenged by disability. These people could walk again if they had a robotic exoskeleton. However, current devices are expensive, heavy and require supervision. ABLE is the first lightweight, easy-to-use and affordable exoskeleton that restores their ability to walk naturally and intuitively. It helps palliating health complications while boosting self-confidence and independence.
2nd Prize
- Aim Robotics (Mie Haraldsted)
Aim Robotics make plug&play dispensing end-effectors for Collaborative Robots. Collaborative robots need tools to make them perform a function and Aim Robotics have made a dispensing-tool for robots, without the need for compressed air, with a program that is supported through the robots control system, giving even greater flexibility in production.
3rd Prize
- Kinfinity (Maximilian Maier)
Kinfinity, a spin-off from DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, offers a solution with which anyone can intuitively program a robot. With newly developed sensors for motion tracking, Kinfinity launched a Suit and a Glove which enables the user to program robotic systems by merely showing the desired motion instead of programming in a complicated language.
Finalists
- Coalescent Mobile Robotics IVS (Clionadh Martin)
Currently supermarkets have no way of tracking inventory, from when it gets delivered to when people buy it. This requires them to have to keep large amounts of inventory on site, which is not cost effective for supermarkets. What we are doing is bringing the idea of warehouse management systems into retail, to help with the tracking and transportation of goods in the store, autonomously.
- Kollestee Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S (Olcay Yilmaz Damar)
FUE-Robotic System is a fully automated robotic system which has a capability to perform all process steps of the Hair Transplantation Surgery Procedures in FUE Method. By patented and specifically designed mechanisms working in Spherical Coordinate System, can transplant 1 Hair Graft in 1 second without any manual application. 3600 pcs Hair Grafts are able to be transplanted in 1 Hour. It means that FUE-Robotic System reduces the time period of the surgery procedure to 1 hour from 8 hours.
- Bionomous Sàrl (Ana Hernando)
Zebrafish is a popular model organism in research. The main drawback is that it requires high labor efforts to sort its eggs out and prepare them for the research. So far, the main option is to dedicate the valuable time of scientists to this simple but time-consuming task. Bionomous proposes the EggSorter to automatically observe, analyze and sort out small biological entities, such as the eggs of zebrafish. Thus, providing with a portable and affordable solution for laboratories.
- Follow Inspiration S.A (Luis de Matos)
The WiiGO Technology is an autonomous and self-driven robotic system that follows a specific user or can be programmed to move independently with natural navigation on a pre-planned or self-automated route. We implemented the latest technology on image recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence which allows the robots that receives our technology to track users autonomously, while identifying and avoiding any obstacle along the way.
- Vertical Engineering Solutions (Carlos Martín Díaz de Espada & Pablo Ramón Soria)
Today’s world cannot be conceived without technology, it surrounds us wherever we look around, and it is undeniable that aerial robotics has experienced an immeasurable growth in the past years. VES has arrived to implement a new contact inspection technology based on drones which will revolutionize the inspection and maintenance of industrial facilities.
- Datastart Kft (Peter Kopias)
GEORGES GIRALT PHD AWARD 2020
euRobotics yearly gives the Georges Giralt PhD Award at the European Robotics Forum (ERF) to recognise great work of Ph.D. students in our community. The presentations for the Georges Giralt PhD Award 2020 took place at ERF2020 in Malaga in a dedicated session on 3 March (14:00 – 15:30). Based on both the written application and the presentation, the jury determined the winner and the award was handed on 4 March, during the Banquet Dinner at the Museo Automovilístico de Málaga.
Winner
- Cosimo Della Santina – Centro E. Piaggio, University of Pisa – Natural Principles for The Design and Control of Soft Robots
Elasticity and hierarchical architectures are among the main drivers of this intelligence embodiment in animals. Tendon and muscles enable animals to robustly interact with the external world and to efficiently perform dynamic and oscillatory tasks. In this thesis, we propose strategies for reproducing these characteristics in artificial bodies through the selective introduction of impedance and under-actuation. In this way, we equip the robotic body with the ability of autonomously presenting intelligent behaviors, even if disconnected from the artificial brain. In this thesis novel control approaches are proposed aiming at establishing more balanced interconnections between controller, robot’s mechanical structure, and environment.
Finalists
- Marco De Stefano – Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia – Energy-based Control for Simulation of Multi-body Dynamics Using Robotic Facilities
- Nadia Figueroa – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – From High-Level to Low-Level Robot Learning of Complex Tasks: Leveraging Priors, Metrics and Dynamical Systems
- Henri Rebecq – University of Zurich / ETH Zurich – Event Cameras: from SLAM to High Speed Video
- Abhinav Valada – University of Freiburg – Discovering and Leveraging Deep Multimodal Structure for Reliable Robot Perception and Localization
CLICKGAME
Attendees played the challenges in the ClickGame on the CrowdCompass event app. The attendee achieving the highest score has been rewarded.
Winner
- Andrea Orlandini