The Georges Giralt PhD Award is a European scientific prize for extraordinary contributions in robotics. It is yearly awarded at the European Robotics Forum by euRobotics AISBL, a non-profit organisation based in Brussels with the objective to turn robotics beneficial for Europe’s economy and society. Georges Giralt received his PhD in 1958, from the Paul Sabatier University, in the domain of electrical machines, and soon afterwards became a pioneer in robotics, in Europe and worldwide. He was especially instrumental in bringing in scientific foundations and methodology when the domain was still young, and a loose coupling of mechanical and electrical engineering, adopting the early results of automatic control. The high reputation of the Georges Giralt PhD Award is based on the prominent role of the awarding institution euRobotics. With more than 250 member organisations, euRobotics represents the academic and industrial robotics community in Europe. Moreover, it provides the European robotics community with a legal entity to engage in a public/private partnership with the European Commission. Entitled for participation for the Georges Giralt PhD Award are all robotics-related dissertations which have been successfully defended at a European university. The US-American counterpart is the Dick Volz Award.

Award winners

2024

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2024 which was held in Rimini, Italy.

Winner

  • Keppler Manuel (DE) TU Munich​: From Underactuation to Quasi-Full Actuation: A Unifying Control Framework for Rigid and Elastic Joint Robots​”

Finalists

  • Mees Oier (DE) U Freiburg​:Interactive Language Instructable Robot Learning​”
  • Palleschi Alessandro (IT) U Pisa​:Planning to Interact: Shaping the Intelligence of Collaborative Robots in Interaction-Rich Shared Environments​”
  • Roels Ellen (BE) Vrije U Brussel​:Manufacturing self-healing soft robots with integrated sensors​”
  • Urain Julien (DE) TU Darmstadt​:Deep Generative Models for Motion Planning and Control​”
2023

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2023 which was held in Odense, Denmark.

  • Ribin Balachandran​ – (DE) TU Munich​: “A Stable and Transparent Framework for Adaptive Shared Control of Robots​”

  • Antonio Andriella​ (ES) U Politècnica de Catalunya: “Personalising robot assistance for cognitive training therapy​”

2022

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2022 which was held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

  • Antonio Loquercio
  • Michael Lutter 
2021

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2021 which was an online edition.

  • Giuseppe Averta – “Human-aware robotics: modeling human motor skills for the design, planning and control of a new generation of robotic devices”
  • Bernd Henze – “Whole-body control for multi-contact balancing of humanoid robots – design and experiments”
2020

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2020 which was held in Malaga.

  • Cosimo Della Santina – “Natural principles for the design and control of soft robots”
2019

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2019 which was held in Bucharest, Romania.

  • Grazioso Stanislao – “Geometric soft robotics: a finite element approach”
  • Teodor Tomic – “Model-Based Control of Flying Robots for Robust Interaction under Wind Influence”
2018

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2018 which was held in Tampere, Finland.

  • Frank Bonnet  “Shoaling with fish: using miniature robotic agents to close the interaction loop with groups of zebrafish Danior rerio”
  • Daniel Leidner – “Cognitive Reasoning for Compliant Robot Manipulation”
2017

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2017 which was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

  • Johannes Englsberger – “Combining reduced dynamics models and whole-body control for agile humanoid locomotion”
2016

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2016 which was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

  • Alexander Dietrich – “Whole-Body Impedance Control of Wheeled Humanoid Robots”
  • Mark Müller – “Increased autonomy for quadrocopter systems: trajectory generation, fail-safe strategies, and state estimation”
2015

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2015 which was held in Vienna, Austria.

  • Jörg Stückler
2014

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2014 which was held in Rovereto, Italy.

  • Manuel Catalano
  • Fabien Expert
  • Rainer Jaekel
2013

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2013 which was held in Lyon, France.

  • Jens Kober
2012

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2012 which was held in Odense, Denmark.

  • Sami Haddadin
2011

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2011 which was held in Västerås, Sweden.

  • Mario Pratts – “Robot Physical Interaction through the combination of Vision, Tactile and Force Feedback”
2010

This edition of the Georges Giralt PhD Award was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2010 which was held in San Sebastian, Spain.

  • Ludovic Righetti – “Control of locomotion using dynamical systems: design methods and adaptive frequency oscillators”
2002 - 2009
2009
  • Alejandro-Dizan Vasquez-Govea – “Incremental Learning for Motion Prediction of Pedestrians and Vehicles”
2008
  • Eduardo Rocón“Active reduction of pathological tremor of superior limbs by means of robotic exoskeletons”
  • Cyrill Stachniss “Exploration and Mapping with Mobile Robots”
2007
  • Pierre Lamon – “3D position tracking for all-terrain robots”
2006
  • Martijn Wisse – “Essentials of dynamic walking: Analysis and design of two-legged robots”
2005
  • Juan Andrade Cetto – “Environment Learning for Indoors Mobile Robots”
2004
  • Gilles Duchemin – “Control and programming of a robotic assistant device to the medical gesture for contact task on deformable tissues”
2003
  • Ralf Koeppe – “Robot Compliant Motion based on Human Skills”
2002
  • Gianluca Antonelli – “Motion and force control of underwater vehicle-manipulator systems”, Jens-Steffen Gutmann – “Robust Navigation for Autonomous Mobile Robots”

Award jury and chairs

Current Award Chair

Mr Antonelli Gianluca (IT, U of Cassino)

Current Jury Members

Mr Aguiar Pedro  (PT, U Porto)
Mr Batista Jorge  (PT, U Coimbra)
Mr Bonsignorio Fabio (IT, Heron Robots)
Mr De Cubber Geert (BE, Royal Military Academy)
Mr del Pobil Angel (ES, U Jaume I)
Mr Dimarogonas Dimos (SE, KTH)
Mrs Doulger Zoe (GR, U Thessaloniki)
Mr Fisher Bob (UK, U Edinburgh)
Mr Haddadin Sami (DE, TUM)
Mr Jamone Lorenzo (UK, Queen Mary U London)
Mr Kober Jens (NL, TU Delft)
Mr Kostas Alexis (NTNU) 
Mr Kovacic Zdenko (HR, U Zagreb)
Mr Kyriakopoulos Konstantinos (GR, NTU Athens)
Mr Lacroix Simon (FR, LAAS)
Mr Mistry Michael (UK, U Edinburgh)
Mrs Murillo Ana Cristina (ES, U Zaragoza)
Mr Nardi Daniele (IT, U Rome La Sapienza)
Mr Pfingsthorn Max (DE, OFFIS)
Mr Robuffo Giordano Paolo (FR, IRISA-CNRS)
Mr Röning Juha (FI, U Oulu)
Mr Saffiotti Alessandro (SE, U Örebro)
Mr Sanz Pedro (ES, U Jaume I)
Mrs Spalanzani Anne (INRIA)
Mr Voos Holger (LU, U Luxembourg)

Past Award Chairs

Mrs Alicia Casals (ES, Tech U Catalonia) Mr Bruyninckx Herman (BE, KU Leuven) Mr Kraetzschmar Gerhard (DE, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg)

Past Jury Members

Mr Bruyninckx Herman (BE, KU Leuven)
Mr Burgard Wolfram (DE, U Freiburg)
Mr Castellanos Jose (ES, U Zaragoza)
Mrs Dautenhahn Kerstin (UK, U Hertfordshire)
Mr Dias Jorge (PT, U Coimbra)
Mrs Erkmen Aydan (TR, METU)
Mrs Gini Giuseppina (IT, Politecnico Milano)
Mr Kroeger Torsten (DE, Karlsruhe IT)
Mrs Kruusmaa Maarja (EE, Talinn UoT)
Mr Hallam John (DK, U Southern Denmark)
Mrs Perdereau Veronique (FR, U Sorbonne)
Mr Pradalier Cedric (FR, GeorgiaTech Lorraine)
Mr Rocco Paolo (IT, Politecnico Milano)
Mr Scaramuzza Davide (CH, U Zurich)
Mr Stachniss Cyrill (DE, U Bonn)
Mrs Cecilia Laschi (IT, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
Mr Nicola Simeon (FR, LAAS)
Mr Isabel Ribeiro (PT, Istituto Superiore Tecnico)
Mr Jadran Lenarcic (SL, Jožef Stefan Institute)