The Topic Group Summit is a new annual euRobotics event that took place this year for the first time on Oct 27th, as an online event. The goal is to provide an opportunity for members of all the Topic Groups (TGs) to come together and discuss common themes, ideas and issues. The Summit also provides a valuable meeting point for (TGs) to showcase what they have been doing, to share and connect.

The Summit is not just about the roadmap – it’s also about enabling Topic Groups to work better and together. After what is widely seen as the great success of this first edition, euRobotics plans to make the Topic Group Summit a fixed item in the annual calendar of euRobotics. 

The first online edition was a mix of plenary and working sessions with keynotes and feedback opportunities. After welcome words by the President of euRobotics, Dr. Bernd Liepert, Dr. David Bisset introduced the new event and explained the importance of a European Robotics Roadmap and why now is exactly the right time for it. David went on to explain the concept and the process that led to the creation of the roadmap.  

In order to highlight efforts already made by the community, several TGs gave presentations about their best practice and achievements. A structured breakout session was held to identify and prioritize important topics as well as challenges and barriers in several clusters. This produced valuable input for the upcoming roadmap. 

In the afternoon, Cecile Huet, acting head of the EC’s Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Excellence unit, gave a keynote on “Robotics: a major component in the European AI Strategy”. 

An afternoon breakout addressed the state of the art, advances needed and enabling factors in research and industry regarding Robotics Technology, Research Priorities, AI and Trustworthiness, Modularity and Standards as well as Innovation Infrastructure.  

The TG summit concluded with a Q&A session on how the Topic Groups can be better supported and the organisation of future TG summits. Presentations from the TG Summit are available on the website.