Topic Groups are the “work horses” of the PPP on Robotics. Each one reflects a particular aspect of robotics – from application domains to underpinning technologies. Their work is the major input to the annually updated, multi-annual European Roadmap on Robotics. This “Multi-Annual Roadmap” (MAR) is the basis of the recommendations the “private” side of the Public-Private Partnership passes on to the European Commission, the “public” side, for the work programme on robotics and related Calls under Horizon 2020. The current MAR for Call 1 (ICT23-2014) can be found here

On 17 February 2014, the Topic Group coordinators met in Frankfurt to launch the cycle for the Calls expected in 2016 and 2017. Under the professional moderation of David Bisset, a structure was established to give Topic Groups the tools to coordinate further MAR development. These provide the Topic Groups with a framework of description and methodology to assess the state of the art, their interactions with each other, and collectively describe advances, such as technical “Step Changes”, which are deemed necessary to meet the objectives of the robotics community. These advances are also set in terms of their effect on the European economy and the societal benefits robotic technologies will bring about.

Topic Groups will be given an opportunity at the European Robotics Forum ERF 2014 in Rovereto 12-14 March 2014, to present initial results. Persons, who are interested in working with a Topic Group, or creating a new one, are encouraged to send a mail to Uwe.Haass@eu-robotics.net. Coordinators of Topic Groups should belong to a member organisation of euRobotics AISBL.

The current list of Topic Groups can be found here.