"Living and working with robots" was the motto of the 8th European Robotics Forum (ERF) which took place on 22-24 March 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. 840 attendees from all over Europe and beyond participated in the Forum, along with 31 exhibitors and sponsors.
The European Robotics Forum 2017 (ERF2017) programme
This unique robotics event offered 60 information-filled workshops with presentations by leading European experts from industry, business, and top-level academia, as well as relevant European policy makers. At the exhibition, 31 sponsors and exhibitors showcased their prototypes, products, and services, and attendees got to know the most advanced European robotics industry, research institutes and projects.
ERF2017 is not another scientific conference but the one event where delegates can network with roboticists from over 40 countries, during the social events (Welcome Reception and euRobotics Awards Ceremony Banquet Dinner).
Download the ERF0217 final programme
Download the ERF2017 Forum Digest (high quality)
Download the ERF2017 Forum Digest (medium quality)
Download the ERF2017 Forum Digest (low quality)
Media
euRobotics Awards press release: Simple, creative robotics: Fotokite and ‘Walk to Beat’ receive top awards for innovative designs at European Robotics Forum
European Robotics League Awards press release: Top service and industrial robots to win the European Robotics League Awards (Season 2016/17)
euRobotics Awards Ceremony
The European Robotics League is a novel pan-European robotics competition launched under the umbrella of SPARC- the Partnership for Robotics in Europe. International teams compete against each other in three vibrant fields of robotics: industrial, service and emergency robotics. Competitors engage in local and major tournaments distributed across Europe and organised by a coalition of Europe’s most prestigious robotics institutes. Teams have to compete in at least two tournaments per year, and the scores accumulated by each team are then used to rank them.
The top-ranked teams awarded prizes during the European Robotics Forum 2017 Banquet Dinner at the National Museum of Scotland, on 23 March, are:
European Robotics League - Service Robots
- Best-in-Class Task Benchmark 1 “Getting to Know My Home” - Winner: homer@UniKoblenz, University of Koblenz, Germany
- Best-in-Class Task Benchmark 4: “Visit My Home” - Winner: homer@UniKoblenz, University of Koblenz, Germany
- Best-in-Class Task Benchmark 5: “General Purpose Service Robot (GPSR)” - Winner: homer@UniKoblenz, University of Koblenz, Germany
- Best-in-Class Functionality Benchmark 1: “Object Perception” - Winner: homer@UniKoblenz, University of Koblenz, Germany
- Best-in-Class Functionality Benchmark 3: “Speech Recognition” - Winner: SPQReL, University of Rome “La Sapienza", Italy
European Robotics League - Industrial Robots
- Best-in-Class Task Benchmark 3: “Fill a Box with Parts for Manual Assembly” - Winner: autonOHM, TH Nürnberg, Germany
- Best-in-Class Functionality Benchmark 4: “Navigation Functionality” - Winner: b-it-bots, Bonn Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Germany
The aim of the “2017 euRobotics Technology Transfer Award” (now in its fourteenth year) 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 2017 euRobotics Technology Transfer Award took place at the European Robotics Forum 2017 in Edinburgh in a dedicated session on 23 March. Based on both the written application and the presentation, the jury determined the winners and the awards were handed on 23 March during the Banquet Dinner at the National Museum of Scotland.
- First prize: Fotokite - Unlocking safety and accountability barriers with Fotokite (Dr. Sergei Lupashin, Christopher McCall)
- Second Prize: Hunova - The new era in rehabilitation (Simone Ungaro, Carlo Sanfilippo, Jody Saglia - Co-founders of Movendo Technology)
- Third Prize: ANYdrive - An advanced modular joint actuator for interacting robots (Hanspeter Fässler - ANYbotics AG, Andreas Lauber - ANYbotics AG, Marco Hutter - ETH Zurich, Robotic Systems Lab)
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. As well as the chance to win a cash prize, 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 2017 took place at the European Robotics Forum 2017 in Edinburgh, in a dedicated session on 23 March. Based on both the written application and the presentation, the jury determined the winners and the awards were handed on 23 March during the Banquet Dinner at the National Museum of Scotland.
- First prize: Neha CHAUDHRY - Walk to Beat
- Second Prize: Sebastian BANDYCKI - Haxtron
- Third Prize: Marco PALEARI - ReHand Technologies
euRobotics yearly gives the Georges Giralt PhD Award at the European Robotics Forum (ERF) to recognise great work of Ph.D. students in the robotics community. Unfortunately and due to serious unexpected circumstances, euRobotics postponed the selection and announcement of a winner for this prestigious prize to ERF 2018, where two final selection rounds are planned, one for 2017 and one for 2018. The deadline for submitting theses to 2017 PhD Award won't be extended. Submission procedures for the PhD award 2018 will be announced in due time.
The ERF2017 social events (Welcome Reception and Banquet Dinner) took place at the National Museum of Scotland, housed in a magnificent Victorian building. Founded in 1780, in 2016 the Museum celebrated 150 years, since the building first opened to the public.
22nd March (19.30-23.30) - Welcome Reception
National Museum of Scotland - Scottish History and Archaeology galleries & Explore gallery (Level 1)
Credits (from left to right): Explore - euRobotics; Scottish gallery Credits Replica of the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots. The original is in Westminster Abbey & Aeroplanes in the In Flight display - National Museums of Scotland
23rd March (19.00-23.00) - Banquet Dinner and euRobotics Awards Ceremony
National Museum of Scotland - Grand Gallery
Credits (from left to right): Grand gallery - National Museums of Scotland; NMS Facebook; The Window on the World NMS
Exhibitors and sponsors
Around 30 exhibitors showcased their prototypes, products, and services, and attendees got to know the most advanced European robotics industry, research institutes and projects.
PLATINUM SPONSOR
GOLD SPONSOR
SILVER SPONSORS
BRONZE SPONSORS
