EURON/ERF technology transfer award

The EURON/ERF Technology Transfer Award was created in order to improve the quality of robotics research and to raise the profile of technology transfer between science and industry. The award was presented for the first time by the European Robotics Research Network (EURON) at its annual meeting on 13 March 2004. “The goal of EURON is to create a network of excellence intended to coordinate research work, teaching, and education as well as the collaboration between academia and industry,” explained Henrik Iskov Christensen, EURON coordinator and professor at the Centre for Autonomous Systems at Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan in Stockholm. The European Robotics Forum is a European industry platform within the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Stefan Sagert from VDMA Robotik + Automation is the general secretary of the ERF, which has set itself the goal of increasing the visibility of the robotics community in Europe. The winners of the first EURON/ERF Technology Award are: ◆ First Place: Dr. Martin Otter, German Aerospace Centre Oberpfaffenhofen (DLR), Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, Wessling, Germany for ‘High Performance Industrial Robots—The DLR-KUKA Success Story’. ◆ Second Place: Dr. Olivier Michel, Cyberbotics Ltd., Switzerland, for his project: “Webots Fast Prototyping and Simulation Software for Mobile Robot Technology.” ◆ Third Place: Frank Beeh, Institute of Process Control, Automation and Robotics (IPR), University of Karlsruhe (TH) for developing an innovative seat testing system. The members of the jury were: ◆ Thilo Brodtmann (VDMA, ERF secretariat) ◆ Henrik Christensen (Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan Stockholm, EURON) ◆ Martin Hägele (Fraunhofer IPA, EURON key area “Industrial Relations”) ◆ Gisbert Lawitzky (Siemens AG) ◆ Erwin Prassler (Gesellschaft für Produktionssysteme, EURON key area “Industrial Relations”) ◆ Hans Skoog (ABB). This first EURON/ERF Technology Award was sponsored by the European Commission, Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. (ABB), Rexroth Bosch Group, Reis Robotics, Güdel AG, Fanuc Robotics, and Kuka Roboter GmbH. It is planned continuously to raise the profile of the Technology Award in the coming years and to increase public awareness of the Award. The authors of this column want to thank Martin Hägele for providing material for this report. Parties interested in promoting certain activities via this column can contact either Kostas Kyriakopoulos (http://users. ntua.gr/kkyria, kkyria@central.ntua.gr) or Bruno Siciliano (http://cds.unina.it/~sicilian, siciliano@unina.it). EURON/ERF Technology Transfer Award Kostrias Kyriakopoulos and Bruno Siciliano