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EventsECHORD - Presentations of the Information Day are online
ECHORD Opening Event
On September 4, 2009, at Deutsches Museum, Ehrensaal, in Munich, Germany
The ECHORD team, led by Prof. Alois Knoll, Technical University Munich, welcomed about 60 robotic experts, scientists and practitioners, both from academia and industry, who are interested in participating in ECHORD.
Since the first call for experiments will be published soon (28 September 2009), this event was a perfect opportunity to learn more about ECHORD (procedure, upcoming calls for proposal, equipment details, potential partners...) The focus of this event was to inform the community about ECHORD, but there was also time for the exchange of ideas and partner search for ECHORD experimenters.
In the morning, after a warm welcome of Prof. Knoll, Horst Forster, European Commission, DG Information Society and Media, Directorate E “Digital Content & Cognitive Systems” gave a reassuring presentation for the robotics community. The European Commission currently funds robotics research with approximately 100 M€ per year (400 M€ for 2007-2011). Currently the industry has to tackle not only the econmic crisis, but also has to cope with a saturation of the classical (automotive) markets. It's time to conquer new sectors and applications! New fields of applications and new opportunities have been already identified in the EUROP Strategic Research Agenda for Robotics. Europe has a strong robotics industry with world-class research potential and technological knowledge across Europe. Combined with excellent resources in academic research, industry and education in Europe, the chances and conditions for the overall recovery and restructuring of the robotics industry are excellent. ECHORD, aiming for a closer cooperation between industry and academia, will help to overcome the fragmentation of research, as well as between industry and academia, and will lead to technology transfer. This will help the robotics industry to steer through the turbulences and prepare for the future.
Roland Siegwart,
In the afternoon represenatives from industry presented their equipment they offer for the upcoming call for experiments. Partners from academia / research institutes presented their proposal ideas or application scenarios in short 5 minute talks. Robot manufacturers presented and explained the equipment they offer in the framework of ECHORD.
All presentations are available on the ECHORD website(http://www.echord.info/).
ECHORD (European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development) is a new EC-funded project aiming to strengthen the cooperation between scientific research and industry in robotics.
In the context of ECHORD, approximately 50 small-scale projects, so-called "experiments" will be conducted, which will use state-of-the art robot equipment. The first call for proposals for experiments is planned to be published on September 28, 2009. The proposers of experiments, typically research institutes, will be given the opportunity to buy equipment from a qualified equipment list from European robot manufacturers at special prices. A call for equipment from European Manufacturers is open from July 15 to August 24. The research institutes will perform research and development with relevance to industrial applications.
Important ECHORD dates:
| 24 August 2009 | Deadline for the call for robotic equipment (relevant for robot manufacturers) |
| 04 September 2009 | Information and Brokerage Day in Munich |
| 28 September 2009 | Publication of first Call for Experiment Proposals |
You will find more information on the ECHORD website (http://www.echord.info).
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