Robotics and Automation Magazine

September 2005 issue


The Joint Programme of Research of the EURON network is aimed atproviding the resources needed to enable pick-up and evaluation of emerging ideas in the field of robotics. The research programme involves sponsorship of three types of ad-hoc activities, through competitive calls advertised every 6 months: Prospective Research Projects, Research Ateliers, and Topical Studies.

A Prospective Research Project (PRP) is a one-year effort to investigate a well-defined problem. Projects are expected to provide support to research within the subject area of the Beyond Robotics initiative and be of an exploratory nature, or test rapidly the credibility of new research ideas and concepts. They complement the research undertaken by the Integrated Projects (see column in December 2004 issue), bridge the gaps, consolidating the initiative and its position at the forefront of research. The following PRPs have been funded with 100 KEuro each, after peer review of the proposals received for the first call (PRP-1) and the second call (PRP-2) respectively:

  • PRP-1 "Physical Human-Robot Interaction in Anthropic Domains: Safety & Dependability (PHRIDOM)" coordinated by University of  Pisa, Italy (A. Bicchi) with partners: LAAS, France (R.Chatila), University of Naples, Italy (B. Siciliano), DLR, Germany (G. Hirzinger), and University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy (A. De Luca) http://www.piaggio.ccii.unipi.it/phridom/index.htm.
  • PRP-2"Lower extremity movement restoration through muscle closed-loop FES control using natural sensor feedback" coordinated by LIRMM, France (C. Azevedo) with partners: University of Aalborg, Denmark (K. Yoshida), and MXM, France (J.L. Divoux).

A Research Atelier (RA) is an effort on a well-defined topic taking place at a single venue, with participation of researchers from a number of different institutions and companies over a limited period of time. The duration of an atelier can be from a few days to a month. The aim of an atelier is cross-institution and/or cross-discipline integration. The result of an atelier can be a roadmap or a focused study of a particular topic. It is recommended that such studies are carried out in close cooperation with the on-going Integrated Projects.

The following RAs have been funded, after peer review of the proposals received for the first call (RA-1 and RA-2) and second call (RA-3) respectively:

  • RA-1"Robotics Ontology for the Semantic Web (ROSE)" coordinated by MIP, Denmark (J. Hallam) with partner KU Leuven, Belgium (H. Bruyninckx), and a budget of 35 KEuro.
  • RA-2"Roboethics Atelier" coordinated by Scuola di Robotica, Italy (G. Veruggio) with partners: LAAS, France (R. Chatila) and Scuola S.Anna, Italy (P. Dario), and a budget of 50 KEuro. RA-3"Network Robot Systems" coordinated by UPC, Spain (A. Sanfeliu) with partners: Scuola S.Anna, Italy (P. Dario), EPFL, Switzerland (R. Siegwart), LAAS, France (R. Chatila), University of Surrey, UK (J. Illingworth), IST/ISR, Portugal (J. Santos-Victor), AICIA, Spain (A. Ollero), University of Zaragoza, Spain (L. Montano), and a budget of 100 KEuro.

A Topical Research Study (TRS) provides a very reactive and flexible funding scheme to support the investigation of innovative ideas. The aim is to generate input to the research roadmap or explore research issues of relevance to the on-going Integrated Projects or the community in general. Such studies are expected to be highly focused, with well-defined deliverables, in emerging disciplines such as cooperative systems or human-robot interaction.

The following TRS has been funded with 70 KEuro, after peer review of the proposals received for the first call (none funded) and second call (TRS-1):

  • TRS-1"Visual Perception Systems for a Social Robot (VISOR)" coordinated by University of Malaga, Spain (F. Sandoval Hernández) with partner ISR, Portugal. (J. Diaz)

For further information, please visit http://www.euron.org/activities/projects/index.html. Parties interested in promoting certain activities via this column can contact either Kostas Kyriakopoulos ( http://users.ntua.gr/kkyria, ) or Bruno Siciliano (http://wpage.unina.it/sicilian, ).

Contributed by Kostas Kyriakopoulos and Bruno Siciliano

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