Abstract
(English)
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Both Japan and USA have strong robotics research communities that are tightly integrated due to the action of specific funding agencies. No similar coherence is found in Europe. Robotics covers a diverse set of expertise. The basic competence is present in Europe, but scattered across nations with little coordination. This poses a threat in terms of access by industry to research results, human resources, coordination of training and education, facilities and long-term vision. EURON is a network of excellence that will coordinate research, education, dissemination and industrial links across Europe to achieve a level of coherence and coordination beyond that existing in other continents.
Objectives:
EURON will set up a network of excellence that will allow coordination of research, teaching and education, academic-industry collaboration, and publications and conferences in the area of robotics, and facilitates addressing issues of interest to institutions and companies throughout Europe. The aim is to provide a fruitful basis that will allow Europe to be at the forefront of robotics both in terms of research and industrial products.
Work description:
The network is organised around a set of key-areas that provide short and long-term coordination across Europe. The key areas are Research Coordination, Teaching and Education, Conferences and publications, Industrial links, and International Links. For each key-area a committee is set up to consider how the particular issues can be coordinated through formulation of roadmaps, joint education material, improved visibility and coherence across Europe. Ad-hoc working groups termed 'Interest Groups' will be set up to address specific issues across the five key-areas. The effort will provide a long-term research vision for Europe and enable coordination of education efforts across institutions in Europe. In addition various databases on industrial problems, research competence, education material, shared resources, etc will be set up and maintained. The majority of the work will be carried out through the use of an electronic infrastructure that will be set up for the purpose of coordination and communication across the involved institutions. The network will be coordinated through a multi-national advisory committee. The network will work actively to encompass all countries in EU and attempt to include most of the robotics efforts in the member, affiliated and candidate states. Particular attention will also be paid to integration between EU and Eastern European countries.
Milestones:
The network will provide:
- Roadmaps for long term research in Europe, and technology maps
- Yellow pages for robotics in europe
- Curricula, Teaching and Education coordination across Europe
- A monthly electronic newsletter on robotics and automation in Europe
- A resource for improved access to research results across Europe
- An electronic infrastructure for sharing of information and results
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