The PAL Robotics team will host these workshops at the ERF 2021

This year’s ERF (European Robotics Forum) virtual event takes place very soon, from 13-15 April 2021 and we are delighted once again to actively be taking part, this year as Diamond Sponsors. The European Robotics Forum is the most influential meeting of the robotics community in Europe, and we invite you to e-meet us there! 

For us at PAL Robotics, we have a long tradition of participating in the ERF, which we know the event organisers are working hard to make as dynamic and engaging as possible in its virtual format. We look forward to attending the ERF as a live event once again too, in Rotterdam in 2022. 

At the ERF 2021, we’re very happy to be able to contribute our expertise as well as learn more from the range of workshops and sessions at the forum, along with institutions and project partners of ours, such as DIH Hero and Eclipse Foundation Europe.

Workshop: Humanoid robots today and tomorrow

The world of humanoid service robots is increasing in importance as robots continuously improve their capabilities – HRI in day to day life is becoming a closer reality. 

This workshop brings together speakers from humanoid service robots research and development to discuss current and future developments as well as the difference between the latest developments and expectations. 

The session will focus on the areas of Motion and of Agile Production, as well as Robotics and AI, and foster discussion on overcoming barriers to increasing the use of humanoid robots. There will be a particular focus on the developments in EU project Memmo as one of the use cases. This session will be led by Francesco Ferro, CEO of PAL Robotics.

Workshop: AI and robotics in agri-food – the present and the future

Our strive for increased efficiency and processes is multi sectoral and includes finding ways to increase automation within the agri-food sector. 

The agri-food sector with operations such as food processing, harvesting and preserving, offers many opportunities from a robotics perspective. Nevertheless, there are existing robotics solutions in use and agri-food is quickly becoming a high-tech business.

This workshop aims to portray the potential, challenges and initiatives related to robotics application in agri-food and will gather experts in robotics and agri-food to present their points of view, as well as including a panel discussion for all parties to share their ideas. This session will be led by Sarah Terreri, Head of Collaborative Projects at PAL Robotics.

Workshop: How robots adapt to changing scenarios – pandemic situations and beyond

Robotics is an industry that needs to stay at the forefront of constant technological innovation, with challenges including adapting existing robotic platforms to unforeseen scenarios, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Important considerations are key features that robots require in order to be adaptive, as well as end-users that sometimes do not have a robotics background.

This workshop aims to illustrate different stages in development; from design to creation and application, with a focus in social and intralogistics robotics, including end-users from industry sharing their experiences. Lastly there will be a live demonstration of intralogistics robot TIAGo Base, performing one of PAL Robotics’ applications for healthcare. This session will be led by Jordi Pagès, TIAGo Product Manager and Head of Intralogistics at PAL Robotics.

Workshop: Applying AI and HRI results of competitions in service robotics

Successful HRI includes many elements, such as human-computer interaction, AI, and language understanding. Continuing developments in this field are crucial to advancing robotics, in particular robots that will work closely with humans. 

Robotics competitions are a scenario which drive innovation, particularly in AI and HRI, and help teams solve real world challenges under pressure.

Through the workshop, competition competitors and competition organisers will discuss their experiences taking part in robotics challenges. The main aim is to discuss how robotics competition results and developments in AI and HRI can be applied in practice. This session will be hosted by Carlos Vivas, Business Manager, Head of Products for Research and Head of Social Robotics at PAL Robotics.

PAL Robotics’ Collaborative Projects partnerships

At PAL Robotics we work on a number of collaborative projects and will talk more about these including our latest collaborations which started this year, including CANOPIES developing a Human-Robot prototype in crop farming, Evolved-5G testing, validating, and certifying NetApps in an experimentation platform, PERSEO – facing research challenges in the market of personal robots and Sandro – a robot that provides assistive services to people with difficulties in Activities of Daily Living. Many of these projects are part of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, under their pillar focussed on digitalisation which includes robotics. 

We believe in the value of collaborative projects for sharing expertise and for innovation and we are always looking for new opportunities to collaborate within Horizon Europe, so if you’re searching for project partners don’t hesitate to ask us more at the ERF virtual event. Our Collaborative Projects team is happy to arrange 1-to-1 meetings with you throughout the event.

Workshop on Collaborative Projects

We will also be dedicating a full workshop that involves our Collaborative Projects team within our Diamond sponsor’s timeslot. During this workshop we would like to share with you our expertise and experience on delivering proposals within H2020, how we plan to apply this expertise within Horizon Europe, partnering with PAL Robotics, and popular sectors for collaborative projects in which to apply as partners. The workshop will take place on 14 April at 10:25h CET, we hope to e-see you there!

Workshops we will participate in as speakers

We are very much looking forward to contributing to the following workshops during the ERF:

  • Jordi Pagés, our Head of Intralogistics, will join the DIH Hero workshop on 14 April from 9:00-10:20h CET, titled: “FSTP success stories – Cross-sectorial session”
  • Francesco Ferro, PAL Robotics’ CEO will participate as a guest speaker in the workshop “European Leadership in Open Source for Robotics and AI” set to take place on 13 April from 11:20 – 12:40h CET. This panel discussion is organised by Eclipse Foundation Europe GmbH.

Read about last year’s experiences at the European Robotics Forum 2020 in Malaga, Spain in our blog.

Event calendar of the European Robotics Forum 2021 with the social robot ARI on the side

Social robot ARI as the face of the European Robotics Week

Our humanoid social robot ARI is the new face of The European Robotics Week! We are delighted robot ARI has been chosen as the new ambassador as of 2021. 

Finally, our robots ARI, TALOS, TIAGo, TIAGo++ and TIAGo Base will take part in the ERF 2021.

PAL Robotics is looking forward to the virtual event this year, and of course the face-to-face event in 2022 in Rotterdam. Find other details in our blog on robotics and research. For any doubt or curiosity, visit our contact page to get in touch with us.