EuROBIN is a network of excellence that brings together European robotics expertise and AI to establish a single pan-European platform for research and development. For the first time, a large number of leading research laboratories across Europe, including the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics of the Czech University of Technology in Prague (CIIRC ČVUT), are connecting to jointly develop robotics based on artificial intelligence. The goals of the project include both making significant scientific progress on key issues in intelligent robotics and strengthening the scientific robotics community in Europe by providing an integrative community platform. The network is open to the entire robotics community and provides cascading funding mechanisms to increase membership in the coming years.
“Imagine a society where robots support you everywhere in your daily life. Just think, for example, of the impact e-commerce has had in recent decades, and imagine robots operating at every part of this chain at the interface between the Internet and the real world. Robots will make a personalized product for you, pack your orders in warehouses, deliver your parcel, even assemble your goods or cook a meal according to your wishes at your home. This is the vision that the roboticists collaborating in euROBIN share and will work towards. This network is a unique opportunity for the actively developing robotics and AI scientific community in Europe, for scientific progress, as well as for the creation of a closely connected network of cross-border cooperation.”
prof. Alin Albu-Schäffer, director of the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics and coordinator of the euROBIN network
The euROBIN network includes 31 partners from 14 countries. It is coordinated by the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and brings together top research institutions and industry partners across sectors, e.g. Sorbonne University, Technical University of Munich, ETH Zurich, KTH Stockholm or the Frauenhofer Society. The network received a total of 12.5 million euros (312.5 million crowns) from the EU and Switzerland and was launched in July 2022. CIIRC CTU is the only Czech representative in the project.
“EuROBIN provides us with a unique opportunity to test our research results in new applications in cooperation with the best intelligent robotics research laboratories in Europe. Among other things, we will build on our research on learning robotic manipulation skills from Internet instructional videos. The goal is to optimize the acquired skills for new tasks, for example in the manufacturing industry or for robots that help in the home. We will also conduct the experiments in our well-equipped RICAIP testbed for advanced industrial production.”
Dr. Josef Šivić, the main investigator of the euROBIN project at CIIRC CTU
CIIRC CTU, including euROBIN, is now participating in four of the six large European projects focused on artificial intelligence, which have been supported by the European Commission in the last two years. “Being a partner in euROBIN, VISION, TAILOR and ELISE, in addition to being the headquarters of the Central European AI initiatives CLAIRE and ELLIS, a partner of the European data initiatives Gaia-X and IDSA and the coordinator of the European center of excellence for distributed manufacturing RICAIP, makes CIIRC CTU an important driver (not only) within the framework of European networks for artificial intelligence.”
Prof. Vladimír Mařík, scientific director of CIIRC CTU
“CIIRC CTU is also the European Digital Innovation Hub for Artificial Intelligence (EDIH CTU) and the EIT Manufacturing hub for the Czech Republic, which makes us a unique intersection between basic research and its industrial application. CIIRC is thus a valuable partner both for leading research institutions, as well as for industry and the application sphere at the Czech and European level.”
Dr. Ondřej Velek, director of CIIRC CTU
More information about the goals of the project and its partners can be found here.