Robot scientists discuss European research road maps

(Nanowerk News) What are the main opportunities and strengths of European robotic research? What do road maps look like, around themes like health care, manufacturing industry and security? From 12 to 15 January, about 100 leaders from science and industry come to University of Twente’s campus to discuss public-private partnerships in robotics. At the end of the week, there will be the kick-off of an innovative project, led by UT, about robots that will improve biopsy for cancer diagnostics.
The European meeting is organized by Professor Stefano Stramigioli, who is in charge of UT’s LEO Center for Service Robotics. It is a meeting of SPARC, the public-private partnership of the European Commission with euRobotics AISBL, with partners from industry and science. Stramigioli is Vice President Research of euRobotics as well. In SPARC, the robot research ambitions are translated into new policy and road maps, serving as the basis for innovative research and financial choices.
Stramigioli: “Europe has incredible potentials in Robotics, and can become the leader in different relevant applications. The way we work together with European teams in Europe is pretty unique”.
In several topical groups, future developments in European robotics will be discussed: examples are health care – from surgical robots to exoskeletons for rehabilition purposes, home applications like assistive living and applications in infrastructure, for inspection and monitoring. University of Twente’s robot scientists are active in all of these fields.
Biopsy robot
In a new project called MURAB (MRI and Ultrasound Robotic Assisted Biopsy), Stramigioli’s group will develop robots that will improve precision and effectiveness of biopsy. Together with hospitals, the scientists will look at breast cancer diagnostics and biopsy for muscle diseases. Therefore, they cooperate with the ZGT hospital group in Twente, Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, universities in Verona and Vienna, and companies like Siemens and KUKA. MURAB is a European Horizon2020 project involving 4.3 million euros.
Source: University of Twente