EURON IST-2000-26048 European Robotics Network EURON PPR-2: Henrik I. Christensen (Ed.) Kungl. Tekniska Högskolan SE-100 44 Stockholm Sweden Project funded by the European Community under the Information Society Technologies Programme (1998-2002) 28 March 2003
Executive Summary The European Robotics Research Network EURON was established by December 2000 to promote collaboration within Europe on R&D in robotics. The objective is to provide the required infrastructure to enable Europe to be the leader in robotics in general. The activities are organised around five topical areas of research planning, education and training, international collaboration, industrial links, and information dissemination. The first year was primarily focussed on the general setup of the network and initiation of activities. The second year has focussed more on consolidation of activities and longer-term planning. The activities have involved: Completion of a first draft of a research roadmap for Europe Brainstorming on a robotics effort within the FET programme termed Beyond Robotics Organisation of 3 summer schools on diverse topics within robotics. Organisation of the award procedure for the George Giralt PhD Award, that is awarded for the best thesis presented within the last 24-36 months. Setup of a WWW portal for EURON Completion of the Robotics in Europe portal that presents competence and companies involved in robotics. Initiation of a book series on robotics, named Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics published by Springer Verlag. Participation in organisation of 3 major robotics conferences in Europe (ROMAN, IROS and ISR). Officially 2003 is the final year of the EURON contract and consequently the activities will be continued and the future of EURON is an active area of discussion. It is anticipated that an application for a 5 month extension will be submitted to the CEC as spendings are below budget and there is a need to extend the duration of the network until its future has been determined. i Version: 28 March 2003
CONTENTS CONTENTS Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Membership Issues 1 3 Key-area Activities 2 3.1 Research coordination................................... 2 3.2 Education and Training.................................. 2 3.3 Conferences and Publications............................... 2 3.4 Industrial Links....................................... 3 3.5 International Links..................................... 3 3.6 Coordination and management.............................. 3 4 Interest Groups 4 4.1 Active Interest Groups................................... 4 4.2 Sponsored Activities.................................... 4 5 Challenges encountered 5 6 Outlook 2003 5 7 Summary 6 ii Version: 28 March 2003
2 MEMBERSHIP ISSUES 1 Introduction The European Robotics Research Network EURON was initiated by December 2000. The aim of the network is to setup and maintain an infrastructure and activities to promote coordination of R&D activities in robotics to ensure that European industry maintains their leadership in terms of technology and competitiveness. The network is organised around 5 key areas: research planning, education and training, dissemination, industrial collaboration and international links. In addition ad-hoc activities are organised through a number of interest groups 2 Membership Issues Over the last year the number of active members has increased from about 80 to 120, which is close to 1 new members per week. The increased number of members has primarily resulted in a more balanced membership representation across the membership countries. The membership distribution across countries is shown in figure 1. Figure 1: Distribution of EURON members across countries Given the results of the Copenhagen summit the EURON network has also undertaken an active effort to get institutions and companies from the new membership countries involved in the network. A general letter of invitation has been sent to IFR representatives from most of the new countries. It is hoped that 10% of the members will be from new countries by the end of 2003. 1 Version: 28 March 2003
3 KEY-AREA ACTIVITIES 3 Key-area Activities 3.1 Research coordination During yr 1 an effort to define a roadmap for robotics in Europe was initiated. This effort has continued during yr 2. The roadmap effort has involved about 30 researchers across Europe. In addition 2 editorial meetings have been organised between Paolo Dario (SSSA), Rudiger Dillmann (UKA) and Henrik I. Christensen (KTH). The roadmap is now available in a draft version. There is still a need to complement the roadmap with a technology forecast to complete the document. In addition the research coordination effort has involved two meetings with the European Commission to determine the emphasis of a pro-active initiative in the area of Beyond Robotics. During March 2002 a general brainstorming meeting was organised in Brussels. The meetings identified three major directions of potential research: human-bionic systems (or human augmentation), the robotics companion, and swarm robotics. In a subsequent meetings during July 2002 a small group convened with the commission to formulate a detailed description of the Beyond Robotics programme. By July 2002 the commission had had an opportunity to review the submitted expression of interests (EOIs) to allow determination of the feasibility of launching a programme on robotics. Based on the two consultations sessions and the submitted set of EOIs the commission decided to launch a pro-active initiative on robotics, which will have its first call during the spring of 2003. For 2003 the research coordination activity will complete the roadmap and attempt to define the tools and mechanisms required to enable benchmarking of research on robotics. 3.2 Education and Training In education and training an attempt has been made to set up a web based encyclopedia on robotics. Unfortunately it has turned out to be difficult to attract adequate submissions to the web books to have a sufficient initial basis for a full scale launch. It has been recognized that there is a need to have a staff member that is responsible for the coordination of the web initiative. A re-launch is planned for 2003. In addition this key-area is responsible for the Georges Giralt PhD Award, which is awarded each year for the best thesis submitted to an EU institution during the last 2 years. For the first year the award was shared between Gutmann (Freiburg) and Antonelli (Cassino). During year 2 it was awarded to Koeppe (DLR/Zurich). In addition to the honour associated with the award the selected candidates are invited to publish an edited version of their thesis with Springer Verlag. An on-going effort is related to definition of a standard curricula for robotics in Europe. A general survey of robotics education at a range of institutions has been prepared and during year 3 and attempt to perform a synthesis will be carried out. 3.3 Conferences and Publications Year 2002 was the year of European conferences. During October 2002 there were three weeks of robotics conferences in Europe. First the ROMAN (Robot and Man Communication) was organised in Berlin. The following week the second largest IEEE robotics conference IROS was organised at Lausanne and the following week the industrial conference ISR was held in Stockholm. All three conferences attracted record number participants and were well received. They allow significant exposure of European R&D. During 2002 a final agreement was reached with Springer Verlag to publish a high-quality series on robotics. The series is named Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR). The series is edited by Frans Groen, Bruno Siciliano, and Oussama Khatib. The two European editors are also the key-areas chairs. 2 Version: 28 March 2003
3.4 Industrial Links 3 KEY-AREA ACTIVITIES In addition two special issues of IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine have been planned for publication during 2003, one on industrial robotics in Europe and another on robotics R&D in Europe as part of the 5th framework programme. Finally a monthly e-letter is published by the key-area in combination with an electronic conference calendar. During 2002 an official www facility for EURON was also brought online. The www facility is hosted by the company GPS as a sub-contract. The overall design is highly satisfactory, and there is an active effort to make it an active area for information exchange. The cost of setting up and maintaining a high-profile site has likely been underestimated by the network. 3.4 Industrial Links For interaction with industry a web portal has been organised. The web portal robotics-in-europe has been brought on-line. The site is organised with R&D partners distributed across areas of competence, technologies, organisation, and nationalities. The initial set up was with 30 partners. At present the site involves about 50 institutions and companies. The review of submissions and getting material in a structured format has turned out to be more difficult than initially expected. There is a present an effort to reconsider the format and layout of the site to make it the site of preference for presentation of competence profiles. Another effort during 2002 has been an active collaboration with the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the industrial association for robotics manufacturers. The IFR has setup a European Chapter (ERF) and as part of this setup an activity effort on Service Robotics. The ERF activity has involved active participation in the UN statistical summary on robotics published in the book World Robotics. Hägele and Christensen very actively involved in the editorial preparation of the section on service robotics. From 2003 Hägele and Christensen will have editorial responsibility of this part of the publication. During 2003 a new white paper on industrial robotics will be prepared and a round-table discussion between academia and industry will be organised at FhG-IPA in Stuttgart. 3.5 International Links In terms of international links there is already a memorandum of understanding in place with the IFR and is sub-group ERF. In addition there is an informal agreement in place with the Robotics and Automation Society of IEEE. In addition EURON has participated in meetings with the International Association for Robotics Progress (IARP). More recently there has also been significant collaboration with the International Foundation for Robotics Research (IFRR), which will have it bi-annual meeting in Sienna during 2003 (organised by Chatila and Dario). Overall there is significant international presence and EURON has become known as the European entity on robotics and EU has become much more visible in terms of R&D on robotics. 3.6 Coordination and management The coordination activities have continued during 2002. The network has grown significantly larger than initially expected. When EURON was launched it was expected that it would grow to 50-60 members. At present EURON is more than twice as large. In general a new member is admitted to the network every week. Thus the network has been highly successful in getting attention and involving almost all active groups in Europe. At the same this the conservative initial estimate has resulted in relative limited funds to sponsor activities for all those interested in the network activities. In addition the mode of operation of the network was initially designed to be a single contractor network so as to minimize administration and the need for contract amendments. Unfortunately the 3 Version: 28 March 2003
4 INTEREST GROUPS contract procedure was changed after a year of operation, which was resulted in a need to submit detailed administrative data to the commission at regular intervals. This has created extra management beyond what was initially anticipated. Due to an administrative error with the coordinator this resulted in almost all cost statements for interest groups being rejected by the commission after Yr 1. This has in practice created a negative balance for the network, as 70 K Euro never were paid by the commission. It is hoped that this situation can be rectified as part of the Yr 2 cost claim process. It has, however, limited the freedom to sponsor activities during the second year of operation. At the first annual meeting (January 2002) in Pisa Prof. Georges Giralt, LAAS was named honorary chairman of the EURON network in recognition of his significant research and community efforts for robotics in Europe. Georges Giralt was one of the initiators of EURON and without his effort EURON might not have been possible. 4 Interest Groups As part of its operation the network sponsors ad-hoc activities in terms of special initiatives, workshops and educational efforts. The by far most successful of these mechanisms is summer schools. During the first year of operation it was clearly evident that there was a significant need for such summer schools. Consequently a number of such events have also been sponsored during the second year. 4.1 Active Interest Groups The procedure for sponsorship of an interest group is that a group of researcher together formulate a plan of activities for a year. The plan is submitted to the advisory committee (AdCom) for consideration. The AdCom reviews submitted proposals every three months. The received proposals are distributed by email and members of the AdCom are requested to comment on the proposal within two weeks. Consequently all communication is by email only without a physical meeting. The cost of a physical meeting is judged to be too high. In general this mechanism for selection has worked well. For 2002 four interest groups were selected for sponsorship. 1. Visual servoing 2. Field Robotics 3. Cooperative Robotics 4. Open Source Robotics Controllers In addition the AdCom actively promoted an effort on human-robotics interaction. Unfortunately no one was willing to coordinate such an initiative and eventually the ideas was not pursued further. Each of the interest groups have setup separate topical web sites and collected critical material on the relevant topic. The interest groups have also organised meetings to discuss state of the art in the chosen area of research. The mechanism of setting up an interest group to provide a short-term mechanism for coordination has worked well and it has been well received by the community. 4.2 Sponsored Activities During the first year activities were only sponsored through interest groups. This gave a relatively limited dynamics in terms of organisation of ad-hoc activities. Consequently the pattern of activity 4 Version: 28 March 2003
6 OUTLOOK 2003 was changed for year 2. Here anyone organizing a well defined (major) activity could ask for sponsorship. The following activities were (co ) sponsored during 2002. August 5-9, a summer school on localisation and mapping was organised at KTH. The event attracted 49 PhD students (25 of which were from Europe). The event also attracted the top 10 researchers in the fields as lecturers for an entire week. The event was co-sponsored by EURON, STINT and CAS-KTH. In September a summer school on visual servoing was organised at Benecassim with leading experts. The summer school was attended by 14 PhD students. The summer school involved 10 lectures that covered all aspects of visual servoing. The school clearly demonstrated that Europe is the leader in visual servoing. In late September a week long summer school on cooperative robotics was organised at IST in Lisboa. The summer school involved 30 PhD students from across Europe and 8 senior lecturers on all topics in cooperative robotics. The school involved lectures and exercise sessions. The school was extremely well received by the students and allowed at the same time set up of stronger ties to efforts in the USA. The Open Source Robotics effort headed by KUL had a one day workshop to discuss progress on the set up of an international effort on open source software. The workshop involved a live demonstration of how industrial control can be achieved with open source software. The effort has since then been extended to also involve CNC and machine providers. At IROS several interest groups organised special sessions or workshops. This included workshops on Visual servoing Cooperative robotics Aerial (field) robotics In addition an tutorial on intelligent manufacturing systems was organised. The tutorial is at present the basis for preparation of an edited volume for the Springer STAR series. The control community had their annual meeting CDC (Conference on Decision and Control) at Las Vegas (10-14 December). To get added exposure of robotics to the control community a one day post-conference workshop was organised on control problem in robotics (Bicchi & Christensen). The workshop was attended by 25 people and resulted in significant discussions on the relation between robotics and control. The proceedings from the workshop have been published in the Springer Series. Overall EURON has managed to set up a strong series of events that have allowed involvement of graduate students in the European community. In addition the summer schools plays a crucial role to allow graduate students to set up their own network of peers. 5 Challenges encountered No major challenges have been encountered during 2002. The growth rate of the network has created some concern to the management of the entire effort, and the lack of payment for SIG activities during 2001 has challenged the availability of cash to pay for activities, but it is hoped that these problems will be resolved during 2003. 6 Outlook 2003 During 2003, the final year of the contract, the network will continue its effort to strengthen the European infra-structure to enable EU to be the leader in many areas of robotics. This will also 5 Version: 28 March 2003
7 SUMMARY involve efforts to ensure that there is broad participation in the pro-active beyond robotics programme. While much of this process is beyond the control of the network it will attempt to ensure that the centres of excellence within Europe are encouraged to actively participate in the research so as to ensure that the proposed effort indeed does achieve its objectives. In preparation for FP6 the network will also continue its effort to have a stronger involvement from the new member countries. In addition the network will have effort on: 5-6 summer schools on robotics Organisation of 3-4 workshops at major meetings Sponsorship of 2-3 new interest groups Finalization of the research roadmap A new white paper on industrial robotics in Europe A round table discussion between academia and industry Set up of a web based encyclopedia on robotics Definition of a standard curricula for robotics 7 Summary EURON has grown into the de-facto coordinating entity in Europe for robotics and it is internationally recognized as the provider of the research infra-structure in Europe. Across the world it is recognized that the effort undertaken by EURON to promote education and R&D on robotics is a commendable model for community setup and operation. Over a period of two year the community has been activated and come together to form a strong entity that plays a crucial role to allow generation of major new efforts that might be a key factor for continued economic growth in the general area of robotics. This effort would not have been possible without the support of the European commission and countless hours of volunteer work by senior researchers within the community. 6 Version: 28 March 2003