The EU-funded robotics project ECHORD++ has opened is a first competitive call for experiment proposals. The aim of ECHORD++ is to strengthen the knowledge transfer between scientific research and industry in robotics and to stimulate their cooperation. In the context of ECHORD++, small-scale research projects, so-called “experiments”, will be conducted. From 3rd March 2014 to 14th April 2014 the research community, enterprises and robot manufacturers are asked to submit experiment proposals, written in English only.
Five scenarios for likely future robot use have been defined to outline the scope of the research work to be performed in the experiments:
- Cognitive tools and workers for cognitive factories
- General purpose robotic co-workers
- Cognitive logistics robots for industry
- Medical robotics
- Agricultural and food robotics
Each experiment has a maximum duration of 18 months, the funding of an experiment is expected to be about € 300.000. The total indicative funding for this call is € 5.000.000. Organization from non-EU countries are welcome to participate in the project under the EU-rules applying for funding.
ECHORD++ is a joint project of Technische Universität München (project coordinator), Blue Ocean Robotics, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
More information and the full call documents, including the guide for applicants and an electronic submission system, can be found on the website www.echord.eu.