We are pleased to announce the 1st Local Tournament of the European Robotics League Service Robot (ERL-SR) challenge to be held from January 22nd to 26th, 2018 at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (Scotland, UK).
The Edinburgh ERL contest will be the eighth local tournament of the Service Robots challenge. The ERL also runs two related competitions, for industrial robots and for service robots. All the competitions are intended to foster scientific progress and innovation in cognitive systems and robotics. The Edinburgh event will be held on 22-26 January 2018 at the Robotic Assisted Living Laboratory at the Lyell Centre on Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh campus. The laboratory is a 60 square meter, fully sensorised smart robotic space designed to facilitate user-driven design and testing of innovative ICT Robotic solutions for healthy ageing and assisted living. The laboratory was funded by the School of Engineering and Physical Science at Heriot-Watt University and by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and it is part of the laboratory facilities available at the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. The Centre harnesses the potential of 30 world leading investigators from 12 cross disciplinary research groups and institutes across Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh. The research and training focus is on the broad classes of physical and cognitive interactions between robots, people, environments and autonomous systems.
During the January competition, teams from EU-based universities will compete to provide robotics services for home and healthcare applications, such as supporting older persons in their daily lives by welcoming visitors and providing a large variety of general-purpose services.
Robotic competitions such as the ERL offer a unique opportunity to break down real-world challenges into a competition format, similar to the UEFA Champions League in football, which is exciting for robotics scientists, the robotics industry and the general public alike. Crucially, they provide a systematic way to compare and evaluate the performance of different systems, and thus ultimately foster the development of effective service robots.
For more information about the Edinburgh event, including the rules and pictures of the new test-bed at Heriot-Watt University, go to https://sites.google.com/site/erlsrhwu2018/
To find out more about the ERL, go to www.robotics-league.eu
Watch the European Robotics League promo vídeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIem1R2SUZM&feature=youtu.be&list=PLyHQG8zj_84aDeGjC6JQQjNvpb86RKlPU
Please contact Dr. Mauro Dragone m.dragone@hw.ac.uk, School of Engineering & Physical Sciences; Sensors, Signals & Systems at Heriot-Watt University for more information.