2017 IEEE/IFR Award for Invention and Entrepreneurship recipient announced

Erwin Prassler (B-IT and Vice President of IEEE RAS for Industrial Activities)
Arturo Baroncelli (Comau and Former President of IFR)

Since the first edition at ICRA 2005 in Barcelona, Spain, the IEEE/IFR Award for Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation has become one of the most renowned non-scientific awards in the robotics community, and has attracted more and more applications in every year. It’s uniqueness is also due to the fact that it is a joint award given by the robotics industry, represented by IFR the International Federation of Robotics, and the robotics research community represented by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. The award is a vital demonstration that robotics industry and research do work together very successfully.

The competition for the 2017 edition of the IERA Award was remarkable in terms of the number of applications as well as in their quality. A jury composed of three members of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and three members of the International Federation of Robotics finally selected the following four finalists:

• Marco Hutter, ANYbotics AG, ANYdrive: A modular joint actuator for advanced interacting robots
• Jody Saglia, Movendo Technology s.r.l.: Hunova - an easy to use and intuitive medical device
• György Cserey, OptoForce Ltd: Sensing flexibility - 3D force and 6-axis force/torque sensors for industrial robotic applications
• Steve Cousins, Savioke: Relay autonomous delivery robot

The finalists had the opportunity to pitch their business idea at ICRA 2017, Singapore, to the jury and to the large audience of ICRA participants.

The winner by unanimous decision:
Steve Cousins, Savioke: Relay autonomous delivery robot

 

All finalists have the opportunity to describe their business idea in the next edition of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine. The 2018 edition of the IEEE/IFR IERA Award, which will be renamed the IEEE/IFR Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation, will be organized by IFR during Automatica and ISR 2018.