The pursuit of a major research goal requires the involve-ment of a research community. Indeed, in many areasof research, the pursuit of major scientific or technicalgoals has been conducted through the involvement of alarge body of the associated research community.

In robotics, this has recently been witnessed as part of theJapanese effort on humanoid systems headed by Prof. H.Inoue of the University of Tokyo. In a similar vein, the Amer-ican community has been integrated through a number ofjoint efforts sponsored by the U.S. military, such as the MobileAutonomous Robot Systems (MARS) project sponsored bythe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).These joint programs serve several purposes including theintegration of competencies across universities and companies,the achievement of cohesion in research strategy, and socialintegration across different locales. At the same time, the pro-grams offer excellent opportunities to promote the scienceand technology results that originate from joint efforts. It istherefore not surprising that many European researchers havea better view of what is going on at leading U.S. institutionscompared to what is occurring in a neighboring country.

In 1998, a group of European Union (EU) researchers metat the French embassy in Japan for informal discussions. Theneed for further coordination of EU research was easily identi-fied. To address this problem, a network of excellence has beenset up by the European Commission (EC). The network isnamed the European Robotics Network (EURON) (seehttp://www. euron.org). It is sponsored by the Future andEmerging Technologies office within the Commission of theEuropean Communities (CEC). In this article, the basic struc-ture and activities of EURON are presented, together with anoutlook on the future.

EURON has been established to ensure broad involvementof robotics across many different fields of applications and

research. Inaddition, theaim has been toinvolve as manygroups as possible. Atpresent, the EURON net-work involves about 145 groupscovering almost all countries in Europe. The distribution ofmembers across nationalities is shown in Figure 1. As can beseen in the figure, the major countries involved are Germanyand Italy. Together, they represent 50% of total members. Thisalso derives from the fact that these countries have strongnational programs in robotics. In addition, both Germany andItaly are home to manufacturers of industrial robots.

ActivitiesThe activities within EURON are organized around fivemajor efforts, referred to as key-area activities. They are

◆ research coordination◆ training and education◆ industrial links◆ dissemination◆ international links.

The efforts within each of these areas are described below.

Research CoordinationThe research coordination component is responsible for twomajor activities: 1) the definition of a research roadmap forEurope and 2) the definition of benchmarks for research anddevelopment (R&D).

In Europe, there are a number of national programs onrobotics such as the ROBEA (Robotique Entités Artificielles)program in France and a number of German SondernForschung Bericht (SFB) programs, which are major multi-

BY HENRIK I. CHRISTENSEN

Building a Stronger RoboticsResearch Community

1070-9932/05/$20.00©2005 IEEEIEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine JUNE 200510

EURON—The European Robotics Network

JUNE 2005 IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 11

partner research projects with a duration of 8–12 years. Inaddition, there have been a number of robotics projects spon-sored by the EC through the diverse set of topical programswithin the EU framework programs (see http://www.cordis.lu for an outline of these programs).

It is, however, characteristic that there has been a limitedor no joint effort to define a European vision for the R&Dmission within the region. At the same time, it must be rec-ognized that a large share of the manufacturing of industrialrobots originates from Europe through companies such asABB and Kuka. Consequently, to provide a research visionfor Europe, a joint effort to define a “research roadmap” hasbeen undertaken. To this end, researchers were invited tosubmit “research dreams” on particular topics. Based on theanalysis of the research dreams, a draft roadmap has beendefined. The roadmap involves the state-of-the-art identifi-cation of major obstacles to progress and a definition ofpotential topics for joint research programs. One of the sideeffects of the definition of the roadmap was a joint set ofhearings with the CEC in preparation for the initiation ofthe EU 6th Framework Programme(FP6) that was created in 2004. The endresult was the establishment of a newresearch program, Beyond Robotics.The term beyond refers here to R&Dthat goes beyond the present industrialmarket.

It i s s t i l l relat ively rare to seeresearch results that are utilized acrosslaboratories. If results are reused acrossdifferent institutions, then it is mostfrequently through a reimplementationof methods reported in the literature.In addition, there is relatively littlecomparative research where the sameexperiments are replicated across insti-tutions. This is in contrast to well-established empirical research in otherdomains. To address this issue, a studyhas been performed in an attempt todefine benchmarks for research acrossthe different areas of robotics.

The effort on research coordinationwas chaired from 2001–2004 by Rüdi-ger Dillmann of the University of Karl-sruhe and Paolo Dario of the ScuolaSuperiore Sant’Anna and since 2004 byDillmann and Angel Pobil of UniversityJaume.

Education and TrainingA key component for the establishmentand maintenance of a strong researcheffort is human resources. Consequently,it is essential that there is access to strongeducational and training efforts across

Europe. To this end, the key area of education and traininghas pursued three efforts: 1) a survey of education on roboticsin Europe, 2) the creation of mechanisms for the sharing ofresources for education, and 3) organization of a number ofEuropean summer schools.

Throughout Europe, there are many educational effortson robotics. Today, these efforts are in no way coordinated,and there is limited insight across national boundaries. Con-sequently, it is difficult to compare robotics programsbetween, say, Greece and Sweden. To change this situation,the group effort has conducted a survey of educationalefforts across the many different methods through whichrobotics is taught (such as mechatronics, electrical engineer-ing, control engineering, mechanical engineering, and com-puter science). At present, a summary overview is beingprepared. This has led to an attempt to define a set of modelcurricula for teaching robotics in various fields.

Many teachers invest significant resources in lecture materialand exercises. In many respects, it is desirable to have a mecha-nism for reuse of this material across schools. This, however,

Figure 1. The distribution of EURON members across countries at the end of2003.

AT2%

BE1%

CH3%

DE22%

IT27%

UK 8%

TU 1%

SF 2%

PT2%

NL3%

SE 5%

HU 1%

GR 2%

FR 10%

DK 3%

ES 8%EU

1%

AT — 3 Austria

Key :

BE — 1 Belgium

CH — 4 Switzerland

DE — 29 Germany

DK — 4 Denmark

ES — 11 Spain

EU — 1 European Commission

FR — 13 France

GR — 3 Greece

HU — 1 Hungary

IT — 35 Italy

NL — 4 The Netherlands

PT — 2 Portugal

SE — 6 Sweden

SF — 2 Finland

TU — 1 Turkey

UK — 11 United Kingdom

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine JUNE 200512

opens up the additional issue of topic organization. It would bedesirable to have a taxonomy of robot topics by which thematerial can be organized in a manner similar to what has beenachieved in, for example, computer vision (see the onlinevision compendium at http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/CVonline).

The key-area group has attempted to define a similarstructure for robotics. This structure is now available online athttp://www.roble.org. Recently, a call for educational materi-al was issued. The idea is to allow teachers who are starting anew course or are in need of inspiration to utilize the materialin the Web book to revise her/his own lectures or to basenew exercises on material available on the site.

Most universities do not have access to excellent teachersacross all areas of robotics. To allow students to receiveexcellent training on many different topics, the EURONnetwork organizes summer schools. Such an event is typical-ly a one-week course that brings together 20–50 students atone location for the study of a well-defined topic. For suchoccasions, it is possible to invite leading lecturers from allover the world. In addition to the insightful lectures andparticipation in joint exercises, the event also provides anexcellent basis for social interaction between the students,which is of significant importance to the establishment of acohesive community. It gives young researchers an excellentview of advanced topics and allows them to establish theirown social network with fellow researchers. Each summer,EURON organizes three to five schools on various topics.Past topics have included visual servoing, telerobotics, local-ization and mapping, manipulation, human-computer inter-action, navigation, cooperative robotics, and mobile systems.Overall, the organization of schools has been extremely wellreceived by the Ph.D. students, and there is, in general, aone-to-two ratio between the number of applicants and thenumber of accepted students at these events.

To promote excellence in academic research, theEURON network has also set up the Georges Giralt Ph.D.Award. The prize is awarded for an excellent Ph.D. thesisin the area of robotics. As a basis for the evaluation, boththe thesis and the associated set of publications and patentsare considered. The impact of the thesis on the field is thusan important factor considered in the selection of the win-ner. So far, the prize has been awarded four times. In addi-tion to a plaque and a cash prize, the winner is offered anopportunity to publish his thesis as a monograph withSpringer-Verlag.

Alícia Casals of the Technical University of Cataloniacoordinates the effort on education and training. RolandSiegwart of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne(EPFL) is the coordinator of EURON summer schools.

Industrial LinksEurope has a strong record in terms of robotics industries.Today, Europe is one of the leading regions in terms of industrial robotics and automation. Many major companieshave their headquarters in Europe, including ABB, Kuka,Comau, Stäubli, Electrolux, Kärcher, Husqvarna, and K-

Team. To ensure that Europe remains one of the leadingproviders of robot systems, it is essential that the industryhas access to key research results, human resources, and astrong community. There is also a fundamental need forstrong interaction between academia and industry. Theindustrial links area is responsible for the setup and mainte-nance of close ties between the research community andindustrial companies. The industrial links area has, in par-ticular, performed three prominent activities: 1) an outlineof strategies for the European robotics industry, 2) the cre-ation of a prize for technology transfer, and 3) the estab-lishment of a yellow-page repository of robotics activitieswithin Europe.

European industry is, as noted above, one of the majorproviders of robotic systems. So far, the automobile indus-try has been a primary target of industrial robotics. Thepresent industry is evolving to address new applicationssuch as the food sector, but entirely new business areas suchas service and domestic also are emerging. The industrialfocus is changing and the needs for R&D are graduallychanging. To this end, a group of involved key industrialrepresentatives and partners from academia have formulateda white paper on European robotics [1]. In addition, jointevents have been organized to provide a forum for discus-sion of industrial needs.

Industry (and academia) is a highly heterogenous com-munity and it is often difficult, if not impossible, to get anoverview of the potential providers and users of roboticstechnology. To address this issue, the industrial links com-munity has defined a yellow-page repository through whichproviders and users can register and outline their competen-cies in the domain of robotics. The yellow-page facility isorganized as a Web site (http://www.robotics-in-europe.org). The entries are edited to a fixed format, provid-ing coherence in the presentation. The yellow-page facilitiesare coorganized with the EUnited, which is the Europeansector of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

To promote technology transfer and the reuse of researchresults from institutes and universities, a Technology TransferAward has been established. The prize is jointly sponsoredby the EUnited and EURON. In March 2004, the first edi-tion of the prize was awarded to DLR/Kuka. The secondedition was recently awarded to ABB/LTH andStarKick/ALU. In addition to a trophy and a cash award, thewinners also are given an opportunity to prominently adver-tise the results of the joint venture between industry andacademia. The prize will now become an annual award.

The industrial links area is coordinated by Martin Hägele,Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Institute for Production and Automa-tion, and Erwin Prassler, GPS-systems.

DisseminationThe dissemination of results is a crucial aspect of any R&Deffort. Dissemination takes on many forms, from publicationof results in journals and conferences to press releases to thegeneral community. To assist in the dissemination of results

JUNE 2005 IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 13

from the EURON community, a special effort has been setup. The activities have encompassed three main efforts: 1)mechanisms for publication of excellent research, 2) generalinformation to the community, and 3) a column in IEEERobotics & Automation Magazine.

There are a number of channels for dissemination ofresearch on robotics. So far, however, there have been alimited number of high-quality book series that cover allaspects of the field. Consequently, a joint effort has beenestablished with Springer-Verlag to publish a series of bookson the diverse topics in robotics. The book series is titledSpringer Tracts in Advanced Robotics—STAR. The series pub-lishes monographs (such as the theses awarded the GiraltPh.D. Award), conference proceedings (such as the Interna-tional Symposium on Robotics Research), and selectededited collections. The series is planned to be internationalin focus and, consequently, the editorial team is composedof Bruno Siciliano (University of Naples), Oussama Khatib(Stanford University), and Frans Groen (University of Ams-terdam). To date, 16 volumes have been published in theSTAR series, and it is off to an excellent start. Another tenvolumes are in the preparatory phase.

To ensure that the community is aware of the large vari-ety of activities taking place, whether they are sponsored byEURON or other actors, a joint Web facility is required.Also, efficient mechanisms for distribution of informationare required. To this end, a unified facility has been definedand created online. The http://www.euron.org facilitycontains complete coverage of the activities within Europeas well as pointers to other activities worldwide. TheEURON site is today a major site for distribution of infor-mation about robotics, particularly within Europe. Themaintenance of the site has been subcontracted to a compa-ny called GPS, which also is responsible for the editorialhandling of the material. The site is a crucial mechanismfor added awareness of activities throughout the Europeanregion. EURON also provides technical sponsorship for awide variety of conferences such as Intelligent AutonomousSystems (IAS), Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles (IAV), andAdvances in Service Robotics (ASER).

Finally, an agreement has been reached with the IEEERobotics and Automation Society (RAS) that a column is tobe published in each issue of IEEE Robotics & AutomationMagazine to report on major activities in Europe.

The key area on dissemination is coordinated by BrunoSiciliano of the University of Naples and Frans Groen of theUniversity of Amsterdam.

International LinksWhile there is a strong need for coordination of roboticsR&D across the European countries, it is important to rec-ognize that EURON is not alone; there are other efforts tocoordinate robotics efforts worldwide. Consequently, thereis a need to build strong ties with other communities. TheEURON effort is attempting to liaison with such communi-ties. As part of this effort, a memorandum of understanding

has been signed with the EUnited and the InternationalAssociation for Robot Progress (IARP). In addition, infor-mal links have been established with RAS and the Interna-tional Federation of Robotics Research (IFRR).

Perspective As mentioned earlier, a new program on robotics has recentlybeen launched by the EC as part of its 6th Framework Pro-gramme (FP6). The “Beyond Robotics” program(http://www.cordis.lu/ist/fet/ro.htm) is directed towards threetopic areas: 1) robotic companion (service robotics), 2) humanbionic systems (neuroscience-robotics interaction), and 3) com-munities of robots (coordination of a large number of robot sys-tems). In addition, an associated effort has been defined toprovide community support. Through a competitive call, a newNetwork of Excellence (EURON II) has been awarded a grantto coordinate the community effort for the 2004–2007 period.By early 2004, the European Community integrated a numberof new countries into the community (in particular, countriesfrom Eastern Europe). Consequently, a major effort is the inte-gration of research efforts from these countries into the widerEuropean robotics community. In addition, the EURON IIeffort has new mechanisms for sponsorship of prospectiveresearch projects, which is essentially research funds to sponsorhigh-risk ideas in robotics. Finally, the effort continues to spon-sor initiatives on roadmaps, summer schools, curricular devel-opments, industrial links, and dissemination.

Over the last few years, tremendous progress has beenachieved in terms of coordinating the European researchcommunity. A strong sense of community has been estab-lished on a par with what already existed in the United Statesand Japan. In addition, a number of concrete research projectsacross the involved countries has been intiated. Finally, arobotics program on EU research has been achieved.

KeywordsNetworking, research coordination, roadmapping, communi-ty integration.

References[1] H.I. Christensen, M. Hägele, R. Dillmann, A. Kazi, and U.G.

Norefors, “European robotics,” EURON-ERF white paper, Stock-holm, 2001.

Henrik I. Christensen is a chaired professor of computerscience at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stock-holm, Sweden. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degreesfrom Aalborg University, Denmark, and has held positions atAalborg, the University of Pennsylvania, and Oak RidgeNational Laboratory before joining KTH. His research is inservice robotics and systems integration. He is the foundingcoordinator of EURON.

Address for Correspondence: Henrik I. Christensen, Centrefor Autonomous Systems, Kungl tekniska Högskolan, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: hic@nada.kth.se.