The first “Industrial Robot Innovation Award” presented at CLAWAR 2003

Citation

(2004), "The first “Industrial Robot Innovation Award” presented at CLAWAR 2003", Industrial Robot, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2004.04931aab.004

The first “Industrial Robot Innovation Award” presented at CLAWAR 2003

The first “Industrial Robot Innovation Award” presented at CLAWAR 2003

Keywords: Robots, Award

Emerald, publisher of Industrial Robot, is delighted to announce that the first ever “Industrial Robot Innovation Award” was recently presented to the WorkPartner project at the CLAWAR 2003 event in Sicily.

The idea for this award was born from the belief that while there is a lot of innovative work being done in the field of robotics, there is also a lot of duplication and repetition of research, and that many researchers struggle to solve problems for which solutions are already available.

The aim therefore was to encourage fresh thinking and to reward this with a high status award and honorarium. The award is open to both industrial and service sectors and to both academia and those working in the industry.

This year's winner

We are delighted to announce that this years award goes to the WorkPartner project, led by Professor Halme of the Helsinki University of Technology.

WorkPartner is a mobile service robot, which works interactively with people. It is intended for everyday life tasks in outdoor environments (Plate 2).

Plate 2 The WorkPartner robot

Work is done by the aid of a human-like two hand manipulator. The hybrid locomotion system allows motion with legs and/or wheels at the same time. Tasks are learned and executed in close cooperation with the human operator

Anna Kochan, European Associate Editor for Industrial Robot presented an engraved handmade glass bowl, a certificate and an honorarium of Euro 400 to Sami Ylönen (Plate 3), Doctorate Student working on the project, who received the award on behalf of the group at the CLAWAR event. The WorkPartner paper will also appear in a forthcoming issue of Industrial Robot. The winners will also receive 1 year free Internet access to the Emerald engineering portfolio (valued at over Euro 3,000), which includes Industrial Robot and sister journals Sensor Review and Assembly Automation.

Plate 3 Sami Ylönen

Nominations for the 2004 Award

Nominations for the award can be made by any independent individual or organisation and should be sent to the Editor, Dr Clive Loughlin (E-mail: CliveLoughlin1@aol.com). Nominators should send the Editor a brief statement outlining why they think the nominee deserves the award and also include copies of the papers or other material that they would like the panel of judges to consider. A panel of four judges then separately appraise each nomination for both originality and practicality and decide on the winner.

Nominations for the 2004 Industrial Robot Innovation Award must be received no later than 1 June 2004.

A full report on the CLAWAR 2003 conference can be found in this issue of Industrial Robot.