Areas mainly addressed: Agri-Food, Maintenance and Inspection, Autonomy, Collaborative Robots and cloud robotics 

Main questions to be answered: 

· What are the major technological barriers in mechatronics for better real-world robots? 

· What are the major commercial barriers in availability of suitable mechatronics components? 

· Where should our field focus its efforts in the coming 5-10 years? 

WS Description: As the physical side of robot intelligence, mechatronics is the foundational technology that enables robots to move, locomote, and physically interact with their environment. Therefore, it is core to numerous applications, with vastly different requirements. Recent years have seen significant advances in mechatronics, both on the technological side as well as in the commercial availability of components. However, significant barriers remain on both these fronts that hinder development and application of robotics on a broader scale. 

This workshop aims to evaluate the state of the art, identify current technological and commercial barriers, and look ahead to promising new developments and roadmapping. 

Intended outcome: Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc, Workshop expected to create a roadmap or white paper, Workshop on recent developments in technology or applications, Workshops engaging non-roboticists to understand needs/goals (policy, commercial, technical) 

Approach: After a short introduction by the organisers, four speakers from mixed industrial and academic backgrounds will give very short talks, describing their view on the state, barriers, and future of mechatronics, from an academic, commercial, or mixed perspective. 

Subsequently, a substantial part (40%) of this workshop will be dedicated to a panel and audience discussion on important topics related to these questions. This discussion will be initiated and led by the organisers, with predefined questions and those gathered from important points from the speaker talks. 

We hope to achieve a stimulating discussion on this incredibly important field that is all too often forgotten in this age of focus on software and AI. 

Contributors: Industrial contributors: 

– Andrija Feher (Synapticon) 

– Francesco Ferro (PAL Robotics) 

Academic contributors: 

– Nikos Tsagarakis (Italian Institute of Technology, IIT) 

– Tamim Asfour (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT) 

Organisers: 

· Wesley Roozing, w.roozing@utwente.nl, University of Twente

· Navvab Kashiri, navvab.kashiri.ext@leonardo.com, Leonardo Labs | Intelligent Autonomous System (IAS

Areas mainly addressed: Agile Production, B2B and innovation 

Main questions to be answered: 

· How to manage the death valley from lab results to industrial products, especially for the mature spin-off with already successful products? 

· What environmental and social issues can be impacted by industrial miniaturized robotics, and how to positive impacts can be pushed forward? 

· Wide but scattered market, few suppliers: Could collaboration between miniaturized robotics companies help open the market? 

WS Description: This workshop aims to facilitate the first interaction between spin-offs in miniaturized robotics to build a global response to upcoming challenges. After more than 15 years of activity, miniaturized robotics has demonstrated the economic viability of industrial applications. However, if miniaturized robotics labs are active only to strengthen their own collaboration and visibility, and spin-off companies are just concerned with their own businesses, this could hinder the visibility and overall performance of this highly potential and dynamic robotic sector. In this workshop, we will present the current achievements of key industry players in miniaturised robotics, as well as their collaboration with academic partners. The workshop is expected to renew a global vision of academic-industrial cooperation and will impact the responsiveness of miniaturized robotics to future challenges. 

Intended outcome: Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc, Workshop on recent developments in technology or applications, Workshop covering material new to ERF that the Robotics community should engage with 

Approach: The goal of the WS is to let people meet and discuss to create and a highly inclusive miniaturized robotic community, not only relying on academics. The workshop will be organized in the form of short presentations of successful industrial achievement (crossing the valley of death), and a vision for the future. 

The workshop will be followed by a panel discussion, which will probably continue after the workshop. 

Tentative agenda: (80 min) 

* 5-6 Presentations from industrial speakers (50-60 minutes) 

* Panel discussion, both industrial and academic (20-30 minutes, the time may not be sufficient, the additional discussion will be continued after the workshop) 

Contributors: – M. Philippe Beaulieu, Mecademic, Canada, confirmed 

– M. David Heriban, Percipio Robotics, France, confirmed 

– Prof. Sinan Haliyo, Univ. Paris Sorbonne, France, confirmed 

– Dr. Ziyu Ren, Max Plank Institute, Germany, confirmed 

– Dr Maxence Leveziel, FEMTO-ST, France, confirmed 

– Dr. Fabian von Kleist-Retzow, Univ. Oldenburg, Germany, confirmed 

Organisers: 

· David Hériban, david.heriban@percipio-robotics.com, Percipio Robotics

· Isabelle Faggianelli, isabelle.faggianelli@percipio-robotics.com, Percipio Robotics 

· QuanZhou, quan.zhou@aalto.fi, Aalto University 

· Michaël Gauthier, michael.gauthier@femto-st.fr, FEMTO-ST

Project cluster relation:

APRIL [DT-FOF-12-2019] https://aprilproject.eu/ 

SOFTMANBOT [H2020-FoF-11] http://softmanbot.eu/ 

Decathlon [Tissue manipulation use-case] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c72TGHsyfOo 

CISUTAC [GA 10106037 

Areas mainly addressed: Agile Production 

Main questions to be answered: 

· How intelligent and autonomous should the robot be to be integrated in industrial plants and how is the current state of robots in industrial plants dealing with soft materials manipulation? 

· How intelligent and autonomous should the robot be to be integrated in industrial plants with respect to the current state of robots dealing with soft materials manipulation? 

· What is the trade-off between tailored design of robotic grippers and the adaptive intelligent control? 

WS Description: This workshop proposes future potential technology to handle flexible and deformable materials, in order to reduce labour-intensive production processes. Four different projects (APRIL, SoftManBot, CISUTAC and Masterly) will be presented from an academic and industrial point of view. The projects are at different stages of development, and they will show 11 different applied solutions, and 4 different novel approaches. All the projects are built on three main pillars: generic robotic perception system, multi-sensor control and planning platform and smart dexterous grippers. The workshop will focus on deformation of soft materials, manipulation operation and presence of human operators in the loop. Finally, the high quality speakers and the following discussions will bring in new ideas, which will help the attendees to widen their vision about the soft material manipulation trend. 

Intended outcome: Novel format (e.g. interactive matchmaking session for technologies and applications), Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc 

Approach: 80min-long workshop 

5min WS introduction 

15min APRIL project + ASINCAR food packaging Use-Case 

15min SoftManBot project + Decathlon Use-Case 

10min CISUTAC project 

10min MASTERLY project 

30min Moderated discussion 

5min Conclusions 

Contributors: Francesco Rea (male, Junior), Researcher in Contact cognitive architecture for interactive technologies, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Academic, Confirmed, APRIL project presentation 

Alice Tori (female), Vicepresident of innovation and development, OSAI-AS, Invited, electrical case study 

Dr Mohammad Alkhatib (male, Junior), Researcher, SIGMA Clermont University (FR), Academic, Confirmed – SoftmanBot Presentation 

Pierpaolo Rotondi (male), Decathlon Produzione Italia (IT), Large Industry, Confirmed – Decathlon use-case presentation 

Alberto Landini (male), Stam s.r.l, SME, confirmed – CISUTAC presentation 

Dr Nikos Dimitropoulos (male, junior), LMS – Laboratory for Manufacturing System and Automation – University of Patras (EL), Academic, Confirmed – MASTERLY presentation 

Dr Andreas Mueller (male), Johannes Kepler University (AU), Academic, Confirmed – Moderator 

Dr Ferdinando Cannella (male), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Academic, Confirmed –Conclusions 

Further information: APRIL https://aprilproject.eu/ 

SOFTMANBOT http://softmanbot.eu/ 

Decathlon [Tissue manipulation use-case] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c72TGHsyfOo 

CISUTAC https://www.cisutac.eu/ 

MASTERLY (the webs 

Organisers: 

· Ferdinando Cannella, ferdinando.cannella@iit.it, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

· Andreas Mueller, a.mueller@jku.at, Johannes Kepler University (JKU) 

· GabrieleMarchello, gabriele.marchello@iit.it, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)

Areas mainly addressed: Agile Production, Robotics and AI/Big Data Value 

Main questions to be answered: 

· What new areas and new applications will be opened up by robot-based 3D printing in the future? 

· What new capabilities will robots gain from advanced additive manufacturing technologies in the future? 

WS Description: In this workshop we bring together experts from different areas of additive manufacturing and robotics to discuss recent/future developments and applications to identify existing gaps. 

The main advantage of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is the reduction of material consumption, which means a significant reduction in the weight of the manufactured parts. Likewise, due to its great agility, versatility and reduced costs in iterative processes, AM leads to a reduction in prototype development times and also allows the execution of complex geometries that are not possible with traditional methods. Advanced technologies already allow the production of functional components that find their use in robotics. 3D printing itself, also benefits from robots when they are used as part of the tool. 

Intended outcome: Novel format (e.g. interactive matchmaking session for technologies and applications), Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc, Workshops engaging non-roboticists to understand needs/goals (policy, commercial, technical) 

Approach: WORKSHOP FOR 3D PRINTING IN ROBOTICS 

In our workshop we address the following topics: 

(a) Robot based additive manufacturing and 

(b) 3D printed robot components. 

PROGRAM OF THE WORKSHOP 

80 minutes in sum: 3 speakers (around 12 minutes each) and an interactive part (40 minutes). 

* Mathias Brandstötter (research): Overview of the technology and how does additive manufacturing promote technological progress within robotics 

* Stephan Henrich (innvoation): Endless-Fiber-Additive-Manufacturing with robots 

* Emil Johannson (industry): Robot-based 3D printing for manufacturing and repair on demand 

INTERACTION 

Interactive workshop (all speakers and workshop participant

For this part in our workshop, two groups will be set up and each led by two experts. Each group has one of the two guiding questions, which is discussed and answered together with the participants. 

Contributors: 

Mathias Brandstötter (male, Austria) – ADMiRE Research Center, CUAS 

Professor of Robotics and Mechatronic Systems, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Head of ADMiRE Research Center – Additive Manufacturing, Intelligent Robotics, Sensors and Engineering 

Mathias leads several research projects on the topic of additive manufacturing in connection with robotics, as well as healthcare and sustainability. 

CEO, Stephan Henrich (male, Germany) – Robotic Design and Architecture 

Stephan is developing robotic processes automatizing the production of architectonic structures. He is specialized in design for additive manufacturing and will talk about “Endless-Fiber-Additive-Manufacturing with Robots”. He designed the 3D Cocooner from Festo, as one example. 

CEO Emil Johannson (male, Sweden) – ADAXIS 

Emil is co-founder of the French-Swedish startup ADAXIS, which is building software with the aim to revolutionize the manufacturing industry by making it effortless to use robotic arms as flexible 3D printers for plastics, composites, metals, and concrete parts. Its vision is to become the key enabler for a resilient and localized manufacturing ecosystem by combining robotics with modern process technologies. 

Further information:

* http://www.admire.center 

* https://stephanhenrich.de 

* https://adaxis.eu 

Organisers: 

· Mathias Brandstötter, m.brandstoetter@fh-kaernten.at, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences

· José Saenz, jose.saenz@iff.fraunhofer.de, Fraunhofer IFF

Main questions to be answered: 

· How can we push the boundaries further in what is achievable with humanoid and legged robots? 

· Do you think AI is going to replace the classical/optimal control approach used for legged robots? 

· Do you think bipeds are a better choice than quadrupeds? 

WS Description: Legged robots offer the advantage of being able to traverse complex environments that other robots equipped with locomotion systems cannot achieve. Humanoid robots specifically are an embodiment able to loco-manipulate the environment as a human does. The latest developments are pushing the limits in this sense, however, there are still challenges to overcome. 

This workshop aims to discuss the latest developments in humanoid and legged robots, including how we can push the boundaries further. The session will focus on humanoid and legged robots, including the bipedal humanoid Kangaroo, and the research platform TALOS. We will be joined by research institutions, and developers in the topic, as well as robotics companies. 

The workshop will gather all of the speakers together in a roundtable session to discuss current and future use cases, giving a chance for dynamic discussion. 

Intended outcome: Novel format (e.g. interactive matchmaking session for technologies and applications), Workshop covering material new to ERF that the Robotics community should engage with 

Approach: Discussion panel – 50 min 

Dynamic section with the attendess – 30 min 

Contributors: We will be joined by research institutions, including research groups and developers in the topic and robotics companies working to develop legged and humanoid platforms. 

Organisers: 

· Francesco Ferro, euprojects@pal-robotics.com, PAL Robotics

· Sarah Terreri, euprojects@pal-robotics.com, PAL Robotics