News Release

The Basque Country, European capital of robotics

The 2 main continental platforms of the sector gather together for the first time: EURON and EUROP

Business Announcement

Elhuyar Fundazioa

This release is available in Spanish.

The Basque Country has been the European capital of robotics for a few days, holding a conference in which, for the first time, the two main European entities on the subject were joined: The European Robotics Research Network -EURON- and The European Robotics Technology -EUROP-. Under the name of 'euRobotics event', the main continental companies of the sector, universities, and representatives of the European Commission met the 10th, 11th and 12th of March. The outstanding positioning of FATRONIK-Tecnalia in the field of robotics has favoured the Basque technological centre to organise this meeting, which has been the ideal setting for EURON and EUROP to give a step forward in their objective of reducing the existing gap between industry and academia.

270 experts attended the event, which means that it has been the most important meeting of experts in robotics held in Europe up to now. The 'euRobotics event' gathered together the most outstanding companies in industrial robotics -Kuka Roboter, ABB and Comau-; in service robotics -BlueBotics, MoviRobotics, Aldebaran Robotics and Robosoft-; and in security and space robotics -Alenia Aeronáutica and Selex Galileo-. Besides, the main centres and universities that work in this field were also represented: DLR Institute of Robotic and Mechatronics, K.U. Leuven, Fraunhofer IPA, Universita Napoli Federico II and TU München.

One of the central subjects of the event was to approach the last trends in the robotics world from the industrial and academic points of view, as well as studying in depth the business opportunities of the sector.

On the 10th of March, the general meeting of The European Robotics Technology -EUROP- took place. In that meeting, among other matters, they discussed about what robotics can do to face the challenges of the society. Thursday 11th of March was the joint day of EURON and EUROP, with the presence of representatives of the European Commission. During that day, among other subjects, they discussed about how to reduce the existing gap between industry and academia, one of the central subjects of the meeting. On the 12th, the general meeting of EURON took place. They tackled technological and scientific aspects, as well as legal, social and ethical subjects related to the sector. They also talked about robotic systems for security and the aerospace industry.

EURON is formed by a community of more than 200 academic and industrial groups in Europe with the objective of doing advanced research and development to make better robots. EUROP is a platform created to promote the industry of robotics and to strengthen Europe's competitiveness in R&D for this sector, as well as to improve quality of life with robotics.

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