European Research Council awards three outstanding robotics researchers with million Euros ERC Grants

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Burgard, Institute for Computer Science, Research Laboratory for Autonomous Intelligent Systems at the University of Freiburg, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant totalling around 2.5 million euros for his project "LifeNav - Reliable Lifelong Navigation for Mobile Robots". The LifeNav project seeks to investigate how to construct mobile robots that are able to navigate fully autonomously and operate over long periods of time in complex and dynamic application scenarios.
Academic Profile 1983-2010 (1)

Wolfram Burgard: 321 publications, 7630 Citations, G-Index 82, H-Index: 45, collaborated with 230 co-authors from 1990-2010

Prof. Dr. Martin Buss, Institute of Automatic Control Engineering, TU Munich, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant totalling around 2,5 million euros for his project "SHRINE - Seamless Human Robot Interaction in Dynamic Environment" to highlight and further promote the outstanding achievements by his team in the field of advanced Human-Robot-Interaction.

Academic Profile 1983-2010

Publications: 273 | Citations: 716 | G-Index: 17 | H-Index: 12, Collaborated with  259 co-authors, from 1983 to 2010

Prof. Dr. Brad Nelson, founder of the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab , has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his project "BOTMED - Microrobotics and Nanomedicine".  His current research is in microrobotics, biomicrorobotics, and nanorobotics, including efforts in robotic micromanipulation, microassembly, MEMS (sensors and actuators), mechanical manipulation of biological cells and tissue, nanofabrication and NanoElectroMechanical Systems (NEMS).
Academic Profile 1983-2010

Publications: 150 | Citations: 556 | G-Index: 18 | H-Index: 14, collaborated with  208 co-authors, from 1993 to 2010.
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The European Research Council (ERC) is the first European funding body set up to support investigator-driven frontier research. Its main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the very best, truly creative scientists, scholars and engineers to be adventurous and take risks in their research. The scientists are encouraged to go beyond established frontiers of knowledge and the boundaries of disciplines. The ERC complements other funding activities in Europe such as those of the national research funding agencies, and is a flagship component of the 'Ideas Programme' of the European Union's Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7).
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(1) Sources: ERC, Microsoft Academic Search (G-Index, H-Index)