Winner of the 4th Robot Award 2010

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has announced the winners from  92 applicants of the "4th Robot of the Year Award" 2010.

Soft Robot wins Grand Prize 2010

METI: Safe Human-Robot Interaction

The winner of the Minister Award Prize 2010 for industrial robots is Toyota Motor Corporation, Ochiai Nekus Inc. Nagoya Institute of Technology and Tokyo Metropolitan University for its low power 80W energy-saving comfortable robot  installed at the Toyota car assembly plant working safely in cooperation with people.

Since 2006, METI has presented the "Robot of the Year" awards in recognition of contributions to market creation and the most promising robots of that year. The award program has resulted in an increase in the number of inquiries received by the winning companies and otherwise helped to achieve increased visibility for robots and achieve market creation.

Venture Business Award was awarded to the Pork Ham Automatic Slitting and Deboner Robot HAMDAS-R developed by Mayekawa. It is a mechanized slitting process assumed to be the most difficult for automation by optimally controlling knives incorporated in vertical multi-joint robots. This system has achieved high or higher yield ration than a skilled-workers do.  The system doesn't cut off the meat but debone with dismantling so the meat is free from the damages caused by knife. Since human hands don't touch the meat, the problem of sanitation and security is highly improved. HAMDAS-R will contribute yield ration improvement and man-power saving.



Japan Machinery Federation President Award was awarded to the Medication Picking Robot System developed by Panasonic Healthcare Corporation.

Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises Chairman Award was awardet to Expliner high pressure transmission lines inspection robot developed by HiBot Inc.

Hisashi Tate Award Miraikan was awarded to "Kibo" Robotic Arm developed by Agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NEC Corporation (NEC).

Service robot sector "Excellence Award" was awarded to humanoid robot HRP-4C developed by National Institute of AIST 

Courtesy AIST: HRP-4C

HRP-4C was efficiently developed based on the User Centered Robot Open Architecture utilizing the fundamental robot technologies (RTs) including real-time Linux, RT middleware, robot simulator OpenHRP3, speech recognition and bipedal walking technology which have been studied and developed at AIST .

HRP-4C is expected to be useful in the entertainment industry, for device evaluation for humans working as human simulators, and mechanical products to assist human movements.

Service robot sector "Excellence Award" was also awarded to the strawberry harvesting robot developed by Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution (BRAIN) and Esuai Seiko Co., Ltd, and to and joystick driving system developed by National University Corporation Tokyo University of Agriculture and Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. Nissin.

Industrial Robots division "Excellence Award" was awarded to M-1iA light weight and compact high speed assembly robot series developed by FANUC Robot.

Public sector Frontier "Excellence Award" was awarded to FRIGO-M fire-fighting reconnaissance robot developed by Special Equipment Systems Co., Mitsubishi denki and Fire Academy and Fire Research Ministry.

Component Software Division "Excellence Award" was awarded to Module D3 service robot communication kit developed by D3 Technology Co., Ltd.

Robot Award of the Year Winners 2006-2010 (click image to enlarge)

Infonaut/GRB - Robot Award of the Year Winners 2006-2010

Swiss Fibre-optic Robot cuts costs

Swisscom has won the FTTH (Fibre to the Home) Council Europe Innovation Award in the Deployment & Operation Innovations category for developing a robot to enable simple and fast expansion of the fibre-optic network. Up to 50 per cent of the underground engineering work involved in laying the fibre-optic network can be avoided thanks to the robot. Swisscom's innovation is helping to speed up fibre-optic expansion in Switzerland and cut costs.

One robot is already being used to build the fibre-optic network. Five more will follow from April 2010. Both Swisscom and its cooperation partners stand to benefit from their use in expanding the fibre-optic network. The robot is to be used as often as possible in the future, not just to expand the fibre-optic network, but to repair the existing network too. Other network construction companies can also use the fibre-optic robots. Bex-based Plumettaz SA, an international specialist in cable-laying products, is set to take on the job of sales and marketing of the robot with immediate effect.

Three final candidates for the Robotdalen Scientific Award

The three final candidates of the Robotdalen Scientific Award have been elected and will all attend the prize ceremony at Robotdalen Day in Örebro September 5, where the winner will be officially presented. The final candidates are:
* Bram Vanderborght from Virje Universiteit Brussel in Belgium,
* Eric Demeester from Katholieke Universiteit in Belgium,
* Mike Stilman from Carnegie Mellon University in the USA.

Swedish Robotdalen has founded The Robotdalen Scientific Award, an international competition for young scientists, with EUR 20 000 in prize money. The purpose is to encourage young, innovative people all over the world in the field of robotics and automation, to find new and untried approaches for the future.

The Robotdalen Scientific Award 2007

The Swedish innovation cluster Robot Valley, in Swedish called Robotdalen, has announced The Robotdalen Scientific Award, an international competition for young scientists, with EUR 20 000 in prize money. The purpose is to encourage young, innovative people all over the world in the field of robotics and automation, to find new and untried approaches for the future. The first entry date is June 30, 2007.

The international research award is for graduate and postgraduate students worldwide, who have completed or are about to complete their degree. The award promotes groundbreaking ideas and exceptional talent, and is worth a total of EUR 20 000. Young academics from all faculties and any nationality can submit a summary of their graduate or postgraduate thesis. Finals papers of Bachelor's and Master's Degree courses are also eligible for submission.