– 23 March 2025 –
1.) Lineup for this year’s Georges Giralt PhD Award
The Georges Giralt PhD Award is a European scientific prize for extraordinary contributions in robotics. Out of more than 50 applications, the following four finalists were selected to pitch their PhD at ERF:
- Ignacio Cuiral-Zueco, Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain): Shape Control of Deformable Objects
- David Hardman, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom): Multimodal Soft Sensor Design through Single-Material Information Structuring
- Michele Pierallini, University of Pisa (Italy): Planning and Control for Soft Robots. Learning in model-based paradigm
- Erfan Shahriari, Technical University of Munich (Germany): Passivity-Based Force/Motion Planning and Control for Tactile Manipulation
Each thesis will be presented on Wednesday 8:30 in WS#22 Georges Giralt PhD Award 2025 finalist’s presentations. The winner will be announced during the award ceremony Wednesday 18:00 in the Hegelsaal. We congratulate all finalists and wish the audience an inspiring award session in which they will learn about latest advances in robotics research.
2.) Lineup for this year’s euRobotics Technology Transfer Award
Successful technology transfer describes the process of converting scientific findings from research laboratories into innovative products, processes, and services by the commercial sector. Out of a record number of 17 applications, the jury nominated the following four finalists:
- PREDIRE – Autonomous Sewer Network Inspection System. Mehdi Boukallel (CEA-List), Damien Vautier (Sarp, VEOLIA Group), Jérôme Taufour (Sarp, VEOLIA Group)
- olixSense – AI-Powered Inertial Measurement Unit for Advanced Robotics. Dr. Edwin Babaian (Olive Robotics GmbH), Dr. Mojtaba Leox Karimi (Olive Robotics GmbH), Prof. Dr. Eckehard Steinbach (Technical University of Munich)
- Cortex – A Physical AI Orchestration Model for Small Batch Manufacturing. Suman Pal (Telekinesis GmbH), Arjun Datta (Telekinesis GmbH), Prof. Jan Peters (Technical University of Darmstadt)
- Hammerhead – Enabling Precision Agriculture Through Autonomous Robots. Andrea Sala (FieldRobotics Ltd.), Dario Mengoli (FieldRobotics Ltd.), Lorenzo Marconi (FieldRobotics Ltd.)
Each team pitches on Tuesday 14:00 in the workshop session #24 euRobotics Technology Transfer Award 2025. The winners will be announced during the award ceremony on Wednesday 18:00 in the Hegelsaal. We congratulate all teams to be nominated as finalists and wish the audience an inspiring pitch session.
3.) Lineup for this year’s Renaud Champion Entrepreneurship Award
The euRobotics Renaud Champion Entrepreneurship Award is given each year to the most promising robotic start-up in Europe. This year’s finalists are:
- XiniX AI (Belgium): soft robotics for confined space inspections
- Enabling Robotics (Germany): assistive robotic manipulation
- O-Robotics (Denmark): urban street cleaning
- RobCo (Germany): smart modular robots
- Simobotics (Bulgaria): collaborative and autonomous mobile robots
Each startup pitches on Wednesday 11:10-12:30 in the session #23 Renaud Champion Entrepreneurship Award 2025. The winners will be announced during the award ceremony Wednesday 18:00-19:00 in the Hegelsaal.
4.) Nominees of the Scientific Track. Two awards will be given: One for “Robotics” and one for “AI for Robotics”
Track | ID | Author | Title |
Robotics | 7 | Robin Strässer (University of Stuttgart) Felix Brändle (University of Stuttgart) David Meister (University of Stuttgart) Marc Seidel (University of Stuttgart) Frank Allgöwer (Universität Stuttgart) | Autonomous E-Scooters for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Achievements and Insights from an Experimental Prototype |
Robotics | 50 | Alberto San Miguel (Eurecat) Gennaro Scarato (Eurecat) Alejandro Hernández (Eurecat) Mario Cavero (Eurecat) Aakash Maroti (Eurecat) Néstor García (Eurecat) | Advances on Affordable Hardware Platforms for Human Demonstration Acquisition in Agricultural Applications |
Robotics | 69 | Vincent Groenhuis (University of Twente) Stefano Stramigioli (University of Twente) | Dual-Piston Hoop Gear Driven MR Safe Pneumatic Stepper Motor |
Robotics | 70 | Anu Piirisild (University of Tartu) Leonid Zinatullin (University of Tartu) Alina Roštšinskaja (University of Tartu) Rasmus Eist (Pallas University of Applied Sciences) Renno Raudmäe (University of Tartu) Anneli Kolk (Tartu University Hospital) Alvo Aabloo (University of Tartu) Karl Kruusamäe (University of Tartu) | Structuring Social Robot Requirements: Integrating User Perception and Emotional Goals in Technical Development |
Robotics | 87 | Christoph Heindl (PROFACTOR/JKU) Gerhard Ebenhofer (Profactor GmbH) | SketchGuide: A Baseline Vision-Based Model for Rapid Robot Programming via Freehand Sketching on Any Surface |
AI for Robotics | 26 | Ahmed Abdelrahman (Technical University of Munich) Abdalla Swikir (Technical University of Munich) Peter So (MIRMI) Hoan Le (MIRMI TUM) Sami Haddadin (Technical University of Munich) | Task-oriented Visual Object Pose Estimation for Robot Manipulation: A Modular Approach |
AI for Robotics | 42 | Maximilian Mehl (Inria Rennes) Alberto Dalla Libera (University of Padova) Ruggero Carli (University of Padova) Marco Tognon (Inria) | Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Robust End-to-End UAV Control from Simulation to Real System Application |
AI for Robotics | 61 | Faseeh Ahmad (Lund University) Jonathan Styrud (KTH Royal Institute of Technology,) Volker Krueger (LTH) | Addressing Failures in Robotics using Vision-Based Language Models (VLMs) and Behavior Trees (BT) |
AI for Robotics | 79 | Mahya Mohammadi Kashani (IT University of Copenhagen) Stefan Heinrich (IT University of Copenhagen) Andrzej Wąsowski (IT University of Copenhagen) | MarineLLM-PDDL: Generation of Planning Domains for Marine Vessels Using Past Incident Response Plans |
AI for Robotics | 82 | Jaime Maldonado (University of Bremen) Malte Huerkamp (University of Bremen, Institute for Artificial Intelligence) Jonas Krumme (University of Bremen, Cognitive Neuroinformatics) Christoph Zetzsche (University of Bremen, Cognitive Neuroinformatics) Michael Beetz (University of Bremen, Institute for Artificial Intelligence) | Robot Pouring: Modeling and Sim-to-Real Evaluation Using Causal Discovery |
Learn more about the scientific track: https://erf2025.eu/scientific-track/
5.) Sustainability Award Finalists
5.1 Nominees Robotics Lab
- Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics at Empa and EPFL by Prof. Mirko Kovac
5.2 Nominees of Start-ups
- Trovador
- Samudra Oceans
- TRUST
5.3 R&D Projects
- “RENÉE: Flexible Remanufacturing Using AI and Advanced Robotics for Circular Value Chains in EU Industry” by LABORATORY FOR MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS and AUTOMATION
- “AI-Powered Robotics for Safe and Efficient EV Battery Recycling” by Dr Alireza Rastegarpanah
- “System Design for Optimized Operations of a Fleet of Autonomous Urban Service Robots” by Abhishek Gupta
- “Circular Robotics for Sustainable Waste Management” by Industry 5.0 & Smart Manufacturing Division, The ISENSE-Group of Institute Of Communication & Computer Systems (ICCS)
You are invited to join WS#25 Sustainability Leadership Recognition in Robotics 2025 (26.3. 14:00-15:20) in the Silchersaal