ESMERA, the EU-funded program to develop the European robotics sector, has released a list of 20 new “experiments” that will receive support from the organisation.
The 20 new experiments started within the ESMERA project as of May 1st, 2020. The word “ESMERA” is short for European SMEs Robotic Applications.
Within the project’s second Open Call, which ended in December 2019, 69 applications were registered, all proposing to solve either a pre-defined robotics challenge or bringing with them their own challenge provider and challenge.
Out of these 69 applications, the most promising 20 experiments have now been selected.
In Phase I of ESMERA, proving their concept, they get funding of up to €75,000 each as well as technical support and business mentoring by the ESMERA consortium.
Within the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, ESMERA aims to boost robotics innovation by European Small and Medium sized Enterprises.
Key European companies defined real-life industrial challenges, specific problems that seek innovative solutions in manufacturing, construction, energy, healthcare, retail, food processing, emergency response and agriculture.
Applicants could also bring their own challenge provided that it is supported by an industry in direct need of the potential robotic solution (challenge provider).
Within this second Open Call, 15 experiments address pre-defined ESMERA challenges, five have brought in their own open challenge.
The 20 selected experiments will now have nine months to prove their concept. During that phase, the ESMERA consortium provides technical support, business mentoring and training to bring the experiments up to speed.
After the next nine months, external evaluators will review their progress and select the final experiments that will then proceed in Phase II, the final stage toward industrializing and commercializing the robotics product.
ESMERA comprises two Open Calls. The first Open Call, which ended in November 2018, has already brought to light five final experiments that already are in Phase II of the ESMERA project.
One more agricultural experiment will follow within the next months.
Altogether, almost €2.9 million have been approved and distributed among the ESMERA experiments so far of both the first and second Open Call.
The following 20 selected proposals alone receive an overall amount of €1.245 million for starting into their development phase.
List of the 20 selected proposals for Phase I, starting May 1st:
| Organisations | Acronym | Sector | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feron Technologies, Idiotiki, Kefalaiouchiki, Etaireia | Ameson | Emergency response | Greece |
| Munckhof Fruit Tech Innovators, Riwo Engineering | Together | Agri-food | Netherlands |
| Spin Robotics IVS, Pehama Production | MoCAAS | Manufacturing | Denmark |
| Agricultural & Environmental Solutions, National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos, Agricultural University of Athens | Irta | Agri-food | Greece |
| Flox | Flox | Agri-food | UK |
| Sewts | SWTS-FE | Manufacturing | Germany |
| Fraunhofer Austria Research, Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft, craftworks | Suspicion | Manufacturing | Austria |
| ZeniaLabs Automation Intelligence, Electronics and Opto-Mechanics Engineering EXOM, Alpha Laser, Tecnalia Research & Innovation | Rover4RT | Construction | Spain / Germany |
| Follow Inspiration | WGL | Retail | Portugal |
| MDM Team, Universitá degli Studi di Firenze | Romero | Emergency response | Italy |
| Kilt, Enekos | Web2Print Garment | Manufacturing | Finland |
| Hidropar Hareket Kontrol Teknolojileri Merkezi Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi | Saraf | Manufacturing | Turkey |
| Pulverizadores Rocha, INESC TEC Tecnologia e Ciencia | Prysm | Agri-Food | Portugal |
| SVMAC Ingenieria Sistemas y Vehiculos, STIC Foundation Technology Center | SARA | Agri-food | Spain |
| IT+Robotics, University of Padova | SPIWI | Food Processing | Italy |
| MetraLabs, Neue Technologien und Systeme, Universidad de Extremadura, Universidad de Málaga | SA3IR | Retail | Germany / Spain |
| Ingeniarius | Rail-o-bot | Construction | Portugal |
| WPWEB | Pluto | Construction | Italy |
| University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Helvetis |
AeroWind | Energy | Croatia / Switzerland |
| Cyber Surgery | NeRo | Healthcare | Spain |
The European Commission launched the ESMERA project in January 2018 to “unlock the innovation potential of robotics SMEs”.
ESMERA promotes applied robotics technology developed for industrial challenges set by key European companies.
Thereby the SMEs get a chance to implement, apply and prove new technologies that address real-life problems and already have a market.
The ESMERA consortium consists of:
- Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation at the University of Patras (Project Coordinator)
- Commissarat à l´Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives
- Technische Universität München
- Fundación Tekniker
- Blue Ocean Robotics
- Comau
- RU Robots
