The European Robotics Forum 2021 (ERF 2021), the most influential meeting of the robotics community in Europe, was held as a virtual event 13-15 April 2021. The ERF2021 covers all aspects and current themes related to the field of robotics. Researchers, engineers, managers, and a growing number of entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and public funding officers from all over Europe come together to discuss technology push and market pull and how innovation in robotics and robotics-related AI can be accelerated.

SOFTMANBOT project, together with 3 sister projects (APRIL project , MERGING Project and REMODEL project funded by the European Commission through the call DT-FOF-12-2019 – Handling systems for flexible materials (RIA) ), is currently working to advance the state of the art on the handling of soft materials with robots

This challenge will play a significant role in the factories of the future, in sectors such as the textile, food, electric and electronics industries.

The four projects have co-organized a workshop on the 13^th of April, to compare their approaches to soft objects manipulation and to identify synergies and specificities. The workshop aimed to increase awareness of the importance of developing solutions for manipulating soft and deformable objects, to inform about the main scientific and technical challenges involved, and to highlight the economic and societal impact of such solutions for the European industry. In order to give the audience an overview of the specific needs of various industries, each project focused its presentation on one chosen use-case – although they all cover several industrial sectors in their work plan. The workshop attracted more than one hundred participants and we will share the link to see the recordings in the next few weeks.

To discover more, you can download here SOFTMANBOT’s presentation.