KUKA : Kickoff for KUKA Innovation Award 2018

'We look forward to exciting concepts from the areas of medical, service and domestic robotics which go beyond the previous focus on industry,' says Dr. Bernd Liepert, KUKA Chief Innovation Officer and patron of the innovation competition. This year's competition focuses on robots interacting with and directly supporting humans outside of the industrial environment.

The concept and presentation of the applications should be as realistic as possible. An international jury of experts will select the best concepts from among all the entries until July 20. The finalists then have nine months to realize their ideas. They will present their developments to an international audience of specialists at a major flagship trade fair in 2018. There, the jury will crown the winner of the renowned competition.

To enable fair comparison of the concepts, KUKA provides each of the final teams with a flexFellow - a mobile robotic unit on which an LBR iiwa (a sensitive lightweight robot for safe human-robot collaboration) is mounted. Beyond this, a 3D vision system from the start-up company Roboception will be available.