The finalists for the 2021 KUKA Innovation Award have been selected. Five teams convinced the international jury with their robotics concepts on the topic of AI. The winner team will be announced at the Hannover Fair Digital Edition on Thursday, April 15, and can look forward to a monetary prize of 20,000 euros. Until then, you can experience the concepts of the five finalists up close.
Innovation Award 2021: Artificial Intelligence Challenge
By adding artificial intelligence to existing robot systems, the aim is to revolutionize the way humans and robots work together. This year's competition therefore focuses on new use cases in which robots have so far faced major challenges in interacting with their real environment. Among the numerous applications for the tender on the subject of AI, an international jury of experts selected the five best concepts. To enable the finalists to realize these KUKA is providing them with a sensitive lightweight robot LBR iiwa and a 3D vision sensor from Roboception free of charge. They will also receive training and coaching from KUKA experts throughout the competition. The five final teams have until the virtual Hannover Messe in April to implement their concepts. At the HM Digital Edition (12-16 April 2021), they will present their applications to an international audience of experts and to the jury, which will select the winner of the prestigious competition within the framework of the virtual trade fair.
About the KUKA Innovation Award
The award is being presented for the eighth time. As the world's leading company in robot-based automation, KUKA has been working closely with scientists and R&D partners worldwide on various scientific and technical topics for many years. To strengthen this cooperation, the KUKA Innovation Award was launched in 2014.
The competition aims to accelerate the overall pace of innovation in the field of robot-based automation and to strengthen technology transfer from research to industry. It addresses developers, graduates and research teams of companies or universities.
Further information to the Artificial Intelligence Challenge
The applicants were asked to select new use cases in which robots today face serious challenges in interacting with their real environment. It was required that the applications cover a wide range of sectors, from manufacturing industry and agriculture to inspection, maintenance and end users. AI is becoming increasingly important for industry – and the combination with robotics, in particular, is opening up completely new possibilities and applications. By adding Artificial Intelligence to existing robotic systems, the aim is to revolutionize the way humans and robots work together.