ERF2023 - 10th workshop for Hybrid Production Systems (HPS)

The European Robotics Forum 2023 (ERF2023), the most influential meeting of the robotics community in Europe, has been held from 14 – 16 March in Odense, Denmark . Over 1000 European robotics top experts are expected to attend the 13th edition of the conference.  ERF2023 hosted a major exhibition where companies, universities and research institutes showcase the most advanced European prototypes, products, services and projects funded under EU’s Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research programme in the field of robotics. Researchers, engineers, managers, and a growing number of entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and public funding officers from all over Europe came together to discuss technology push and market pull and how innovation in robotics and robotics-related AI can be accelerated.

Within this context, the 10th Workshop on Hybrid Production Systems took place on March 15th. The workshop was split into 2 parts focusing on the following topics:

• Part 1 – Intelligent workpiece handling
• Part 2 – AI for HRC

Each part consisted of two targeted sessions each on different aspects of Hybrid Production systems, given by speakers from organizations throughout Europe, representing RTOs, Industries, and Academics. Presentations included:

• Impulse presentations on just-started research projects
  • They focused on the industrial challenges that each project derived from as well as the real-life cases they target and the enabling technologies that will be used to overcome the existing challenges.
• Interactive panel discussions
  • They were designed to engage the audience in an open dialogue with the panel speakers using interactive tools (including both academic and industrial people) to identify the milestones achieved so far and the key challenges to be addressed in the next years.

The fourth and final session of the workshop focused on technological advancements and enablers towards seamless HRC, providing insights and lessons learnt from recently concluded EU-funded projects – success stories (e.g. SHERLOCK, SHAREWORK) followed by a panel discussion including representatives from key EU technology providers related to HRC.

Overall, the HPS Workshop provided a great opportunity for academic researchers or industry professionals to listen to the technical activities that are performed in a number of European-funded projects, learn about the developments in key technologies and discuss on the main challenges faced.