R3-COP

The R3-Cop project has the goal to create new, cutting-edge technologies that will provide European industries with the means to produce autonomous and co-operative robotic systems. The idea is to develop these systems for a lower price than what is currently available.

Within the four years of run time of the R3-Cop project, the team addressed wishes to cut the costs by 15% and increase the complexity of the systems by 25%, at 10% less effort. This work will subsequently elevate the strategic European position in robotics.

At this time, the robotic sector in Europe is very fragmented; there is no interconnection and communication between different projects/systems in the same field of robot technology. By creating a cross-domain platform for real world autonomous systems, such as assistance robots and unmanned airplanes, a definite connection will be made between all these systems.

In this context, autonomous systems refers to systems which can function without continuous human control and can perform tasks in an unstructured environment. In theory, this would lead to systems being able to learn from others systems, which are not necessarily from the same industry.

R3-Cop aims to interconnect multiple industries that at first glance have very little in common, such as transport, agriculture, healthcare and surveillance. This would clearly reduce future development costs and may strengthen the system's overall robustness. This robotics project is supported by 11 European countries, some leading technological companies (Philips and Siemens) and universities.