The Portuguese Robotics Society (SPR) awarded several works developed in the field of robotics in 2020. Usually, these awards are announced in person, at the ICARSC conference (IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions); however, this year, and due to the current situation, the results were only disclosed in May. Researchers from INESC TEC’s Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS) received two awards: the “SPR Award for Innovation and Technology Transfer in Robotics” and an honourable mention in the “Best Paper Award”, by the Industrial Robot journal.
The 21st edition of the conference took place online, on April 28 and 29, co-organised by the University of Aveiro, the University of Coimbra, the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar and the Portuguese Robotics Society (SPR), with the support of Santa Maria da Feira municipality and Edu.Tech (Education and Technology), and the logistical support of Modal Creativity.
Innovation and Technology Transfer in Robotics
The “SPR Award for Innovation and Technology Transfer in Robotics” was awarded to the project UV-C ROBOT – Autonomous Disinfection of Closed Spaces through Ultraviolet-C Radiation. Developed at INESC TEC, the project’s team included António Paulo Moreira, Paulo Costa, Cláudia Rocha, Marcelo Petry, Manuel Silva, José Lima and André Baltazar, researchers at CRIIS, as well as António Amorim, a former member of said centre.
The project was developed in partnership with DCSI + Pro, and focused on developing a robot capable of performing the autonomous 360º cleaning of closed spaces, using UV-C radiation, effectively eliminating all bacteria and viruses.
According to António Moreira, professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, and head of the RADAR project, receiving this award “is an honour”.
“I believe that receiving this award from SPR, an organisation that I consider instrumental within the Portuguese robotics community, is quite important. This award shows that the partners in this field acknowledge the importance and applicability of our research and innovative products development. The dissemination of our work, either by the partners, or through the Robótica journal, is important to inform a larger audience of the advances achieved at CRIIS”, concluded the researcher.
Industrial Robot – “Best Paper Award”
SPR and the international scientific journal Industrial Robot – The International Journal of Robotics Research and Application established a partnership, and the journal’s editorial board awarded prizes to the best articles submitted and presented at ICARSC’2021, with Vítor Tinoco obtaining an honourable mention for his work “A Review of Pruning and Harvesting Manipulators”.
The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with IPP-ISEP, UP-FEUP and INESC TEC.
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