Johanne Aarup from the winning team explains:

- The room is a natural way to play with music. Young people can compose their own songs from different severities. This is something that can help to give them confidence and awareness.

Tony Brooks, Associate Professor of Media Technology at Aalborg University and one of the jury members, opened in traditional Oscar-style an envelope and read the winning names aloud: Justina (Latvia), Michala (Czech Republic), Joanna (Denmark), Kongteng (China) and Horatio (Romania). The winning team was, beside praises and applauses, also awarded with a check of 3500 Euros. After the award ceremony, the Deputy Mayor Jane Jegind was invited to say a few words, and she emphasized, among other things, that students and their contributions are an important part of Odense's vision and future.

Further Information

Torben Hansen
Development manager
SDE College
T +45 6312 6513
tlh@sde.dk

For Simon Blackmore, who is considered one of the most experienced forces in the development of robotics to agriculture, the conference was a welcomed opportunity to get more people interested in development of green robotics.

Simon Blackmore, who at the conference featured the Danish agricultural robots as some of the leading in the world, said:

- I am here to encourage people to talk to each other and find common ground. Many robots are being developed by researchers around Europe, and I would like them to cooperate. The possibilities are endless when it comes to developing robots for agriculture. And this is just the beginning. We have already developed some prototypes, but we need to pave the way to new mechanical systems based on smart small agricultural machinery. It is the way forward.

Political and financial support

The Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Eva Kjer Hansen, also spoke at the conference:

- I think the conference is a great initiative, and we will achieve a synergistic effect by unifying people with different backgrounds. We need to develop the robot technology further, so it can help us resolve some of the major challenges we face in agriculture. Therefore, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries support initiatives like these and I am delighted that we have set aside money to spend on this field.

The conference ended with a workshop which was entirely consistent with the idea behind Agrobotic, who arranged the conference. The intention of the conference was for the participants to use each other in an active network and development platform.

Further Information

Majken Kramer Overgaard
Project Manager in RoboDays
T +45 6011 2742
majken.overgaard@robocluster.dk

It was a happy exhibitor and researcher Johannes Vockeroth, who received the award on behalf of his research group lead by Ph.d. Erich Schneider from Clinical Neurosciences.

- It is totally surprising, and my coleagues will be very impressed. We have worked with this project for 5 years, and this award will strengthen our cooperation and venture in this area. The money I will personally use for my ph.d.-project, where I will create a camera-system for the head, which covers an angel of 360 degrees, said Johannes Vockeroth.

The award is presented at RoboDays robot festival to the research related robot project, which has the highest developmental potential and news value. The winner is elected by a jury consisting of business people from the robot industry and researchers from Danish knowledge institutions. One of them was professor at the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institut at University of Southern Denmark, Henrik Gordon Petersen:

- We awarded the EyeSeeCam, because it is a project with a high technological level, which has a great commercial potential and many different applications, he said.

In the official explanation was among other things mentioned, that the project is technologically well build, because it applies human qualities to a machine. In addition the jury recommended, that the money should be spent on further development of the EyeSeeCam, so that the system can be used in other areas, such as game industry or remote surgery. This way a surgeon in New York has the opportunity to watch, when a surgeon in Odense operates. The opportunities are ceaseless.

The winner of the robot award in 2007, the last held robot festival, the KeepOn-project by the Japanese researcher Hideki Kozima and the American Ph.D.-student Marek Michalowsk, offered this year's winner a few words of advice:

- The award is generous and significant, and it is not only a recognition of ones work, but also a motivation to keep working. So for us, it gave us the opportunity to start our own company BeatBots, said Marek Michalowski and congratulated Johannes Vockeroth.

KeepOn is a small yellow dance robot, which interacts with humans by touch. It is addressed towards children.

Jury Members

Henrik Gordon Petersen, Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institut, University of Southern Denmark
Lasse Mogensen, RoboCluster
Peder Esben Bilde, Helene Elsass Center
Marek Michalowski , BeatBots
Hideki Kozima, BeatBots

RoboDays robot festival is arranged by RoboCluster in cooperation with University of Southern Denmark, Syddansk Erhvervsskole, Eventhouse Odense and the Region of Southern Denmark.

Further Information

Jørgen Jakob Friis
Manager of RoboDays Festival Secretariat
M +45 2058 5091
jjfriis@robocluster.dk

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Updated: 2009.09.11