The third Skolkovo Robotics International Conference was a runaway success, attracting a wide array of participants from all corners of the planet and, critically, encouraging the discipline to flourish domestically.
The March 20-22 event at the Skolkovo Hypercube was one of Russia’s biggest-ever robotics gatherings.
“The Russian government included robotics in its list of technology spheres that demand maximal attention and support from the state,” said Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg.
“We have always given this area special significance, as our creation of the Skolkovo Robocenter shows,” he added.
“With the efforts of this center and our partners we have once again held a successful Skolkovo Robotics event, which over the past three years has become one of the main forums for creative interactions among those who devote themselves to innovations in this field,” Vekselberg said.
Skolkovo’s chief roboticist, Albert Efimov, said the main social trend that the event has inspired is “a rise in the level of understanding of robotics and its advance toward natural intellect.”
“The other important trend is the way in which robots interact with humans. That’s service robotics, which is starting to appear in factories and finding utilization in industry,” Efimov said.
“It’s creating co-robots – that’s robots that are closer to humans. It’s robots that are used in agricultural projects – an area that is becoming more and more popular. It’s robots that are used in exoskeletons. It’s improved robot design, which is a critical factor in raising its commercial attractiveness,” Efimov said.
More than 2,000 registered for the three-day bonanza, which bought together robot developers, company CEOs and investors together under one roof to discuss the latest developments in the industry, brainstorm solutions to new challenges, and help startups find the financing they need to turn take their robot from prototype to commercial product.
The event was split into a conference, which had 50 speakers from Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, Britain and Canada; the Robotics Action Time exhibition, with more than 30 service and industrial robotics companies; two hackathons, with 100 people competing; and round tables with venture capitalists, startups and Skolkovo’s industrial partners.
Efimov praised he exhibition in particular. “That was a totally unique event. We gathered together in the Hypercube all developers in civil robotics. It was a meeting of minds, of talent, of ideas and money,” he said.
The Skolkovo International Robotics Conference organizers were the Skolkovo Robocenter together with Skolkovo Open University, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, the Innopolis University, the Fund for Promising Research, the Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation and Lego Education.
Among the other supporters of the event were venture funds were Starta Capital, Grishin Robotics, Leta Capital, the Fund for Supporting Small Businesses in the Science and Technology Sphere, RVC, Rosnano and several prominent business angels.
Efimov noted that the Wicron startup, creator of the telepresence Webot, is in the final stages of negotiations with Start Capital to secure a significant tranche of investment.
“It’s a really interesting project, and we are seeing the entry of venture capital at a very early stage,” Efimov said.
In another deal, Skolkovo resident Promobot on Saturday signed a contract to supply the Moscow Technological Institute with 50 robots in deal whose value was undisclosed.
“That’s yet another example of successful cooperation at the conference,” Efimov said.
The robots, whose purpose is to provide promotional information and act as assistants at mass events such as conferences and exhibitions, will be used in a two-year series of studies looking at human-robot interactions.
Promobot will also team up with the Moscow Technological Institute to create an open programming platform that will allow any developer to modernize their business.