n approach for studying relations between robot applications, robot technologies and market domains topics is introduced in this contribution. Questionnaires for gathering data in bilateral research projects with a research institutes and an industrial company as partners are proposed. A circular cosmograph chart is suggested for visualising the data intuitively. The approach is demonstrated in a small scale study with 46 projects. The relations between robot applications and robotic technology clusters and market domains are made visible by the resulting chart. The described approach is a completely new way of analysing and representing developments in the field of robotic research and robot applications.
Over the last few years successful coordination activities have been undertaken within the academic and industrial robotics communities (EURON and EUROP), but both communities still struggle to overcome the community-internal problems regarding terminology and suboptimally coordinated transfer of research visions, technology, and people. The European Robotics Coordination Action euRobotics, which started on 1 January 2010 and runs for three years, aims at creating sustainable solutions to all of the above-mentioned problems. It will continue to implement a policy of targeted stimulation of relevant grass-roots initiatives that both communities have already experimented with in recent ears, but that have previously seen little success because of a lack of committed, professional and coordinated support. Two main objectives will be targeted: (1) the improvement of cooperation between industry and academia and (2) the enhancement of public perception of (European) robotics. It is hoped by the project partners that the planned activities, described in this paper in detail, will result in significant and prevailing advantages for robotics in Europe.
