The initiative consists of three competitions in which the partners will test their outdoor robots in different emergency and disaster scenarios
The Centre for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC) is one of the seven partners of the Eurathlon project. This is a new initiative, funded by the European Commission, designed for the development and testing of intelligent search and rescue robots able to operate in different outdoor situations of emergency and disaster. It intends to become a platform that provides real-world robotics challenges for outdoor robots in demanding scenarios.
Eurathlon will be developed during the next three years and will include three competitions for testing flying, land and underwater robots. Thus, the robots will have to search for and rescue some survivors in a smoke-filled underground structure. Eurathlon will culminate in a grand challenge: air, land and sea robots collaborating in a post-disaster situation similar to the one encountered in Fukushima (Japan).
Innovative technological solutions are being pursued through Eurathlon, solutions that allow moving forward in the development of cognitive robotics in Europe, and in the use of smart outdoor robots operating safely and effectively in hazardous scenarios. The initiative is lead by the University of the West of England, located in Bristol (United Kingdom). CATEC, the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands, the Heriot-Watt University (United Kingdom), the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE (Germany), the University of Oulu (Finland), and the Centre for Maritime Research & Experimentation (Italy) participate in the project. It is provided with a EUR 1.6 million funding.
For further information, have a look at the website: http://eurathlon.eu.
