IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2021 - 124

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in
Robotics and Automation Award
Winner 2020 Announced

T

he 2020 Award for Innovation
and Entrepreneurship in
Robotics and Automation
(IERA) goes to Photoneo's
high-resolution MotionCam-3D. This
3D scanner captures quick-moving
objects and delivers the sharpest eyes
in the world for industrial robots.
" The jury is pleased to announce
the selection of Photoneo's Motion
Cam-3D as the winner of the 16th
IERA Award, " said Jury Chair Robert
Ambrose from the IEEE Robotics and
Automation Society (RAS). " The award
celebrates the combination of innovative concepts with entrepreneurial
efforts to bring those ideas to market.
This year's winner is a novel 3D imaging system merging the benefits of

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2021.3051882
Date of current version: 22 March 2021

stereo vision with structured light approaches to yield a fast and accurate
perception system with applications in
society and industry. "
Eyes for Robots That Spot
Submillimeters
" MotionCam-3D gives eyes to robots
with the highest resolution and accuracy in the world, " said Jan Zizka, CEO
of Bratislava-based Photoneo. " Our
camera is able to inspect objects moving
as fast as 140 km per hour. Its qualities
are useful in various fields: e.g., in
e-commerce and logistics, for object
sorting, and autonomous delivery systems. The camera also helps in food
processing and waste sorting as well as
harvesting in agriculture. Thanks to
accurate machine vision, robots can
also analyze objects with high-resolution images, which is important in quality control. "

Making Automation Affordable
for Small and Medium Enterprises
Smart cobot applications like the IERA
award winner considerably lower the
hurdles for small and medium-sized
companies to use robotics for automation. " Traditional industrial robots can
easily be equipped with new tools to
transform them into truly collaborative
helpers, " said Milton Guerry, president
of the International Federation of
Robotics (IFR).
About the IERA Award
The IERA Award highlights and honors
the achievements of innovators with
value-creating ideas and entrepreneurs
who propel those ideas into world-class
products. The RAS and the IFR jointly
sponsor the award-underlining their
determination to promote stronger collaboration between science and industry in robotics.

2021 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Fellow Class Announced

C

ongratulations to the fol lowing IEEE Robotics and
Automation Society (RAS)
members who were elevated
to IEEE Fellow effective 1 January 2021!
Nominees for IEEE Fellow must hold
the grade of Senior Member or Life
Senior Member to qualify for elevation
to Fellow status.
2021 IEEE Fellows Evaluated
by the RAS
● Gianluca Antonelli, University of
Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy,

●

●

●

●

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2021.3051883
Date of current version: 22 March 2021

124

*

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

*

MARCH 2021

for contributions to modeling and
control of underwater robots
Timothy Barfoot, University of
Toronto, Canada, for contributions
to mobile robot navigation
Shuxiang Guo, Kagawa University,
Japan, for contributions to medical
robots for minimally invasive surgery and biomimetic underwater
robots
Ayanna Howard, Georgia Institute
of Technology, USA, for contributions to human-robot interaction
systems
Hadas Kress-Gazit, Cornell University, USA, for contributions to automated control synthesis and formal
methods for robotics

●

●

●

●

Jose Neira, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain, for contributions to
simultaneous localization and mapping for robot navigation
Claude Samson, INRIA, France,
for contributions to mobile and
underactuated mechanical systems control
Jacquelien Scherpen, University
of Groningen, The Netherlands,
for contributions to nonlinear
model reduction and passivitybased control
Danwei Wang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for
contributions to modeling, analysis, and control for constrained
robots
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2021
