Artificial cognitive systems and robots must operate in dynamic, non-deterministic, real-world environments. These systems must be capable of responding in a timely and sensible manner and with a suitable degree of autonomy to gaps in their knowledge, and to situations not anticipated at design time The European Commission have reserved a budget of 73 M € to address the first part of this challenge

Libor Kral the head of the EC’s Cognitive Systems, Interaction and Robotics unit will describe the context of the opportunity presented in the COGNITIVE SYSTEMS AND ROBOTICS objective in the Commissions 7th ICT call for proposals closing Jan 2011 [The Call due for launch on 28 September 2010.)

The aims of this call will be

• Research on Robotic systems operating in real-world environment
• Coordination actions to Foster communication and co-operation between robotics and cognitive systems research communities

[A call is foreseen for 2012 addressing Cognition and control in complex systems; Accelerating cross-fertilisation between academic and industrial robotics research. co-operation between robotics and cognitive systems research communities with a similar budget]

Participants from current projects will describe their research and their experience of working collaboratively with partners from across the European Community and with the Commission. The UK National Contact Point will discuss proposals, their evaluation and success. Newcomers are welcome as the will feature a 1-2-1 brokerage opportunity in the afternoon

You are invited to this information day to:

• Hear the European Commission describe its technical objectives;
• Understand the engineering context;
• Join your peers to discuss the essential issues;
• Take the first steps to achieve success.