1) SPARC is a public-private partnership between euRobotics and the European Commission to invest €700 million from the European Commission and €2.1 billion from European industry in robotics research and development. 2) The goal of SPARC is to maintain and extend Europe's leadership in robotics and help grow the European robotics market from €22.1 billion in 2011 to between €49.7 billion and €61.8 billion by 2020. 3) SPARC will fund robotics research through calls for proposals and focus on 27 different topic groups ranging from industrial, service, and agricultural robots to issues involving human-robot interaction, ethics, and standardization.

1. “Connect Innovations to Markets”
SPARC – The European Robotics
Strategy
INNOROBO, Lyon, 2 July 2015
Chris Bourillon
Secretary General
euRobotics

2. Private Partner -
euRobotics aisbl
Public Partner -
European
Commission
SPARC
• A Public Private Partnership (PPP)
– Between euRobotics
• The European association representing all stakeholders
– The European Commission
– SPARC is community driven.
SPARC

3. SPARC
• €700 M from EC (H2020)
• €2.1 bn from EU Industry
• Largest civilian robotics
programme in the world
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-421_en.htm
Launched on 3 June 2014 during Opening Session of Automatica

4. SPARC
• “SPARC is the partnership for robotics in Europe to
maintain and extend Europe’s leadership in
robotics.”
• Different roles:
– The robotics community (euRobotics): Recommendations
– The European Commission: Decisions, Funding
• Call 2 (ICT-24): Closed 15 April 2015
• Call 3 & 4 (16-17): Planning

5. Prognosis for Europe
Market data
(turnover)
2011 –
baseline figures
2020 – conservative
market development,
without PPP
2020 – optimistic
market development
with impact of PPP
Robotics market
segment
worldwide
in (€ bn)
European
share
worldwide
in (€ bn)
European
share
worldwide
in (€ bn)
European
share
Industrial
robots
19.4 32% 40.0 25% 43.0 35%
Professional
service robots
2.2 63% 7.8 45% 16.4 65%
Domestic and
personal robots
0.5 14% 1.9 14% 2.4 20%
Sum (turnover) /
weighted average
22.1 35% 49.7 28% 61.8 42%

6. Agricultural Robots
Autonomous Navigation
Benchmarking and Competitions
Bio-Inspired Robots
Civil Robots
AI and Cognition in
Robotics
Robot Companions
for Assisted Living
Healthcare
Industrial Robotics
Maintenance and Inspection
Marine Robotics
Mechatronics
Miniaturised Robots
Natural Interaction
with Social Robots
Perception
Physical Human
Robot Interaction
Software Engineering
System Integration,
Systems Engineering
Space Robotics
Telerobotics and
Teleoperation
Entrepreneurship
Standardisation
People Transport
Ethical Legal and
Socio-Economic
Issues
Aerial Robots
Field/Service Robots in
Unstructured Environments
Education
Social Intelligence
Logistics
Topic Groups

7. 7
SPARC Documents
SRA: High level document
 Wide readership
 Strategy and targets
 Framework of description
MAR: Technical detail
 Updated each year
 Context and detail
 Will be available from…
www.eu-robotics.net

8. Strengths
• Markets
– Industrial Manufacturing
– Agriculture
– Healthcare
– Logistics
– Transport
• Technologies
– Functional
– Adaptable
– B2B
– Social Interaction
– Systems engineering
– Marine Robotics
• Attitude
– Diverse community
– Design, creativity, Innovation

9. Weaknesses
• Turning innovation into commercial products
• Heavy bureaucratic systems
• Costs of production

10. Opportunities
• Innovation and Research support from governments
• Scope for international cooperation
– High level regulation (Airspace regulations for drones)
– Certification
– ELS issues

11. Threats
• Non-manageable barriers
• Pioneering sectors dependent on non-technical
barriers
• Size of future market: technology ready, costs down,
but public acceptability/adoption
• Negative public image + robotics related negative
event = no market