Skolkovo and partners screen urban robotics projects

A special jury will then take two more weeks to process the applications, and in October the winner will be announced. The first place comes complete with a $140,000 grant for further research.

"The competition concept calls for the development of a self-contained robotic system and a full set of related documentation. A project is expected to have competitive advantages compared to existing market analogs, and the market push for each of the projects must be commercially viable," said Albert Efimov, one of the competition co-organizers and the director for IT projects at the Skolkovo Foundation.

The jury will be screening projects developed by Skolkovo participants and focused on the following:

• new robotic systems for use in the urban environment for a higher quality of residents’ life;
  
• new self-contained robotic transportation vehicles for use in the urban environment, including drones.

The organizers believe the competition format will help robotics developers focus on the most market-driven areas of research into robots and self-contained transportation systems, and will also become an incentive for further R&D efforts in the field.