How public entities drive robotic innovation – paper published

How can public bodies drive innovation in robotics? On this topic our colleagues from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya have published a Paper called “Public entities driven robotic innovation in urban areas” in the Elsevier journal “Robotics and Autonomous Systems.” The paper, written by Ana Puig-Pey, Yolanda Bolea, Antoni Grau and Josep Casanovas, focuses especially on how the PDTI (Public end-user Driven Technological Innovation) instrument of ECHORD++ contributes to the establishement of “Smart Cities,” with improved quality of life for their citizens. The researchers from Barcelona explain in their paper how they encouraged public bodies to see robotics technology as one of the means to find solutions for their needs and which challenges these public bodies provided for the design of a potential solution. Puig-Pey et. al examine, how novel public procurement instruments are the solution to join public demand with innovative supply in urban scenarios. They also evaluate how the process developed through the new PDTI instrument has established links between cities, citizens, industry and researches.