GEORGES GIRALT PHD AWARD 2026
WINNER
Gonzalez Morgado Antonio ES University of Seville
Pushing the Boundaries of Aerial Manipulators: From Pipeline Inspections to Human Collaborative Tasks
FINALISTS
Stölzle Maximilian NL Delft University of Technology
Safe yet Precise Soft Robots: Incorporating Physics into Learned Models for Control
Lee Jongseok DE Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Uncertainty in Deep Learning: A Probabilistic Robotics Perspective
RENAUD CHAMPION ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD
1st PLACE – SHIPSHAVE
2nd PLACE – ROBOXI
3rd PLACE – KILTER AS
FINALISTS: SIMOBOTICS, DEPLOYA
TECHTRANSFER AWARD
1st place:
- Erik Schäfer (Fraunhofer IPA), Dr. Wolfgang Andreasch (TRUMPF), Caren Dripke (LORCH):
TR4CE-Weld – Tracing in Realtime 4 Cobot-Enhanced Welding
2nd place:
- Matteo Malosio, Matteo Lavit Nicora, Giovanni Tauro (National Research Council of Italy and Rehabilia Technologies Srl):
PhiCube: the robotic playstation for habilitation
Finalist:
- Stephan Hansen (Fraunhofer IFAM), Guillaume Haas (Autonox), David Bitterolf (Siemens):
Machine Tool Robot for milling tempered steel
Finalist:
- Lucas Secades (VUB), Pablo Lopez Garcia (AILOS), Bram Vanderborght (VUB):
Revolutionizing robotic actuation through gearbox technology
SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP RECOGNITION IN ROBOTICS
SeaClear2.0: Robotic and Participatory Solutions for Marine Litter Prevention and Remediation
RECYSTREAM Robotics – Robotic Purification of Waste Streams for Circular Materials
Shipshave – Using Robotics to Reduce Global Shipping Emissions Through Continuous Hull Efficiency
Civic and Responsible AI Lab (CRAIL)
Robomark – A Modular Physical AI Robotic Platform for Sustainable Road Infrastructure
Bio-Hybrid Technology for Ecosystem Resilience
SCIENTIFIC TRACK
Best Paper Award in Scientific Track – Robotics
Coverage Planning for Automated ROV Inspections of Aquaculture Net Pens
Herman Amundsen (NTNU, SINTEF Ocean)
Tuva Vika Tholo (NTNU)
Jan Tommy Gravdahl (NTNU)
Best Paper Award in Scientific Track – Al in Robotics
Hierarchical LLM-Driven Mission Planning for Heterogeneous Maritime Robot Teams
Thi Tran (University of Zagreb)
Fausto Ferreira (University of Zagreb, CoE MARBLE)
Barbara Arbanas (CoE MARBLE)