Cognitive Systems, Interaction and Robotics in FP7
Several strands of R&D pursued separately under various Strategic Objectives of the 6th Framework Programme (including Cognitive Systems, Multimodal Interfaces and Advanced Robotics) have been brought together under Challenge 2 of the first ICT Work Programme of FP7 covering 2007/2008.
Unlike other Challenges under FP7-ICT, it comprises a single Objective: "Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics?". This follows inter alia from the understanding that
- systems pertaining to any of these areas must be capable of responding intelligently and largely autonomously to gaps in their knowledge and to situations or contexts that have not been specified in their design (that is, they must be robust and flexible);
- artificial systems ought to be more effective in improving their performance and more natural in dealing with people ? where dealing with people is a requirement; and
- progress, in any of these areas, towards systems with the above characteristics can only be achieved by developing and adopting new engineering principles and approaches, based on largely common but as yet not fully explored scientific grounds.
Indeed, systems pertaining to any of these areas have to understand their respective dynamic environments, whether these call for navigation, grasping and manipulation, interaction with people, or simply the recognition and description of real or virtual objects and scenes.
Targets
In a nutshell, the three targets of Challenge 2 are:
- To develop (further) and validate the scientific foundations, engineering principles and approaches required to build systems with the above described capabilities;
- to build a strong basis for research on ways of reaching the long term goals inherent in this challenge and to provide the means for carrying out that research;
- to foster, monitor and coordinate at EU-level efforts of the many and varied relevant research communities in support of this challenge.
Calls for proposals and further information
FP7 ICT Call 3 has been closed on the 8th April 2008.
In this context, you are referred to the following important documents:
- the ICT Work Programme 2007-2008 (, 481KB)
- Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics: Technical Background Notes for Proposers, December 2007 (, 188KB)
ICT Call 1 was published on 22 December 2006 and it closed on 8 May 2007.
In addition, to mark the launch of FP7, Information Days were organised in Luxembourg on 24 & 25 January 2007. Presentations given at this event are available on the Presentations page.