Rodney Brooks key note speaker at the event Robotics Innovation Challenge in Sweden

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Rodney Brooks is one of the world’s foremost roboticists, with a career as a controversial and distinguished researcher within artificial intelligence at Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University and MIT.  In 2008 he left the academic world to launch his new company Heartland Robotics, now ranked as one of the most promising start-ups in the US. A new generation of robots is developed to improve productivity in manufacturing environments and for places that has not been automated before. Rodney Brooks participates as one of four outstanding key note speakers at the Robotics Innovation Challenge event in Eskilstuna, Sweden, on February 9, 2012. An event arranged by the Swedish robotics initiative Robotdalen.

Rodney Brooks is also co-founder of the company iRobot that has sold over 6 million robots to American households as well as thousands of robots to the U.S. Army. A true entrepreneur who throughout his career has challenged prevailing notions about robots, how they should look and function. Brooks sees that robots, within 25 years, will be as natural in our everyday lives as computers. Brooks also raises controversy when forecasting that future robots will have their own personality and human intelligence.

- Robotics Innovation Challenge focuses on the challenges, opportunities and solutions for successful commercialization of robotic products, says Lennart Karlsson, Internationalization Manager at Robotdalen. It is an honor to have Rodney Brooks as a key note speaker and we look forward to his input on the challenges of robotics.

Rodney Brooks joins a strong trio of key note speakers in Per Strömberg, Director of the Institute for Financial Research (SIFR) at the Stockholm School of Economics, Anders Sandberg, Dr. at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University and Paolo Dario, Professor at the BioRobotics Institute at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy.

The afternoon leaves plenty of room for personal meetings and head-to-head discussions on the challenges and solutions of robotics in a number of exhibition stands called Factory of the Future Fusion, Technology for Independent Life, Innovation & Business corner and Creative corner. We also present the opportunity to send in “Wanted ads” in advance, that will be posted at the event. In the Wanted-ads you present your robotics solution and what kind of business contacts/expertise you look for to take your idea further. Please post your ad at www.robotdalen.se/ric2012. The winner of the international competition the Robotdalen Innovation Award will also be announced at the event.

The conference takes place in Eskilstuna, Sweden on February 9, 2012. For further information and registration please visit www.robotdalen.se/ric2012. To learn more about the Robotdalen Innovation Award please visit www.robotdalen.se/award.

Michael Rydell, Project Manager, phone +46 (0)16 14 17 00, e-mail michael.rydell@robotdalen.se
Lennart Karlsson, Internationalization Manager, phone 072-200 91 95, e-mail lennart.karlsson@robotdalen.se
Jessica Karlsson, Communications Manager, phone +46 (0)19-25 32 91, e-mail jessica.karlsson@robotdalen.se

Robotdalen is a Swedish robotics initiative with the mission to enable commercial success of new ideas and research within robotics & automation. Robotdalen is financed by VINNOVA (the Swedish Innovation Agency), the European Regional Development Fund and a number of public institutions, universities and companies in Central Sweden. Please visit www.robotdalen.se/en for further information.

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