European Land-Robot Trial

European Land-Robot Trial

The European Land-Robot Trial (ELROB) is a European event which demonstrates the abilities of modern robots.

The ELROB is not a competition, like the US DARPA Grand Challenge, but a pure demonstration of what European robotics is able to achieve today. The scenarios are designed to simulate real world missions, be it military or civilian ones. There are no artificial constraints set to this scenarios to ease the task for the robots like e.g. very visible road markings. This forces the participating teams and systems to fulfil high requirements set by the real world scenarios.

The first ELROB in 2006 was organized by the German Federal Armed Forces and took place on the infantry training area near Hammelburg, 15-18 May 2006. The goal of the first trial was to boost the development of unmanned ground vehicles that could be used in military missions on short notice. The ELROB is an annual event and alternates between a military and a civilian focus each year.

European Robotics and the NATO Research Task Group "Military Applications for Multi-Robot Systems" came up with the idea for ELROB in the year 2004. European Robotics aims to bridge the gap between defence and security (D&S) users, industry and research in the field of ground robotics. The ELROB is a good opportunity to follow these goals.

Because ELROB is meant to be a European trial, only teams from Europe are allowed. But both teams of commercial and academic backgrounds are allowed.