EUROBENCH has partnered with external entities, known as Third Parties, to develop and validate two benchmarking facilities and a unified benchmarking software for remote testing. This has been accomplished through a cascade funding action called FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THIRD PARTIES (FSTP). As a result, the EUROBENCH team has organized two competitive Open Calls (FSTP1 and FST2), where a total of 57 proposals were selected for funding.

In the 1st EUROBENCH Open Call of the FSTP-1, 17 proposals were funded to develop test benches that have been integrated into a common environment that allows testing and benchmarking of bipedal robotic technologies.
The FSTP-1 Funded Projects are listed below:

  • BEAST – Benchmark enabling active shopping trolley beast
  • B.E.A.T. – Balance Evaluation Automated Testbed
  • Bench – a Biomechanical tEsting platform for of sit to staNd assessment with an instrumented Chair
  • BenchBalance – A device to apply well defined perturbations for benchmarking balance capabilities of wearable robots
  • BeStaBle – Benchmarking System for Assessment of Balance Performance
  • BULLET – Benchmarking Upper Limbs Loads on Exoskeleton Testbeds
  • COMTEST – Complete Modular Test Stand for Human and Humanoid Posture Control and Balance
  • DYSTURBANCE – Dynamic and static pusher to benchmark balance
  • EXPERIENCE – Benchmarking Exoskeleton-Assisted Gait Based on Users’ Subjective Perspective and Experience
  • FORECAST – FORcE Control AlgorithmS Testbench
  • IMCVO – Magnetometer-free Inertial Motion Capture System with Visual Odometry
  • MADROB – Modular Active Door for RObot Benchmarking
  • PEPATO – PErformance indicators of spatiotemporal PATterns of the spinal muscle coordination Output during walking with an exoskeleton
  • STEPbySTEP – Systematic Test of Exoskeleton Products by a Stairs-based Testbed Evaluation Protocol
  • TestEd – Benchmark for Benchmarking Industrial Exoskeleton Technology: Testbed and Software routine development for scenario “Moving in Narrow Space”
  • TREADMILL – FTPS 1 Treadmill for Robot Testing
  • UdBenchmark – Ups and Downs: benchmarking gait stability of wearable robotic assistive devices and humanoid robots on slopes and lateral inclines

In the 2nd EUROBENCH Open Call of the FSTP-2, 40 proposals were funded to test robotic technologies in the newly developed facilities aiming at becoming the first European reference framework for bipedal robotics. The third parties’ feedback has helped the EUROBENCH team to ensure that this framework is usable (effective, efficient, and satisfying).
The FSTP-2 Funded Projects are listed below:

  • Option 1 (In situ experiments). Through this option, test experiments have been carried out in one of the two EUROBENCH facilities (either the wearable robot facility or the humanoid facility). The aim was to implement a real robotic system or control algorithm on the EUROBENCH testbeds and software.
    • FEAT – Functional Ergonomic and neuro-muscular Assessment of TWIN-Acta exoskeleton
    • Auxivo AG – EUROBENCH Framework Validation for Industrial Exoskeletons
    • S@EB – Sweaty@EUROBENCH
    • NOP2XBENCH – Benchmarking the Humanoid Open Platform NimbRo-OP2X
    • EXOSMOOTH – Test of innovative EXOskeleton control for SMOOTH assistance, with and without ankle actuation
    • AssistControl-H3 – Performance Assessment of Model-Based Assistance Controllers of Lower Limb Exoskeletons: Exo-H3 Case Study
    • HUMATRAN – Bioinspired balance of HUMAnoid robots for TRANsport tasks
    • BELK – Biomechanical Assessment of BELK exoskeleton in different benchmarking scenarios
    • SLEDGE – Shoulder Loads in Exoskeleton-assisted Daily life Gestures
    • AXBAP Project – Axiles Bionics Alpha-Pilot Project
    • TO RANK – Testing and Optimization of a Robotic ANKle
    • NeuroGait – Assistive locomotion based on non-invasive real-time neural interfacing
    • Adaptive –KO – Adaptive – Knee Orthosis
    • XSPINE – Exoskeleton Support in Industrial Operations
    • TestABLE – TESTing the performance of the ABLE exoskeleton in several Eurobench scenarios
    • WALKBENCH – Benchmarking walking and balancing for humanoid robots
    • DECODED – Decoding brain activity related to gait during exoskeleton-assisted walking
    • CosmoRob – Combining Sensor-based Motion Tracking with Wearable Robotics for Empowering the Validation of Robotic Technologies
    • NEXT – Neurorehabilitation EXoskeleton Test
    • PROPELLING – Pushing forward robot development for lawmaking 1
    • INTENTION – Improving Human-Robot Interaction through EMG-Onset Controller for Lower Limb Exoskeletons
    • HumaBeliefs – Benchmarking Humanoid Belief Space Locomotion Planning
    • PELLEXER – Performance Evaluation of Lower Limb Exoskeletons for Emergency Response Forces
    • New Balance Pis – Novel Performance Indicators for the Characterization of Balance Capabilities in Generic Biped Systems and during Various Tasks
    • AUT-STRE-1 – Investigation on control strategies for assisting hemiplegic users in daily mobility
  • Option 2 (Remote experiments). In this option, tests have been performed in the third parties’ own laboratories by using the EUROBENCH software to simulate a real robotic system.
    • FAET – Force-aware Exoskeleton Training
    • FEATStroke – Functional Ergonomic and neuro-muscular Assessment of TWIN-Acta exoskeleton adapted for persons post-Stroke
    • EUROBIONICS – EUROBIONICS
    • SLIDER – Straight-Legged Bipedal Developmental Robot
    • tested-2.0 – Benchmark for Benchmarking Industrial Exoskeleton Technology: Remote Experiments at CTAG Pilot Line for Performance Indicators Verification Related To Assembly Lines
    • Adaptive – KOD – Adaptive – Knee Orthosis on DORIS
    • ESCALATE – ExoSkeleton-assisted Community AmbuLAtion of healthy and sTrokE subjects
    • NIMBENCH – Benchmarking affordable 3D-printed NimbRo humanoid robots
    • REKINE – Reconstructing kinematics trajectories during walking from EEG signals
    • HumaBiMan – Benchmarking Humanoid Locomotion and Standing Performances during Dynamic Autonomous Bi Manipulation of Objects
    • HANK – Experimental Validation of HANK exoskeleton using different biomechanical evaluation test methods
    • REMOTE_XSPINE – REMOTe Evaluation of eXoskeleton SuPport in INdustrial operations
    • Thertact-FB – Thermotactile feedback for improved exoskeleton control
    • SAMURAI – Improving exoskeleton-assisted motor training: muscular fatigue assessment as a risk factor for spasticity in Spinal Cord Injuries
  • Option 3 (Retrospective data analysis). Process retrospective data from humans or robots using EUROBENCH software. In this option, third parties have processed retrospective data from humans or robots using EUROBENCH software. The goal was to produce high-quality performance reference data from healthy or impaired individuals. All collected and processed information has been uploaded and integrated in the EUROBENCH Database.
    • RCUPBENCH – Novel Performance Indicators for the Characterization of Balance Capabilities in Generic Biped Systems and during Various Tasks

Many thanks to all of you for helping EUROBENCH to develop and validate our Benchmarking Framework for bipedal robotics!

The EUROBENCH benchmarking framework has been developed and validated with the help of 57 funded proposals