On Friday, 4 July 2025, the former machine hall on ETH Zurich's 皇冠体育,皇冠体育app Zentrum opened its doors for the RobotX Innovation Day. This annual event brought together researchers, entrepreneurs, and robotics enthusiasts to explore the current state of robotics research.
This year's RobotX Innovation Day offered specialist lectures, presentations by spin-offs and an exhibition with technologies for various areas of application. Researchers from the ETH Centre for Robotics spoke about current challenges in robotics: machines should not only be able to see their surroundings but also understand them. The experts emphasised the importance of reinforcement learning, in which robots are trained in parallel simulations and continuously improve. The transition from rule-based systems to learning-based methods using artificial intelligence was a recurring theme. Autonomous robots were referred to as the ”queens of engineering” because their development remains one of the greatest technical challenges.
From student project to marketable product
The exhibition in the machine hall impressively demonstrated the wide range of robotics research at ETH. The Centre for Robotics brings together multidisciplinary projects from eight departments: MAVT, ITET, INFK, USYS, MATL, ARCH, BAUG and HEST. In addition to research and student projects, visitors were able to familiarise themselves with various ETH spin-offs and companies. The fields of application ranged from industrial automation, logistics and inspection to space technologies. Drones and flying robots, human- and dog-like robots as well as self-driving bicycles and miniature vehicles were on display.
Exchange with investors and industry
In the afternoon, ETH spin-offs had the opportunity to present their business ideas to investors. The pitching was organised in cooperation with the Swiss Management Association. The Financial Times also attended the event with a group of investors who learnt how research at ETH is shaping the Swiss innovation landscape.
The RobotX Innovation Day 2025 offered a vivid snapshot of the latest developments in robotics, demonstrating how interdisciplinary research, technological innovation and entrepreneurship go hand in hand.
Highlights of the RobotX Innovation Day 2025
(Image: Tamara Pinco / ETH Zurich) The student initiative Autonomous River Cleanup (ARC) of the Robotic Systems Lab develops systems for recognising waste in rivers. (Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) Visitors to the exhibition were able to control flying robots from the Autonomous Systems Lab themselves. The robots are suitable for tasks in the construction industry, in inspection and infrastructure maintenance as well as in large industrial plants. (Image: Tamara Pinco / ETH Zurich) The Environmental Robotics Lab is developing elastic drones that can penetrate the crowns of trees to collect data for biodiversity research. (Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) A miniature mountain bike from the Robotic and AI Institute (RAI Institute) can ride autonomously. (Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) ETH spin-off Witty Machines develops AI-controlled robots for packaging tasks in the food industry. (Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) AITHON is developing autonomous flying drones that can carry out power-intensive work such as drilling, sensor installation or testing on facades.
(Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) ETH spin-off RIVR (formerly Swiss-Mile) develops autonomous robots with combined wheel and leg mobility. They can be used for the last mile of parcel delivery, climbing stairs, opening doors and moving parcels.
(Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) The Way of Water focus project is developing a swarm of water-based drones with LEDs and water jets that independently create choreographed light shows on water surfaces. (Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) The ASIRA focus project has developed a modular, adaptive industrial robot arm that can be flexibly adapted to various automation tasks. (Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) The Mobile Robotics Lab develops algorithms that enable autonomous mobile robots, especially flying robots, to navigate safely in unknown and dynamic environments. (Image: Rahel Roth / ETH Zurich) The Computer Vision and Geometry Lab demonstrated a robot that can recognise objects in rooms and interact with them. (Image: Tamara Pinco / ETH Zurich) The illuminated drones from Verity danced to choreographed music. (Image: Tamara Pinco / ETH Zurich)
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