The IERA Award highlights and honors the achievements of inventors with value creating ideas and entrepreneurs who propel those ideas into world-class products. This is a key element to the continuing success of robotics and automation today. Active infusion of innovation and entrepreneurship into technological advancement is regarded critical at this juncture to strengthen a healthy balance between research and practice as well as a healthy growth of industrial and commercial sectors in robotics and automation.

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE/RAS) and the IFR jointly sponsor the award - underlining their determination to promote stronger collaboration between science and industry in robotics.

Finalists present their story of a successful innovative product in robotics and automation - from inception to final state of commercialization - in a series of plenary lectures at the IEEE/IFR Joint Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation. The winners are then chosen by an evaluation board. The annual award consists of a plaque and a $2,000 honorarium.

IERA Awards 2023 and 2024

In 2023, during the ICRA, the IERA Award went to Fourier Intelligence for The ArmMotus EMU, a 3D back-drivable upper limb rehabilitation robot that adopted an innovative cable-driven mechanism designed for clinical settings. Please see our press release for details.

In 2024, during the ICRA in Yokohama, the IERA Award was presented to Realtime Robotics for their software Choreography finalizing motion planning at high speed in a robot cell. Please read our press release for details. 

Previous winners can be found on IEEE webpage.