The webinar was organised by SPRINT Robotics, an organisation that is helping accelerate the rapid development of Inspection & Maintenance Robotics around the world, on 22 January 2021.
The webinar gave industry professionals the chance to engage with the existing local Inspection & Maintenance Robotics ecosystem and explored how to collaboratively further develop this community by highlighting use cases from Japan and overseas.
The webinar opened with a presentation by the SPRINT Robotics’s Chairman and the Japanese local counterpart, and featured prominent technical speakers from companies and institutions active in robotic activities in Japan and abroad. The program included the presentations of use cases from BASF, Saudi Aramco and ENEOS Japan and showcased also presentations by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and the World Robotic Summit.
Dr. Philippe de Taxis du Poët, EU-side Managing Director of the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation (“Centre”), had the opportunity to introduce the main roles and functions of the Center in favor of small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”). He emphasised how the Centre helps connecting companies as well as markets as a whole.  In his presentation, he mentioned how crucial is the importance of matchmaking, carried out by the Centre, for SMEs when trying to access the market in a faster and easier way. Additionally, he referred that the Centre also plays a vital role in the monitoring of the implementation of EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (“EPA”), in this regard, Dr. Taxis du Poët mentioned the available digital materials and webinars for companies to help them understand the EPA.  Dr. Taxis du Poët concluded his presentation by introducing three of the Helpdesks of the Centre; the EPA Helpdesk, the EU-Japan Technology Transfer Helpdesk, and the Regional Cooperation Helpdesk, highlighting their services and main features.