International Advanced
Robotics Programme

What is IARP?

The international collaborative project that is now designated as the "International Advanced Robotics Programme" (IARP) was initiated at the Versailles Economic Summit of 1982. Participating countries at present are Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Russia, UK and USA. The European Union, and New Zealand are observer members. All of these countries have agreed to the general objective of the IARP:

to foster international cooperation aiming to develop robot systems able to dispense with human exposure to difficult activities in harsh, demanding or dangerous conditions or environments

The range of application areas under consideration include space, underwater, nuclear, tunnelling, agriculture, medical and healthcare, civil engineering and construction, intelligent manufacturing, fire fighting and emergency rescue operations, services, domestic applications and personal robotics. To date, the international collaboration has primarily been achieved by means of information exchanges, study missions and international workshops.

More details are provided in the IARP Charter (current May 2000)