Barcelona 3 September 2026 — PAL Robotics took part yesterday in the euROBIN final event at the European Parliament in Brussels, joining fifteen of Europe’s most advanced AI-based robotic systems in a live demonstration before Members of the European Parliament, European Commission representatives, and leading figures from industry and research.
The event, hosted by euROBIN — Europe’s Network of Excellence in AI-based Robotics, funded by Horizon Europe and coordinated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) — brought together the continent’s top robotics laboratories and companies to show what European innovation can achieve when research, industry and policy work together.
PAL Robotics attended with a double role in the European robotics ecosystem: as one of euROBIN’s 31 core partner organisations, and through the presence of its CEO and co-founder, Francesco Ferro, who also serves as President of euRobotics, Europe’s umbrella association for robotics research and innovation.
PAL Robotics on the ground
PAL Robotics’ humanoid robot KANGAROO featured in the live demonstration, showcasing the locomotion capabilities developed through the company’s ongoing humanoid robotics research.
PAL Robotics’ TIAGo Pro was also on show at the event, used by Inria’s Hucebot team within the euROBIN project as part of “Breakfast Cleanup”, a demo in which four robots worked together to clear a breakfast table. TIAGo Pro identified perishable food left on the table, opened the fridge, stored the food safely and closed the door. TIAGo, PAL’s mobile manipulator, was used separately by IST Lisbon to sort the rubbish from the same table.
At the European Parliament, the morning opened with remarks from MEP Axel Voss, Alessandro Chiocchetti, Secretary-General of the European Parliament, Thomas Skordas, Deputy Director-General at DG CONNECT, and Prof. Alin Albu-Schäffer of DLR, euROBIN’s scientific coordinator. Francesco Ferro, President of euRobotics and CEO of PAL, took part in the day alongside them, including a session organised by the European Commission and the GRAIL project on the future of AI-based robotics in Europe, and a closed-door round table at the European Parliament with European policymakers on the strategic direction of the sector.
“Europe needs to continue investing in robotics, and take important decisions in the years ahead, to ensure we maintain a strong manufacturing base in the continent that can build on the incredible strength of our research. This is a wake-up call: we need to stop fragmenting our efforts and start collaborating around real European needs, built on European values,” says Francesco Ferro, PAL Robotics CEO and President of euRobotics.
Why this matters for Europe
Robotics is moving from a specialised industrial niche to a technology with the scale to shape entire economies, the way the automotive and telecommunications industries have. Europe holds a strong scientific base in the field, but converting that research advantage into industrial leadership — and keeping the value created here in Europe — is now the central challenge.
Events like yesterday’s underline what is at stake: bringing policymakers, researchers and companies into the same room to align on the conditions Europe needs to compete globally, from funding to regulation to market scale-up.
Humanoid and mobile robots are increasingly seen as the next frontier where this choice will play out. Whoever sets the technical and industrial standards for these machines will shape how they are built, deployed and regulated for decades to come — which is why keeping that capability rooted in Europe, rather than importing it, is central to the continent’s technological sovereignty.
About euROBIN
The euROBIN (European ROBotics and AI Network) network of excellence brings together European research expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence. One of the network’s key objectives is to achieve significant scientific advances in core topics in artificial intelligence and robotics, with the scientific focus on AI-based transferability between robots, tasks and environments. In addition, the integrative research platform aims to strengthen the robotics research community in Europe. euROBIN is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe framework programme and coordinated by the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics. The core consortium comprises 31 collaborating organisations from 14 countries across 26 European cities, complemented by a further 38 collaborators funded through cascade funding.
About PAL Robotics
PAL Robotics started in 2004, when a small group of engineers built the first fully autonomous humanoid biped robot in Europe which also happened to play chess. Today the company is still well known for humanoid robots, as well as retail and manufacturing solutions, and develops state-of-the-art robots for companies and research institutions worldwide. PAL Robotics’ mission is to enhance people’s quality of life through service robotics and automation, and the company has also partnered in over 60 collaborative research projects to further the development of robotics.