The Sino-Israeli Robotics Institute (SIRI) was inaugurated in mid-December when a delegation of nine Israeli companies — led by Ariel University Prof. Zvi Shiller, chair of the Israeli Robotics Association, and Technion Prof. Moshe Shoham, founder of Mazor Robotics and a world leader in medical robotics — participated in the second Sino-Israeli Robotics Innovation Conference in Guangzhou, China.

Intended as “home base” for Israeli robotics companies entering the Chinese market, SIRI is located at the Guangzhou International Robotics Center (ROBOHUB), a government-supported, 4,800-square-meter robotics incubator and demonstration center including a large exhibition and demo area, innovation lab, training center, and corporate offices.

“This is an exciting time for the Israeli robotics industry,” Shiller said. “We are committed to establishing a true partnership with SIRI and ROBOHUB, and we look forward to broadening this strategic cooperation, which will serve as a fast track for transforming ideas into products and for moving products into the Chinese market.”

The conference attracted some 100 robotics companies from Guangdong Province, more than 40 of which held B2B meetings with the Israeli companies.

The conference was sponsored by the Guangzhou Development District, a high-tech industrial zone where China operations of many Fortune Global 500 companies are based, and is supported by the China National Development and Reform Commission.

The district signed an agreement with SIRI and the Israeli Robotics Association to build a platform to support collaboration among Israeli and Chinese companies and research laboratories, leveraging ideas coming out of biannual meetings at the Sino-Israeli Robotics Summit and the Israeli Conference on Robotics.

“It appears that robotics will become the next meaningful technological cooperation between the Israeli and the Chinese industries, and we are at ground zero of this exciting development,” Shiller said.

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Israel21c ]