At the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA, in Rome, KUKA's head of development, Ralf Koeppe, received the "IEEE RAS Early Career Award 2007" for the conceptual design of a lightweight robot for industrial applications. Peter Heiligensetzer and MRK Systeme GmbH, a KUKA spin-off, took third place in the "Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation Award 2007" with their entry "KR 3 SI - Safe Human-Robot Interaction without Fences"