The award acknowledges Lotfi El Hafi's sustained contributions to the HSR Community, with a particular emphasis on the containerized Software Development Environment (SDE) that has enabled multiple research institutions and competition teams to share, deploy, and reproduce HSR-based research workflows. By lowering the technological barrier to entry, the SDE has helped onboard new members of the HSR Community and accelerated collaborative experimentation in service robotics.

I am deeply honored to receive this award from the HSR Community. This recognition belongs to all the researchers, engineers, and partner institutions that have shaped the Software Development Environment over the years. Our hope is to continue lowering the barriers to robotics research and to make collaborative service-robot development more accessible to newcomers.

Coarobo GK extends its sincere appreciation to the Robotics Society of Japan and to all collaborators who have contributed to the HSR Community over the years.