Robotics and Automation Magazine

March 2005


The three Integrated Projects funded as part of the 6th framework "Beyond Robotics" initiative of the Future & Emerging Technologies (FET) division of the Information Society Technologies program of the Information Society Directorate General of the European Commission, described in our previous issue, are in the beginning of their 2nd year but the discussions for new robotics related initiatives for the 6th Research and Technological Development Framework Program have started.

As part of this discussion phase, close to 20 experts (40% academia, 60% industry) met with 5 FET officers in Brussels for a brainstorming session on European Robotics, between 8 - 9 November 2004.

Based on the fundamental idea that any new initiative must have aclear value to society in terms of addressing future challenges rather than being purely driven by curiosity, four societal challenges were identified:

  • (i) competitive manufacturing in the global market,
  • (ii) quality of life for the elderly and the disabled,
  • (iii) brain-gain instead of brain-drain for Europe,
  • (iv) advanced research for dual-use (public & strategic) technology

Those challenges led to five application drivers, defined as robotic systems with significant market potential or socio-economic impact:

  • (a) Hyper-flexible manufacturing systems,
  • (b) Human-robot-collaborative industrial workcells,
  • (c) Robot companions in private and public environments,
  • (d) Personal robots,
  • (e) Ubiquitous robots and robotic networks

The authors of this column want to thank Henrik Christensen and Martin Hägele for providing material for this report. Parties interested in promoting certain activities via this column can contact either Kostas Kyriakopoulos (http://users.ntua.gr/kkyria, ) or Bruno Siciliano (http://wpage.unina.it/sicilian, ).

Contributed by Kostas Kyriakopoulos and Bruno Siciliano

  

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