future and emerging technologies Flagship initiatives for sustainable robots: Sant’Anna school and Italian institute of technology submitted project proposal to the european commission
The Future and Emerging Technology (FET) Flagship projects are visionary research initiatives funded by the European Commission, which tackle major scientific and technological challenges. By 2020, a community of 800 experts and scientists from Italy, Europe, USA and Japan will explore the role of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to promote sustainable development, circular economic models, and processes optimization with positive, long-term impacts on individuals.
The European Commission independent experts will select proposals that aim to explore novel ideas in robotic systems and technology systems that employ methods of AI. The FET initiatives have a total budget of €1 billion for 2020. Six finalist projects will be announced on 4 December 2018 in Vienna at the ICT2018 conference and will be granted funding for one-year activity of preparatory actions. FET Flagships are expected to bring together a large number of research organizations, including academia, large industry and SMEs.
Scientists Cecilia Laschi (Sant’Anna School Institute of Biorobotics), as the team coordinator, Barbara Mazzolai (Italian Institue of Technology), Tamim Asfour (KIT- Karlsruher Institut für Technologie - Germany), Dario Floreano (EPFL- Switzerland), Stefano Stramigioli (University of Twente – The Netherlands), Jean-Paul Laumond (LAAS-CNRS - France), Sabine Hauert (University of Bristol - UK), submitted their project FET-Flagship “Robotics” to tackle challenges requiring collaborative, long-term sustained cooperation effort among European institutions to create a strong and broad basis for the economical exploitation of the research, and the overarching goals of scientific knowledge.
FET Flagships will establish Europe as the leader in their specific domains and a pole of attraction for international cooperation. Europe currently plays a leading role in sectors such as robotics, automation, mechatronics and digital manufacturing that improve sustainability and quality of life. The Robotics Flagship project aims to capitalize on the outputs of advanced research to contribute to the affirmation of a new paradigm in robotics. European research, education and industry, in a single and coherent vision for sustainable development, have the potential to overcome USA, Korea and China in translating this leading research into economic and social benefits.
One of the issues that arises when discussing the use of new robots and AI is ethics. In fact, the Robotics Flagship project aims to combine scientific and technological advancements with social, cultural and economic development where science, technology and society should co-evolve in a sustainable way. A long-term and structured development plan, where science, economy and society are contemplated as a whole is needed as reports state that robotic automation will result in the net loss of more than 5m jobs across 15 developed nations by 2020.
The project's main goals will revolve around 3 pillars of sustainabilty: 1) the identification of new materials, technological approaches and biological principles important to make the robots adapt to people and the environment in which they operate, with bodies of variable shapes, able to grow, learn, deform and find their own energy; 2) the study of new models of socio-economic and legislative systems able to take advantage of a widespread use of robots; 3) the development of robots with low environmental impact, reducing growing e-waste through the study of recyclable materials and renewable energy solutions to power robots.
During its implementation, the Robotics Flagship aims to validate its objectives and results periodically, listening to the needs of the scientific community and of European citizens.
Attracting the best scientists all over the world (370 institutions, academics and research centers in Japan, Korea, China, Israel and USA), the FET Flagships become a new partnering model for long-term European collaborative research. In October 2013 the European Commission, launched two FET Flagship projects: Graphene and The Human Brain Project (HBP).
