euROBIN Strategic Research Agenda is ready and downloadble here: https://www.eurobin-project.eu/images/2024/euROBIN-SRA.pdf
Introduction
Robotics has achieved remarkable progress over the last two decades, progressively expanding its reach beyond industrial automation that was its first major application. The work of hundreds of research groups worldwide has led to robots that are significantly more autonomous, smarter, lighter, more robust, and less costly than the first generation of industrial robots. This was made possible by the development of new families of control algorithms, the growth in available computing power and miniaturization of electronic components and batteries, the development of new sensors and the integration of their data in the control of robots, the evolution of mechatronics and the experimentation with new soft materials components that have expanded the palette of robotic hardware.
The continuous advancement of these research trends is now converging with the fast-paced evolution of artificial intelligence techniques and leading to embodied AI, i.e. artificial intelligence that is integrated into physical bodies that interact with the environment, with other intelligent agents and with humans. This allows robots to leave the security of the industrial world and handle the uncertainty and complexity of human-inhabited environments to perform tasks that cannot be fully described mathematically in advance. As a result, a new generation of complex, cognitive and adaptive multi-purpose machines is within reach.
These robots will differ from previous ones because of their ability to learn new tasks from humans, from other robots and from the environment, to interact safely and effectively with humans, and to operate with agility in unstructured settings – either natural or manmade, but not a priori designed for robots.
