Series of webinars: Sustainability & Robotics

Series of webinars: Sustainability & Robotics

by | Events, Sustainable Robotics Events

About the Series

Sustainability has become a critical challenge in Society and the field of AI and Robotics will not remain unaffected. From environmental to social or economic impacts, roboticists, entrepreneurs, researchers and public authorities are increasingly confronted with the topic. What is Sustainability? Where does AI and Robotics stand in that regard? What can organizations do to integrate Sustainability in their projects? What are the existing tools, frameworks at our disposal today? Are there initiatives and lessons learnt in other fields that could help AI and Robotics? Several reports, publications and events have shown a growing interest in the community to be more proactive. But where to start? How to avoid greenwashing? All these questions (among others) will be addressed in our 2023 online series of 5 webinars.

This series is open to all  actors of AI and Robotics: from industry, academia and beyond. Its goal is to raise the community’s awareness of Sustainability, spark discussions, exchange experiences and provide free introductory training with concrete use-cases. The webinar series will aim at having a balanced representation of academic and private organizations, sharing their knowledge. During each session, participants will be encouraged to share their experiences, needs, questions, and practical suggestions. Our goal? Identifying key priority actions to reinforce Sustainability in Robotics and AI.

Updates and registration here:

 

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Our latest article in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine

Our latest article in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine

by | Our publications, Publications

Read our article here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9740074

The development and deployment of robotic technologies can have an important role in efforts to achieve the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—with both enabling and inhibiting impacts. During a workshop at the 2021 IEEE/Robotics Society of Japan International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2021), experts from various disciplines analyzed the role of robotics in achieving the SDGs. This article provides a summary of the most important outcomes of the workshop. During the workshop panels, the variety of roles that robots can play in enabling the SDGs was underlined. The panelists discussed the challenges to the adoption of robots and to their deployment at their full potential. The probable undesirable effects of robots were also considered, and the panelists suggested approaches to correctly design SDG-relevant robotic solutions. Governance frameworks were also discussed, with respect to their contents as well as the challenges to build them. The role of military funding was briefly analyzed. Finally, several proposals for actions and policies were made. The contents of the workshop, including contributing papers and videos from the panelists, as well as additional information about future initiatives regarding robotics and the SDGs, are available at www.sustainablerobotics.org .