Empa is committed to sustainable robotics

(CONNECT) Robotics and artificial intelligence are advancing rapidly, while at the same time environmental, social, and economic crises are intensifying. To address this dilemma arising from scientific and technological progress and global challenges, researchers led by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) are proposing a new scientific discipline called “Sustainability Robotics.” According to a press release, the international team—including Mirko Kovač from the Empa Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics in Dübendorf, Barbara Mazzolai from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), and Seokheun Song from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in Korea, has published a manifesto calling for robotics to contribute to a sustainable impact on the environment, society, and the economy. “Until now, robotics has focused primarily on what machines are capable of,” Mirko Kovač is quoted as saying in the press release. "The next step is to ask what role robots should play in building a sustainable future."

In the manifesto published in the journal *Nature Machine Intelligence*, the scientists present three guiding principles: robotic systems should be minimally invasive, universally accessible, and symbiotic. "Minimally invasive" means that the systems should keep their environmental, biological, and social impacts as low as possible. These include energy efficiency, repairability, and the circular economy as they apply to robots. Universal access means that it is not only wealthy regions that benefit from robotics. And when it comes to the use of robotics, symbiosis is essential to maximize benefits for people, the environment, and the economy.

The ideas called for here are already being put into practice by the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics at Empa and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). A competence center established at Empa (Competence Center for Sustainability Robotics, CCSR) is funded by the Canton of Schaffhausen and complements the activities initiated by the researchers. ce/ww