Europe robotics showcase aims to rival US, China

AI-powered robots demonstrated household help, parcel delivery and battery recycling at the European Parliament in Brussels this week, in a showcase of Europe’s robotics ambitions as the field is dominated by China and the United States.

Four human-assistance robots designed by France’s INRIA research institute, the German Aerospace Centre and others cleared a breakfast table in 10 minutes. Other machines cleaned surfaces, put drinks in a fridge, threw away packaging and loaded a dishwasher.

Serena Ivaldi of INRIA said the robots moved slowly by design because they must operate in human environments without startling people. Nearby, a robotic arm developed by France’s CEA research agency dismantled an electric battery model for recycling.

Pedro Lima, a Portuguese robotics researcher, said Europe had produced much of the science behind successful robotics in China and the United States, but lacked political will and funding.

KYON, a quadruped robot developed by the Italian Institute of Technology for logistics, made its public debut by picking up and delivering a parcel. ETH Zurich’s Transformer robot showed it could switch between four legs and two legs, then climb stairs.

Alin Albu-Schaeffer, coordinator of the EU-funded euROBin network that organised the event, said Europe should aim within 10 years to build a robotics industry comparable in size and importance to today’s automotive industry. He said Europe could capture one-third of the global intelligent robotics market by then.

EU lawmaker Axel Voss said Europe was often strong at inventing technology but slow to turn it into global companies, and warned that the United States and China were scaling faster.