The EU must pursue a policy that ensures the development, deployment and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe in favor, and not conducive to the detriment, acts of society and social welfare, the Committee said in an initiative opinion on the social impact of AI which 11 fields are identified for action.

Today, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is going to debate its stance in the European discussion on AI and will express conflicting views on certain issues, especially on the question of legal personality for robots. The report, which has been drawn up by a Dutch rapporteur, Ms Catelijne Muller, member of the Workers’ Group, will be debated at the EESC’s plenary in Brussels on 31 May.

Being interviewed at home by a border guard avatar could be the first step in checking the identities of people who want to come into the EU from external countries if researchers working on new technologies to speed up border crossings while maintaining security levels have their way.

EU rules for the fast-evolving field of robotics, for example, compliance with ethical standards and liability for accidents involving driverless cars, should be put forward by the EU Commission, urged the Legal Affairs Committee.

As part of the UK’s National Robotics Week, The University of Sheffield hosted the 17th Towards Autonomous Systems (TAROS) conference from 28-30 June. Among the papers and discussions on the development of autonomous robotics research, two sessions on the last day looked at robots in the public eye and exploring the issue of responsible research in robotics.

by Rex Merrifield

Keyhole, or minimally invasive, surgery can offer many benefits over more traditional, open operations, including reduced risk of infections, quicker recovery times and less scarring. But internal organs can get in the way when hard robotic arms are used, given that access can be very limited and soft tissue can sometimes move in unexpected ways.

By 2020, a quarter of Europeans will be over 60. In their silver age, many would like to stay in their homes and will require care from family or social workers.

Robohub was at the European Robotics Forum in Lubljana, Slovenia last week. We captured pitches from some of the European projects presented at the conference and funded under the last Horizon2020 calls in robotics.

The EU is co-funding 21 new projects in robotics totalling € 98.7 million spread over 2-5 years.

New research published today in the Journal of Bioinspiration and Biomimetics shows that an insect-inspired vision strategy can help indoor flying drones to perceive distances with a single camera – a key requirement for controlled and safe landing. With indoor drones no longer needing to bear the weight of additional sonar equipment, the strategy should hasten the miniaturization of indoor autonomous drones.

Transcript below.

In this episode Audrow Nash interviews Konrad Fagertun, Chief Operating Officer of nLink in Norway.

Our penultimate video features the initial “Big Vision” trailer we produced at the beginning of this project. The video showcases the basic components of the robotic system we targeted (surface station, relay chain, ground swarm) and how we imagined our collective of underwater robots forming coherent swarms.

Our underwater swarm research started in a few cubic centimeters of water with some naked electronics on a table. Over the next three and a half years, our swarm increased by a factor of 40, and the size of our test waters increased by a factor of 40 million as we went from aquariums and pools, to ponds, rivers and lakes, and finally ending up in the salt water basin of the Livorno harbour. Quite a stretch for a small project!

During the past year we have shown many swarm algorithms in various experiments. The spotlight was always on the Lily and the Jeff robots. However, there is now another star in the team and this trailer is dedicated to this special agent: the base station!

Joel Gibbard started out designing prosthetic hands in his bedroom out of sheet metal, but found himself drawn to 3D printing because of its universality and low cost. Now his company, Open Bionics, believes it can cut the cost of a bionic hand by a factor of 20 from the current around EUR 100 000 price tag.