Main questions to be answered: 

· How can we ensure to capture and anticipate future skills required by the roboticists of the future? 

· How do we guarantee that industries, researchers, governments, and educators agree on learning themes, structures, and standards? 

· How can we promote more free and open source access to learning and training in robotics? 

WS Description: The robotic industry is expected to grow significantly over the coming years and disrupt the global workplace. In order to reduce the impact on job losses and maximise the benefits robots will introduce to society, the current and future workforce need to be prepared. The engineers of the future will need a broad and diverse skill set and an interdisciplinary network in order to solve present and future challenges and create new opportunities. Therefore, an effective system for training new engineers and technicians (and retraining those already in the workforce) needs to be established to promote a thriving economy. Such system needs to encourage open-source and free learning in order to reduce barriers to education and inequalities. A strong synergy between industry, research, educators and governments to agree on themes, structures, and standards will also be required. 

Intended outcome: Workshop covering material new to ERF that the Robotics community should engage with, Workshops engaging non-roboticists to understand needs/goals (policy, commercial, technical), Workshop expected to create a roadmap or white paper, Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc, Information about community involvement and services offered (e.g. DIHs, open calls, platforms, …) 

Approach: We will have presentations from some RTOs, Universities, and Industries who will show their work around training future roboticists. We will then have a discussion with the audiance capturing ideas on how we can anticipate the future required skills and how to best train the future robotic workforce. A report will be generated at the end 

Contributors: Gianmarco Pisanelli – Technical Lead in Novel Robotics at AMRC – Will work as Chair of the workshop – confirmed 

Gurpreet Ghataore – Senior Research Engineer at MTC – Speaker – confirmed 

Roel Pieters – Associate Professor at Tampere University – Speaker – confirmed 

Kurt Nielsen – Director Of Technology & Deputy Head Of Division at Danish Technological Institute – Speaker – confirmed 

Nuno Miguel Gonçalves – Innovation Manager at INCM and Assistant Professor at University of Coimbra – Speaker – confirmed

Organisers: 

· Gianmarco Pisanelli, g.pisanelli@amrc.co.uk, AMRC

Areas mainly addressed: Robotics and AI/Big Data Value, Ethical, Legal, Social, Economic implications of robotics, B2B and innovation, Net Zero/Sustainability 

Main questions to be answered: 

· 1. Challenges and priorities: what should be contribution of social robots for sustainability and how the sustainability goals can be defined from social robotics perspective. 

· 2. Kinds of sustainability: What kinds of sustainability to consider and prioritize: Social, Environmental, Economical and those can be achieved by design? 

· 3. Real World Perspetctive: How sustainable applications can be ensured from the real world perspective: Stand alone robot vs ecosystem of technologies? End user vs Public Perception? 

WS Description: Should Social Robots now think about Sustainability? Yes! Remember the ERF 2022 workshop on “Social Robots: the duality of sustainability and societal applications”? The duality which we introduced and explored: how a social robot can be sustainable and how it can be applied for sustainable applications. Based on input from experts with diverse backgrounds (in talks, panel discussions, audience engagement), it was evident that there are several aspects to consider and there is a need to dive deeper, create a comprehensive list, and brainstorm and set priorities among those. 

This second edition of the workshop will address the above needs, provide an opportunity to contribute and shape this key aspect together, with a more dedicated engagement with stakeholders. 

The workshop will also set the context for the next important question of Sustainable balance of Human-Robots co-existence. 

Intended outcome: Workshop expected to create a roadmap or white paper, Workshop on recent developments in technology or applications, Workshops engaging non-roboticists to understand needs/goals (policy, commercial, technical), Workshop covering material new to ERF that the Robotics community should engage with 

Approach: The main aims of the workshop is to 

1. Ensure that there is community being built with all the stakeholders, and create the much needed awareness around this central aspect of Sustanability and Applications of Social Robots. 

2. Establish a multi-way communication channel to to strengthen the collaborative efforts around these topics. 

In this regards, the workshop will bring different stakeholders together, identify and create interest groups, and foster discussion to collect valuable insights and feedback. Therefore, the agenda is designed to balance the time division necessary to accommodate talks from various stakeholders, create the ground for discussion, open the floor for brainstorming and to collect feedback for roadmapping through audience engagement. 

To set the ground, selected experts and panelists (from industry, academics, end users, policy makers) will be invited for short presentations to provide insiders perspectives and position statements. The questions will be provided to the panelists and speakers in advance. This will avoid having general talks from the speakers, but to the points and focused presentations. Also to better capture the requirements, barriers, potentials and policies at EU level, the invited experts are from different countries of Europe. 

The outline of the agenda and theme (Total 80 Minutes): 

– Introduction by organizers: objectives, themes, past findings, objectives (5 minutes) 

– Position statements from Industry (10 minutes) 

– Position statement from Academics (10 minutes) 

– Position statement form cross disciplinary experts, end users and policy makers (10 minutes) 

– Interactive Panel discussion including audience engagement (40min) 

– Concluding remarks, with pointers for next steps and white paper creation (5 minutes) 

Contributors: Speakers/panelists: 

—————————– 

(Industry and Innovation) 

– Ms. Franziska Kirstein, Senior Scientific Domain Lead, Blue Ocean Robotics, Denmark 

– Dr. Amit Kumar Pandey, Chief Robotics and AI Officer, Rovial Space, France; President, Socients AI and Robotics, France 

– Mr. Francesco Ferro, CEO, PAL Robotics, Spain 

(End users) 

– Dr. Alberto Sanna, Director, Scientific Institute San Raffaele, The San Raffaele Smart City, Milan, Italy 

(Research and Academics) 

– Prof. Praminda Caleb-Solly, Professor of Embodied Intelligence, University of Nottingham, School of Computer Science, UK 

– Prof. Filippo Cavallo, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, Italy 

(Public perception) 

– Dr. Anneli Roose, Coordinator for Robotics4eu, Estonia 

– Dr. Agnes Delaborde, Laboratoire national de métrologie et d’essais, France 

Organisers: 

· Amit Kumar Pandey, amit.k.pandey@socients.ai, Socients AI and Robotics

· Franziska Kirstein, fk@blue-ocean-robotics.com, Blue Ocean Robotics

Project cluster relation: Yes: This workshop is organised by a project cluster. Afterwards you will find the name of the projects and the people involved that will be present at the workshop. 

Already ended projects : 

FP7 COGNIRON 2004-2008 (the cognitive robot companion, first EU-f 

Areas mainly addressed: Autonomy, Collaborative Robots and cloud robotics 

Main questions to be answered: 

· Is a robot companion the right application for social robot? what are the possible applications, the ones that have already been envisioned (success/failure) and the ones that do not exist yet 

· What prevent the deploiement of social robot besides general public today? 

· what is missing, what are the key functionalities or capabilities that are still missing and prevent the deploiement of more robotic solution? 

· What are our means of action, which path should we follow? 

WS Description: “Developing cognitive robots whose “purpose in life” would be to serve humans as assistants or “companions”. Such robots would be able to learn new skills and tasks in an active open-ended way and to grow in constant interaction and co-operation with humans.” excerpt of the European Commission’s ‘Beyond Robotics’ workprogram (2004) 

Almost 20 years later, it is clear that we do not yet achieve the level where we interact with such companion robots. 

This workshop aims to ask the simple question: why? What is missing? Do we envision the wrong applications? Do robots still miss crucial functionalities to be able to enter into the real world? Is there something we can do? Are there already promising applications? 

From this workshop and the discussions that will pop-up from it, we plan to write a white paper that will be submitted to a conference to share broadly with the community 

Intended outcome: Workshop expected to create a roadmap or white paper 

Approach: Last update about the workshop would be available there : https://www.laas.fr/projects/ai4hri/erf23-workshop 

Agenda 

————— 

7 minutes Introduction Aurélie Clodic, LAAS CNRS, Toulouse, presentation of the workshop and related questions “Challenges for robots in the real world” 

5 minutes Michael Beetz, Bremen University, “How can we benefit from virtual reality to boost robot development and test?” 

5 minutes Luis Merino, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain, “Social robots as mediators” 

8 minutes, PAL Robotics and Blue Frogs robotics, Robot Design challenges for the real world 

15 minutes First question session: Miro or Slido session to brainstorm about possible applications, the ones that have already been envisioned (success/failure) and the ones that do not exist yet 

15 minutes Second question session: Miro or Slido session to brainstorm about what is missing, what are the key functionalities or capabilities that are still missing and prevent the deploiement of more robotic solution? 

15 minutes Third question session: Miro or Slido session to brainstorm about our means of action, which path should we follow? 

5 minutes Wrap-up and plan for the white paper Aurélie Clodic, LAAS CNRS 

Approach 

—————- 

The workshop will be hybrid so we can benefit from a larger participation. We will arrange the discussion with dedicated tools (such as MIRO or SLIDO). 

Contributors: Workshop Organizers: 

Aurélie Clodic, LAAS CNRS, Toulouse 

Ely Repiso Polo, LAAS CNRS, Toulouse 

Mona Abdel-Keream, Bremen University 

Luis Merino, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain 

Companies: 

PAL Robotics (https://pal-robotics.com/,) Francesco Ferro, Severin Lemaignan 

Blue Frog Robotics (http://www.bluefrogrobotics.com/), Maud Verraes 

Eurobotics TG support: 

Amit Kumar Pandey, BeingAI, Paris (coordinator of the eurobotics SIRo-SA TG) 

Markus Vincze, Vienna University (coordinator of the eurobotics Ai-CoR TG) 

Researchers: 

Takayuki Kanda, Kyoto University 

Michael Beetz, Bremen University, 

Raja Chatila, ISIR, Paris 

Kerstin Fischer, South Denmark University 

The workshop received the support of the artificial intelligence for human-robot interaction (ai4hri ai4hri.org) project (funded by ANR, DFG and JST ANR-20-IADJ-0006) and the support of ANITI: the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (https://aniti.univ-toulouse.fr/en/). 

Further information: 0 

Organisers: 

· Aurélie Clodic, aurelie.clodic@laas.fr, LAAS CNRS

· Ely Repiso, ely.repiso-polo@laas.fr, LAAS CNRS 

· MonaAbdel-Keream, abdelker@uni-bremen.de, Bremen University 

· Luis Merino, lmercab@upo.es, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain

Main questions to be answered: 

· How can we increase the diversity of the resource pipeline for those embarking on careers in Robotics? 

· How can Robotics be made more accessible to those needing to use them? Do current Robotics technologies restrict diversity & inclusion? 

· How can Robotics be used to support enhanced diversity & inclusion in businesses? 

WS Description: It is no secret that a diverse range of thought leads to better problem solving and innovation. Whilst the resource pool in Robotics has started to increase, more needs to be done to facilitate a diverse and inclusive workforce within Robotics and widen the resource pool as a whole to address the on-going skills shortage and give organisations access to more talent. By making Robotics more accessible, more organisations can adopt these technologies to facilitate enhanced performance. This interactive workshop explores diversity and inclusion in Robotics from a number of different angles. This workshop begins with a keynote speaker, followed by a panel session. This workshop is ‘action oriented’, with our panellists aiming to commit to changes to improve diversity and inclusion within their organisations. This workshop will also see the presentation and award of the UR/MIR scholarship. 

Intended outcome: Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc, Workshop on recent developments in technology or applications, Workshops engaging non-roboticists to understand needs/goals (policy, commercial, technical) 

Approach: 15.55 – 16.05 (10 minutes) – Intro to workshop & topic area 

16.05 – 16.20 (15 minutes) – Keynote from Universal Robotics 

16.20 – 16.40 (20 minutes) – Panel Session 

16.40 – 16.50 (10 minutes) – Q&A 

16.50 – 17.00 (10 minutes) – Action oriented goals discussion 

17.00 – 17.15 (15 minutes) – UR/MIR Scholarship presentation 

Contributors: Gurpreet Ghataore – Senior Research Engineer MTC (confirmed), Daniel Leidner – Robotics & AI Scientist – DLR (Confirmed), Morten Bierbaum – Adm. Director – Technology Denmark (confirmed), Lotte Sodemann Sorensen – Vice President Human Resources – Universal Robots (confirmed), Clionadh Martin – CEO / Founder – CM Robotics (confirmed) 

Organisers: 

· Gurpreet Ghataore, gurpreet.ghataore@the-mtc.org, MTC

Call: H2020-SC1-BHC-2018-2020 

(Better Health and care, economic growth and sustainable health systems) 

Areas mainly addressed: Healthcare, Ethical, Legal, Social, Economic implications of robotics 

Main questions to be answered: 

· Research results show that robot failures have potential to impact mental health of workers negatively. The goal is to reduce negative consequences of failures for the mental health of workers. How can various failure management strategies from the fields of psychology, social sciences, and innovative ideas from an engineering perspective help? 

· Both projects aim to strengthen mental health using AI-driven and digital technologies. Even though this is a well-intended goal, it also harbors hazards. What advantages and disadvantages could Occupational eMental Health (OeMH) interventions have from t 

· Research results show that optimal experience at workplace is correlated to wellbeing, mental health and enhanced productivity. Which features promote optimal experience at work? 

WS Description: The first ERF workshop to combine the views of psychology and human-robot interaction: The more workers interact with robots, the more important it gets to analyze (and improve!) the impact on their mental health. In this session two European projects, MindBot and EMPOWER, present their results, and invite to discuss three different questions in a world café format: What happens when there are deviations from the ideal work process such as robot failures that cause stressful situations and how can active failure management be used to improved mental health? What advantages and disadvantages could Occupational eMental Health (OeMH) interventions have from the company (and employers) and the employees’ perspectives? And thirdly, how can employers promote optimal experience at work in productional settings? 

Intended outcome: Workshop on recent developments in technology or applications, Workshop covering material new to ERF that the Robotics community should engage with, Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc 

Approach: The agenda for the workshop will be as follows: 

1. Introduction (~5min) 

2. Poll : Understanding participants background and their relation to the topic (e.g., profession, research vs. academia) (~2min) 

3. Key Note: Results from EMPOWER (10min) 

4. Key Note: Results from MindBot & Introduction to Experience Sampling Method (15min) 

5. World Café Style: Interactive Tables for Discussion and Practical Experience (~37 min à 3*12min slots for each table ) 

6. Wrap-Up in plenary: Short presentation of ideas from the work in the world café (10min) 

The keynotes offer the background for the interactive part and serve to bring the audience into the right mindset. In the World Café the participants will then separate into 3 groups and each group starts at one table (= with one question/task). Every 12 minutes the group leaves their table and moves to the next. At each table the moderator quickly summarizes what has been done so far and then the new group continues. After three rounds, the plenum gets together, and the moderators present a summary of the results of their tables. Therefore, only 30mins of the 80mins will be in a typical “lecture” style, the rest will be interactive or summarizing the interactive results. We will have a fourth table for back-up in case there are too many participants. This will be an open space where they can also fill in a questionnaire.The questionnaire aims to investigate risk factors influencing well being of cobot workers. For each factor, the participant has to answer by indicating (likert scale) the importance that factor has for his/her work experience and indicate whether it has more impact on his/her physical or mental condition or both. 

The main goal is to define a general baseline of the worker’s experience interacting with collaborative robots and identify the weak points where improvement is needed. 

Contributors: Nadine Reißner, Senior UX Researcher, KUKA, confirmed, Workshop organiser, keynote & moderator 

Luca Negri, Researcher, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy, confirmed, keynote 

Leticia Gonzalez Spinoglio & Aina Gabarrell Pascuet , Research, Innovation and Teaching Unit 

Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu-CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Spain, confirmed keynote & World Café moderator 

Mareike Schüle, Analyst Social Impacts of Robotics, KUKA, confirmed, World Café moderator 

Jenny Huch, UX Researcher, KUKA, confirmed, World Café moderator 

Claudia Carissoli, Researcher, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy, confirmed, World Café moderator 

Carla Dei, Communication & Product Designer, Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea, confirmed, World Café moderator 

Further information: https://empower-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-Implementation-Strategies-Occupational-eMental-Interventions.pdf; 

https://empower-project.eu/public-deliverables/;

https://empower-project.eu/videos/;

Storm, F. A., Chiappini, M., Dei, C., Piaz 

Organisers: 

· Nadine Reißner, nadine.reissner@kuka.com, KUKA

· Luca Negri, luca.negri@unimi.it, Uni Milano 

· LeticiaGonzalez Spinoglio, leticia.gonzalez@sjd.es, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu-CIBERSAM

Main questions to be answered: 

· – Which are successful use-cases in different domains (agriculture, healthcare, disaster management, educations, humanitarian help deployment, etc.) where AI-powered robots are providing effective solutions to societal challenges helping to accelerate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? 

· – What are the recent advances in robotics that are moving us closer to achieving the SDGs by 2030 and which are the contribution of the AI for Good community? 

· – What social, ethical and economic challenges need to be addressed to ensure a successful human-centered implementation of robots? 

WS Description: Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are driving the creation of more sophisticated, autonomous and specialized robots that can not only perform multiple tasks with great ease, but also analyze, learn and self-improve in dynamic environments. During the ERF2023, join this leading panel with experts from the AI for Good community to find out how robotics and AI will help unlock our human potential and advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and voice your thoughts, questions and ideas on how we can shape a better future, together. 

Intended outcome: Information about community involvement and services offered (e.g. DIHs, open calls, platforms, …), Workshop discussion topics of common interest, success stories, use cases, etc, Workshop on recent developments in technology or applications, Workshops engaging non-roboticists to understand needs/goals (policy, commercial, technical) 

Approach: – Welcoming remarks, overview, and objectives of the workshop (10 minutes) 

– Speaker 1 (10 minutes) keynote or Q&A format 

– Speaker 2 (10 minutes) keynote or Q&A format 

– Speaker 3 (10 minutes) keynote or Q&A format 

– Speaker 4 (10 minutes) keynote or Q&A format 

– Panel Discussion (Q&A with the moderator and the audience) (30 minutes) 

Contributors: – Prof Dr Tamas Haidegger, Associate Professor at Óbuda University 

– Prof Dr An Jacobs, Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel 

– Mr Damien Salle, Coordinator of Robotics and Automation at Tecnalia 

– Prof Dr Sigrid Brell-Cokcan, Professor at Aachen University 

– Mr Guillem Martínez Roura, AI and Robotics Programme Coordinator at International Telecommunication Union 

Further information: http://aiforgood.itu.int 

Organisers: 

· Guillem Martínez Roura, guillem.martinez-roura@itu.int, International Telecommunication Union (ITU-UN)

· Franziska Kirstein, fk@blue-ocean-robotics.com, Blue Ocean robotics 

· TamasHaidegger, haidegger@irob.uni-obuda.hu, Obuda University 

· Carl Mörch, carl.morch@ulb.be, Université Libre de Bruxelles