San Francisco Frontiers - Europe bids to be robot superpower like US, China

As some machines demonstrated their ability to clean or recycle objects, others showed they could deliver parcels during a live demonstration in Brussels.

Four human-assistance robots, designed by France's INRIA research institute and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) among others, cleared a breakfast table in 10 minutes.

One robot tidied cupboards and wiped surfaces, while others put orange juice and milk in the fridge, threw away empty packaging and loaded the dishwasher.

The robots moved slowly and sometimes required a few attempts to complete their tasks.

But that is by design, said INRIA's Serena Ivaldi, as the robots "have to act in human environments" without startling the people they help.

The robots are made to prioritise precision over speed.

Only a few metres away, a multi-jointed robotic arm developed by France's CEA research agency dismantled an electric battery model for recycling.

To become a bigger power in robotics, experts say Europe needs more investments.

"Europe has generated a lot of the science and research that actually allowed some of the successful cases in China and in the US," Portuguese robotics researcher Pedro Lima told AFP.

But what Europe lacks is "definitely political will and funding", he added.

- 'Transformer' -

KYON, a quadruped robot reminiscent of ones seen in the dystopian TV series "Black Mirror", made its public debut during the showcase, bending its legs to pick up a parcel before taking several steps to deliver it to a human.

The robot has been developed by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) for use in logistics.

Another robot, ETH Zurich's aptly-named "Transformer", moved its robotic limbs swiftly to change both shape and function: it switched from being on four legs to two legs without losing balance, before returning on all fours, and climbing up and down stairs with ease.

The demonstrations aimed to showcase Europe's significant strengths in robotics thanks to many public and private research institutes, as well as start-ups and industrial groups.

"The vision we have is that in 10 years Europe should have a major robotic industry branch of the size and importance of the current automotive industry," said Alin Albu-Schaeffer, coordinator of the EU-funded euROBin network, which organised the event at the EU parliament.

Europe could capture one-third of the global intelligent robotics market by then, he added.

That is highly ambitious, as China has invested heavily in humanoid robots and recently staged a show of technological prowess at the World Robot Games in Beijing, where one of its machines broke Jamaican legend Usain Bolt's record for the 100-metre dash.

"We are too often good at inventing technologies but too slow at turning them into global companies," said EU lawmaker Axel Voss, who has pushed for Europe's technological sovereignty.

"Robotics is extremely important for us today and for Europe tomorrow, and Europe is facing a choice," said Voss, warning that the "United States and China are scaling faster, capital is flowing elsewhere".

"We can watch the next industrial revolution happen elsewhere or we can decide that Europe will shape it," he said.

Q.Taylor--SFF