In conjunction with the European Robotics Forum 2022, 28th – 30th June 2022, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The workshop is held on the 30th of June at 08:30 CET during the ERF 2022, see ERF 2022 Programme for more details

This workshop is conducted within the Sustainability Topic Group and the Analytical Laboratory Robotics Topic Group of EURobotics

 

AIM and Scope

The use of robotics is increasing around the world and soon every household might have at least one robot in use. Robots can support sustainability across all sectors e.g., fighting climate change, helping to recycle, decreasing waste in manufacturing, reducing the use of chemicals in farming, etc. However, the manufacturing of robots themselves can outbalance the positive impact of robotics if not addressed by the robotics community. This workshop focuses on how robots can be manufactured in a more sustainable way around the aspects of energy, materials, lab and recycling/ circular product design. We expect the audience of the workshop to come from industry (especially robot manufacturers) as well as academia (both from robotics, manufacturing or sustainable production).

The workshop aims to discuss the following topics:

  1. Results from workshop “Sustainability and Industrial Robots”, where the audience will be asked about their attitudes towards the SDGs, how they contribute to the SDGs and the challenges they have met or anticipate on their journey towards a more sustainable way of working.
  2. Knowledge exchange around attempts for a more sustainable manufacturing of robots: What attempts have been made to manufacture robots in a more sustainable way: where and how to start? What are the experiences and outcomes of this? What are the low-hanging fruits in this journey and where are the real challenges?
  3. Inspirational exchange on new innovations to push for more sustainable manufacturing of robots: What are sustainable materials? How can robots be designed in a more sustainable way to facilitate better recycling or a circular design? How can a Life Cycle Assessment help to reduce e.g. CO2 footprint? How should the production set-up look like to e.g. use the right energy at the right time? How can labs contribute to increasing the standard of sustainability in robotics manufacturing and educating robotics companies in their sustainability practices?

 

Expected Outcome:

  • Trigger information exchange between academia and industry about the current challenges and possible solutions for sustainable manufacturing of robots
  • A position paper on the results of the workshop and share it, e.g., with the respective topic group/s. This will also form as a basis for the newly formed TG Group “Robotics for Sustainability and Environmental Aspects”

 

Invited Speakers:

  • Fiachra O’Brolcháin, Dublin City University
  • Patrick Courtney, tec-connection
  • Radhika Gudipati, Ocado Technology
  • Leendert Huis, Lely
  • Franziska Kirstein, Blue Ocean Robotics

 

Organizers of the workshop:

The workshop is co-organized with in the FELICE project and the Collaborate project.

More information:  erf2022.eu/programme/

 

Slides

Download the Slides here.

 

 

 

Your Contact

Akkaladevi Sharath Chandra 
Scientist
Robotics and Assistive Systems

+43 72 52 885 325
Sharath.Akkaladevi@nullprofactor.at