IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021 - 156

robot design and soft robotics, for the progress of robotics
in the following decade. Deeply grounded in bioinspiration,
soft robotics is the use of soft materials or deformable
structures in robotics to exploit compliance and achieve
additional robot abilities [31]. Beyond the first bioinspired
soft robots, like the octopus-inspired arm developed at
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna [see Figure 4(b)], soft robotics
now constitutes an extremely productive research field
worldwide [32].
In turn, this has also had an effect in the field of medical
tools. At the time of the 2011 workshop, most surgical
instruments were rigid, lacked a sufficient number of DoF,
and/or were incapable of modifying their mechanical
properties based on the tasks to be performed. Since 2013,
soft, stiffness-controllable
instruments with many
numbers of DoF or even
continuum kinematics
have appeared [33]. The
number of medical robots
based on a soft paradigm
is continuously increasing
[34], and this trend
looks promising.
Newer and miniaturized-enabling
technologies
are also paving the
way toward the next generation
of surgical robots.
Microrobots promise
enhanced diagnostic and
therapeutic capabilities as
well as potentially unlimited
intracorporeal navigation,
and they are starting
to seriously approach
possible clinical translations.
In particular, the
fields of microrobotics
group) [41], and other tissues and organs. The workshop
also highlighted the potential of such technologies as
components as advanced humanoid robots. In accord
with this paradigm, the Japanese government recently
funded the Bionic Humanoid project [see Figure 4(d)]
[42], aimed at developing an elaborated human model
equipped with sensors to serve as a substitute for trials on
animals and even humans.
Waseda University has
been at the frontier of
research on humanoids
ever since Prof. Ichiro
Kato and his colleagues
began developing artificial
prostheses in 1967 and
then went one step
further by starting the
ambitious WAseda
roBOT Project.
for lab-on-a-chip applications and biohybrid robotics have
seen, respectively, Japanese [35] and Italian researchers
[36] at the forefront: It is worth mentioning that a collaboration
among Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, the Italian Institute
of Technology, Waseda University, and the Tokyo
Institute of Technology on the design and fabrication of
polymeric nanofilms used as therapeutic patches or cell
carriers [37] [see Figure 4(c)] and even as components of
biohybrid robots [38] has been fruitful
The previously mentioned 2013 workshop, " Technologies
for Humans and Humanoid Robotics, " also highlighted
that Italian and Japanese societies both feature
long life expectancies and increasing aging. Both countries
have been very active in the field of artificial/bionic
organs, developed to substitute the heart and valves
(Prof. Umezu's group) [39], pancreas (Prof. Cobelli's and
Prof. Dario's groups) [40], kidney (Prof. Catapano's
156 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE * SEPTEMBER 2021
Robotics and Education
An important application of robotics concerns education.
The use of educational robots has proven effective in several
studies throughout the world [43], [44]. Robots can be
useful not only in education programs concerning engineering
but also in language [45], history and ancient cultures
[46], and other contexts. The topic of edutainment
[47] was discussed at the 2006 workshop.
At the 2010 workshop, which revolved around the role
of robotics in education, several initiatives and methodologies
were discussed. The robotic competitions held at the
University of Catania and the Local Educational Laboratory
on Robotics, a successful platform in Tuscany for the
development of scientific and technological knowledge in
schools, were presented. However, the discussion also
touched on issues such as the lack of official subjects related
to technology or engineering in elementary schools and
the introduction of control engineering studies in Japanese
junior high schools, which involved building small robots
and valuable, daily-use gadgets while raising new issues
due to the unpreparedness of schoolteachers.
The problem of elevating education to include robotics
was tackled during the same years in both countries.
Waseda University instituted the Global Robot Academia
within the Global Center of Excellence program for
graduate schools, which was launched by the Japanese
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and
Technology to establish international education and
research centers. Waseda University and Scuola Superiore
Sant'Anna, together with the Korea Institute of Science
and Technology in South Korea, made a shared effort
organizing the Waseda-SSSA-KIST-Tsukuba-Nagoya
(WSK-TNg) International Summer School on Robotics
cycle, which lasted five years and grew to involve many
other institutions.
The Ethical, Social, Legal, and
Economic Aspects of Robotics
A major outcome of the first edition of the workshops
(2001) was the discussion about technoethics and roboethics
[50], [51] that afterward was solidly brought inside the
robotics community at the IEEE International Conference
on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and the IEEE International
Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.
The word roboethics was, in fact, officially used for the first
time in 2004, at the First International Symposium on
Roboethics in Sanremo, Italy. After that, a Technical
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