IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021 - 159

Conclusions
Italy and Japan are two distant countries that have historically
played a major role in robotics and that feature several
similar traits and problems. Through the years, the
Italy-Japan workshop has explored, from a comprehensive
perspective, compelling issues in robotics and identified
and nurtured emergent research directions with an openminded,
multidisciplinary approach to the benefit of
robotics progress. The different cultural backgrounds of
the two countries and the participation of scientists from
Table 1. A summary of the lessons learned and the future challenges.
Field
Lessons Learned
Humanoid
robotics
* Establishing a strict link between robotics and social
science and the joint development of both disruptive
robotics technologies and the appropriate socioeconomic
and legal frameworks in which they could be
effectively implemented are essential.
* Collaboration with end users is vital for designing and
developing robots with realistic application opportunities.
* The need to investigate and transfer to robots the
neuroscience models describing brain mechanisms for
perception and action is crucial.
Robots for
rescue and
exploration and
to face natural
disasters
* Reinforcing the awareness that climate change and
other contributing factors are making natural disasters
increasingly frequent is important.
* Robots still have considerable room for improvement to
match the needs of these highly nonstructured applications.
* International collaborations and exchanges (possibly even
extended to the global level) would dramatically enhance
the effectiveness of research in times of urgent need.
Biorobotics
* It is important to rethink how robots are designed and
built, including the materials used.
* Understanding that the fields of medical robotics,
bionics, and bioinspired technologies are undergoing a
rapid convergence is essential. In 2019, a new journal,
IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics,
was launched. Many Italian and Japanese researchers
are now a part of its editorial board [66].
Robotics and
education
* As stated by Koji Fukuda, director of the European
Union Institute in Japan, keeping a high level of education
focused on engineering and technology is one of
the most important policies for academic institutions.
* Robotics is recognized as one of the key components
of education for future generations.
* The practical insights exchanged through the comparison
of the experiences in educational robotics between
the two countries have been significant.
Ethical, legal,
and economic
aspects of
robotics
Robotics for
sports
* Robotics technologies are a part of the progress of digital
technologies and are partly regulated as such; robot
autonomy introduces additional issues in terms of ethical
considerations, regulations, and economic models.
* The involvement of experts from the relevant fields is
necessary.
* Sports are still dominated by semiqualitative methodologies
in which coaches and trainers often rely on their
personal impressions rather than objective and reliable
measurements. There are several margins of application
for robotics in sports.
* A close relationship exists between the domain of
sports, even at the highest levels of competition (e.g.,
elite athletes), and the quality of life of ordinary people.
Robotics for the
arts
* The demonstration sessions offer a glimpse of the wide
range of applications of automation in the arts.
* Although the visual and performing arts are not a
critical field of application of science, the realization of
automation hides considerable technical challenges.
Multiple solutions and points of view exist, which
may even be very different due to the historical, cultural,
religious, and philosophical background of the
two countries; however, future workshops can be
a fertile environment for finding a common ground
and stimulating advancements in the field.
To demonstrate the real potential of robotics, not
only in structured lab environments but also in
training- and match-based ones, is a long-term goal.
New technologies may also help with improving
amateur athletes' and active seniors' quality of life by
monitoring physiological parameters.
Make certain that the advancement of the works
presented in the workshops and in other fields of
application of robotics are mutually useful
in the future.
At present, the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robotics is expected to support disinfection,
the delivery of medications and food, the measurement
of vital signs, and border controls as well as
with clinic-care disease, such as helping with prevention,
diagnosis and screening, patient care, and
disease management [65].
The miniaturization of technologies that provide
(possibly noninvasive) therapy to the target area
with the highest precision and the fewest side effects
is challenging. For this purpose, only the most
advanced materials that are able to safely interact
with human tissue triggering the desired actions will
be needed. The materials must not only be able to
provide structural support and guarantee deformability
but must also enable robot growth, regeneration,
shape change, and biodegradation [67].
Establish a curriculum that helps build an interdisciplinary
mindset that forces students to deal with
real-life challenges.
Future Challenges
Implement simplifying principles, referred to as simplexity
[64], regarding intention, learning behavior,
and sensing into human-robot interaction and collaboration
into real-world, complex scenarios.
SEPTEMBER 2021 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE *
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021

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