Sustainability is a broad concept with the semantic meaning referring to the ability to continue over a long period of time. As such, sustainability can be represented in various areas. Up to now, there is a lack of understanding and definition on the aspects of sustainability in robotics and the role of robotics to drive sustainability.

Robots show a high potential to aid sustainability. They can support sustainability across different sectors e.g., fighting climate change, increasing the quality of care, helping to recycle, decreasing waste in manufacturing, improving accessibility and inclusion or reducing the use of chemicals in farming. At the same time, the demand for robots is increasing rapidly and their sustainable production and the future disposable has not been sufficiently addressed yet. Robots themselves are challenging to design, develop, manufacture, and integrate in daily workflows. Addressing sustainability in this process seems to be an overwhelming task. However, the assessment of progress towards sustainability is unavoidable in the long term, especially to prevent the use of robots outbalancing their positive impact. It is up to the robotics community to shape their role on how to help address sustainability and strive for a positive impact only.

The euRobotics Topic Group on “Robotics for Sustainability” has been established with the motivation of bringing together multidisciplinary stakeholders from robotics and beyond to define relevant aspects of robotics for sustainability, come up with best practices and grow a community to connect around the topic of robotics and sustainability.

The Topic Group is open for all interested members from academia, industry and beyond who would like to contribute, connect with like-minded people across various disciplines, stay informed about latest activities within robotics and sustainability or get inspiration on how to work more towards sustainability in robotics.

www.roboticsforsustainability.eu