Bots in Society

NICE and Nichols College collaborate to provide hands-on education designed to meet the rapid growth in demand for automation experts. They will form a Centre for Intelligent Process Automation (CIPA) to jointly expand the next generation of robotic process automation (RPA) developers.

Earlier this month, NICE—which markets RPA under the term ‘Advanced Process Automation’—confirmed that one of its biggest government customers, a major public sector agency in the UK and which it also claims was one of the first significant robot users at scale in the world, had renewed its contract with the firm.

The market for professional service robots reached a turnover of 6.7 billion U.S. dollars worldwide – up 12% in 2020. At the same time, turnover of new consumer service robots grew 16% to 4.4 billion U.S. dollars. This is according to World Robotics 2021 – Service Robots report, presented by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

Starship Technologies, in conjunction with Milton Keynes Council, has announced the initial findings of an internal study to review the early impact of zero-emission robots in the city over the last three and a half years.

Published in the Journal of Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, a study by engineers from UNSW proposes a freeway network design with exclusive lanes for autonomous vehicles.

Launched officially in January 2021 under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, Robotics4EU aims to take concrete steps to ensure a more widespread adoption of (AI-based) robots in the EU, particularly in the areas of Healthcare, Inspection and Maintenance of Infrastructure, Agri-Food, and Agile Production.

Despite increased focus and investment, 55% of digital government programmes are failing to scale, according to a survey from Gartner. Government CIOs can adopt practices from digitally advanced governments to successfully scale their own programs.

The Dutch government risks exacerbating racial discrimination through the continued use of unregulated algorithms in the public sector, Amnesty International said in a damning new analysis of the country’s childcare benefit scandal.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), the first autonomous racecar competition at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is preparing for thousands of fans to attend. On October 23, 2021, 21 universities from 9 countries forming 9 teams will compete in this first-of-its kind competition. The teams will be competing for $1 million in prize money, which will be used to advance the education and research missions of the winning universities.

Ganymed Robotics, developer of software and robotics technologies for orthopedic surgeons, has secured a €2,5 M grant through the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator program. EIC funding will help Ganymed bring its innovation to the millions of patients suffering from arthritis.