The Italian Institute of Technology, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (IIT@SSSA), has made it to the final six FET Flagship Pilots with its 'Robot companions for citizens' (RoboCom) project, which aims to create soft, gentle and friendly robots.

The RoboCom project would combine the expertise of scientists in the IT and robotics fields to build safe, interactive robot companions that would, according to the Commission, be "ubiquitous and user friendly, preserving or augmenting human capabilities and experience, extending the active, independent life of citizens, and maintaining our planet".

The bodies of these robots would require new artificial bio-materials or hybrid materials that use living tissue and have self-healing capabilities. The robots themselves would need to possess advanced social intelligence, which in turn requires new levels of cognitive modelling.

RoboCom would tie in with the Commission's aim of using technology to improve the lives of an ageing European population, while helping to further the robotics industry as a whole.

Photo credit: Josh Miller