Europe will lose 20 million people as a workforce in the next decade due to demographic change. Compensating at least half of them with robots is a huge challenge, and will be essential for ensuring our welfare. We need to make sure that robots will be trustable helpers, according to our values and the needs of our society.
Interview Alin Albu-Schäffer
Alin Albu-Schäffer is Director of the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and a professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). He has worked at DLR since 1995. His research focuses on lightweight robots that work safely alongside people, with uses from space and industry to healthcare and the home.
Why must this challenge exist, and why now?
The next 3-5 years will decide if Germany and Europe will play a central role in the emerging mass market of AI-based and humanoid robots. So, we need an instrument for swiftly turn our excellent research results into successful companies of large international format. The SPRIND challenge offers a great platform towards this goal.
What's the biggest bottleneck holding back European robotics?
We need more performant, still cost-effective hardware and we need to engage with maximal energy into the physical AI race, collecting data, developing models, and implementing applications which can generate early viable business-cases. Additionally, we need the investment for growing tech companies of a format competitive and visible on a world-wide level.
What's one thing you wish the general public understood about robotics?
It is one of the most important emerging technologies which will influence profoundly our society and our lives. Europe will loose 20 million people as a workforce in the next decade due to demographic change. Compensating at least half of them with robots (coming from Germany and Europe) is a huge challenge, and will be essential for ensuring our welfare. We need to make sure that robots will be trustable helpers, according to our values and the needs of our society. And we need to make sure that they are to the benefit of our society at large. That's why active and massive engagement in the field is crucial.
If you could delegate one physical task to a robot tomorrow, what would it be?
Clean my flat every week.
What would a real breakthrough in robotics in the next three years look like?
Hawing 5-10 large companies for humanoid and AI-based robots in Europe which deploy the robots as consumer goods in many applications, resulting in an industry of size and importance of automotive companies today. Those robots have a general problem-solving knowledge similar to the information knowledge of current visual-language models. And this knowledge can be instantiated and refined for specific everyday tasks by people which understand those tasks, but which are not robot experts.