The German Academy of Science and Engineering, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), published the white paper on 20 March 2025. Prof Karin Wolf-Ostermann from the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) and head of the "Nursing Science Health Services Research" department at the University of Bremen is one of the experts from various disciplines who contributed to the paper.
The white paper is dedicated to the topic of interactive, adaptive robotics - primarily from a technological perspective, taking functional safety and economic efficiency into account - and highlights the technological, social and economic framework conditions that give this technology a promising future. It explains what adaptive robot systems are, what characterises them and how they learn interactively in the real and virtual world. But furthermore, what requirements and possible hurdles need to be overcome. This is concretised using seven application examples that illustrate where and how adaptive robots can provide interactive support in the near and distant future - be it in agriculture, healthcare, recycling or space travel.
Robotics can be used in many different ways in care. The field of research is correspondingly broad. It includes both robotic systems that perform tasks that are more distant from people (e.g. transporting laundry), as well as systems that are used close to or directly with people (e.g. offering drinks), or so-called social bots that are used to keep people in need of care company and/or maintain social contacts. The white paper focuses on the area of care-supporting robotics, i.e. robots that relieve carers so that they can concentrate more on their core activities and interacting with those in need of care.
In future, for example, robots will be able to help care recipients who often drink too little to fetch and serve drinks, open water bottles or, if necessary, assist them with drinking. The integration of robotics into care is therefore expected to be highly accepted.
The white paper can be found at the following link: https://www.acatech.de/publikation/ki-in-der-robotik/
