The international robotics competition ERL Emergency 2017 was announced during a press briefing in Florence at the Tuscany Region headquarters by representatives of NATO STO-Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), of the Piombino Municipality and of the Tuscany Region. The competition is funded by the European Commission under the H2020 programme and locally organised by CMRE La Spezia.

When everything seems lost and the end inevitable, a robotics team arrives to save survivors and start work on the first emergency repairs.

This is not a clip from a science-fiction movie but a simulation of robots’ intervention which will happen at Tor del Sale, near the ENEL power plant, on the coast of Piombino, Italy, from 15 to 23 September. The scenario is inspired by one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents in history, at the power plant of Fukushima, Japan, in 2011, when radiations prevented rescue teams from intervening, and this triggered a series of events that ended in disaster.

ERL Emergency Robots 2017 in Piombino is a challenge gathering 130 participants from 16 universities and companies from 8 European countries, with sea, land and air robots involved. These robots will cooperate to bring the first relief to survivors, entering the power plant to close some valves in order to stem the leak of contaminant chemicals.

Robots should be able to make autonomous decisions on how to intervene in an unexpected situation. Nevertheless, is there any risk that these machines rise up in the future going beyond our control?

“No – says Alan Winfield, competition judge and Professor of Ethical Robotics at the University of the West of England, in Bristol – It is true that future robots are likely to be smarter and more autonomous, but they will still be machines designed by humans, for humans, so there is no real risk that they will be out of control. There are some risks in any new technology, however the ethical risks are more likely to have an impact on privacy or war fighting. We need to take steps to ensure that robots improve human well-being”.

The objective of the researchers participating in the ERL Emergency Robots is to design more effective robots capable of cooperating with humans to increase safety, even in the most difficult scenarios - how to address these challenges will be the focus of several talks by renowned speakers.

“We want young people to champion ERL Emergency Robots 2017 – says Gabriele Ferri, Technical Director of the event –Young people will see the robots in action during the competition, and will have the opportunity to attend a series of workshops organised by Scuola di Robotica of Genova.”

Furthermore, Italian universities and research centres will present three important European projects in which they are involved. WALK-MAN is the humanoid robot of the Italian Institute of Technology of Genova; SHERPA is developing a mountain rescue system using ground and aerial robots; TRADR, a project for search and rescue in areas struck by disaster, employed after the Amatrice earthquake.

The competition is locally organised by the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) of La Spezia with funding from the European Commission which aims to support research in robotics and to increase younger people participation.

For more information about CMRE: www.cmre.nato.int

For more information about ERL: https://eu-robotics.net/robotics_league