IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2021 - 79

Making an
Opportunity
Out of a
Crisis
The Inclusive Approach of
the Italian Robotics
Community
By Alessandra Sciutti, Fiorella Battaglia, Maria Rosanna Fossati, Valentina Calderai, Manuel Giuseppe Catalano,
Gianluca Antonelli, Giorgio Maria Di Nunzio, Nevio Dubbini, Laura Giarré, Emanuele Mene gatti, Francesca Negr ello,
Federica Pasc ucci, Monica Pivetti, Andrea Maria Za nc hettin, Arturo Baro ncelli, Salvatore Majo rana, Carlo Marc hisio,
Bruno Sici liano, Paolo Rocc o, Giorgio Mett a, Claudio Melc hiorri, Cecilia Lasc hi, Eugenio Gugl ielmelli,
Alessandro De L uca, Paolo Dari o, and Antonio Bicc hi
Introduction
T
he CO VID-19 pandemic is forcing a rethink in
robotics. In the form it is known today, robotics
has been the prerogative of a broad community
of insiders. But now, in the wreckage left behind
by COVID-19, a new era is beginning. What
does it hold? During the pandemic, increasing numbers
of people had manifested the hope that robotics might
bring novel solutions. And this interest has emerged beyond
the usual boundaries of the experts or technology
enthusiasts. This provides an opportunity to reinforce the
community of people involved in the process of innovation.
By involving citizens, the community becomes more
comprehensive (that is, plural and diverse). This broadening
will involve more practical knowledge and therefore
produce better robots of many shapes and functions. If
progress is possible in the industry, why not in the hospiDigital
Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2021.3105639
Date of current version: 9 December 2021
1070-9932/21©2021IEEE
tals, shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, and schools? What
is more, the approach endorsed by the Italian robotics community
during the lockdown has established a new cooperation
among those who labor with robots, and the
professionals who work in hospitals, which is bound to last
a long time. As a major impact, this experience will enable
an improvement on science's relationship with and for society.
This may entail a further shift: to value more scientific
knowledge and scientific literacy.
In this article, we discuss how the robotics community of
one country, Italy, has concretely responded to the pandemic
outbreak in the early stages. Our aim is to analyze and disentangle
the diverse elements that have contributed to making
an opportunity out of a crisis. We also discuss how we are
currently working to help the recovery phase and to share this
experience with the worldwide community, passing along the
many lessons learned.
Italy was the first western country severely affected by
COVID-19 (see Figure 1), the implications of which were
by no means clear from the outset. In early March 2020,
DECEMBER 2021 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE *
79
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2021

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