Interactive robots for health in Europe: Technology readiness and adoption potential.

Introduction: Social robots are accompanied by high expectations of what they can bring to society and in the healthcare sector. So far, promising assumptions have been presented about how and where social robots are most relevant. We know that the industry has used robots for a long time, but what about social uptake outside industry, specifically, in the healthcare sector? This study discusses what trends are discernible, to better understand the gap between technology readiness and adoption of interactive robots in the welfare and health sectors in Europe.

Technologies for an inclusive robotics education.

The H2020 project "INBOTS: Inclusive Robotics for a Better Society" (2018--21) has worked in different disciplines involved in the acceptance and uptake of interactive robotics, including the promotion of accessible and multidisciplinary education programs. In INBOTS, educational robotics is considered as a learning tool that can bring robotics into school classrooms and benefit all children regardless of their future educational or professional orientation. Aiming to make robotics education inclusive, INBOTS has introduced a paradigm shift inspired by sound pedagogies (Papert's constructionism) and emerging educational trends (the maker movement) and focused on creativity and other 21 -century skills.