Trustworthy AI for the next generation of Human-Centered Robotics

The next decades will transform the way we live, communicate, and interact far beyond what has been possible with the current Digital Transformation, whose possibilities are still vastly limited as became clear throughout the pandemic. In our future society, we will live in an interconnected cyber-physical network populated with intelligent robots and smart services, allowing humans to extend beyond their direct physical reach. In particular, grand challenges in the healthcare system will come within reach by this transformative technology: Humans will be empowered to deliver diagnostics and intervention over distance, benefit from robotics-enabled therapeutic devices and services as well as perform data-driven knowledge acquisition for automatic drug discovery at rates never seen before.

However, there still exist major hurdles before this future society can become reality. Foremost, a set of grand challenges in safe and trustworthy embodied AI needs to be tackled before human-centered intelligent robots can become the core of this future e.g., as everyday domestic and professional helpers, seamless cybernetic devices or remote twins.

The new large-scale project “Next generation Human-Centered Robotics: Human embodiment and system agency in trustworthy AI for the Future of Health” between LMU and TUM, headed by Prof. Dr. Sami Haddadin (TUM) and Prof. Dr. Gitta Kutyniok (LMU), aims to tackle those challenges. This project is one of three projects within the ONE MUNICH Strategy Forum, which serves as a platform between the two Universities of Excellence Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), supported also by the State of Bavaria through the Hightech Agenda Bavaria, to promote innovative and visionary research ideas and thereby strengthening science in the metropolitan region of Munich.