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Saluto dell’Ambasciatore d’Italia, Gianluigi Benedetti in occasione del “International Symposium on Robotics Humanity and Healthcare” (Osaka, 21 giugno 2024)

President Tatsuo KINASHI, Rector Stefano Paolo CORGNATI, Professors, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests,

 

It is a great honor to participate in this prestigious symposium on robotics, which represents one of the most promising sectors for scientific and industrial collaborations between Italy and Japan, on the road to Expo Osaka 2025 and for the years ahead.

 

In recent decades, robotics has managed to combine research and scientific progress together with industrial and commercial developments, creating a new formidable social and economic reality, deeply embedded in a nexus of innovations, such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

 

The integration of AI and robots supporting human workers, for instance, will lead profound implications both for the future of robotics and its applications and for our societies, leaning more and more towards the so-called “bio-inspired robotics”: an interaction between science, technology, people and economy, with significant transformative potential.

 

In Italy, the growth of domestic robotics sector has been remarkable over the last years. According to the 2023 World Robotics Report issued by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), Italy holds a 16% market share in the European Union, currently ranking second just after Germany and before France in terms of robotic installations.

 

Furthermore, as recently highlighted by Domenico Appendino, President of the Italian Association of Robotics and Automation (SIRI), since 2017 only China experienced in this field growth rates higher than Italy.

 

In line with the global trends, which have shown a 5% increase in surgical robot sales in the last year, our country’s commitment to technological advancement and industrial innovation is increasingly focusing on the healthcare sector, contributing to developing new rehabilitation tools, disability solutions and aging societies remedies.

 

In a very near future, the interaction between robotics and medical applications will again drastically enhance the opportunities for patients. Artificial prostheses, such as robotic exoskeletons designed to assist individuals with disabilities and fragile people will be perfected. Clinical trials and surgical processes will be further automated by combining AI and new robots’ capabilities and control. The “doctor-patient relationship” will be revolutionized. New protocols to collect and analyze scientific evidence will be defined. Patient care and workplace safety will improve.

 

I am sure that Italy and Japan – who share a long-standing commitment to innovation and a solid dedication to improving people’s condition through scientific and technological progress – have the research and industrial capabilities, as well as the academic structures and human skills to face all these challenges ahead.

 

In recent years, Italian and Japanese universities have forged strong alliances, driving forward the frontiers of knowledge and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in robotics. These academic ties have not only yielded impressive scientific advancements, but have also fostered a spirit of international cooperation that is crucial in today’s interconnected world.

 

One prime example of this fruitful collaboration is the partnership between the University of Osaka and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). This agreement has led to groundbreaking research in humanoid robots, which have applications ranging from disaster response to elderly care.

 

In the medical field, the cooperation between Osaka University and the University of Pisa contributed to develop robotic systems that can perform minimally invasive surgeries with unprecedented precision, whereas the joint research on bio-inspired robotics conducted by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and RIKEN focused on mimicking and replicating the efficiency of biological systems.

 

All this successful steps and disruptive innovations not only resulted in a direct and tangible impact on improving the quality of human lives, but also made it clear that together Italian and Japanese scientists can achieve even greater outcomes in the field of medical robotics.

 

Therefore, I strongly believe that new scientific collaborations among our universities and research centers might and should be pursued. Italy is in fact home to several prominent centers of robotics excellence, such as Genoa, Pisa and Naples and many other universities in Torino, Milano, Roma and Palermo – only to mention few – have dramatically increased the number of international degree programs in robotics in the last decade.

 

As we look to the future, it is clear that the partnership between Italy and Japan in the field of robotics will continue to thrive. The integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics – as outlined in the G7 Industry, Tech and Digital Ministerial Meeting held in Italy last March – will open new horizons and create opportunities for even deeper collaboration that we must be ready to catch.

 

Thank you.