CRI operates as a virtual centre of excellence and a focal point of communication and collaboration for exchange of ideas and sharing research insights to promote inter-disciplinary synergies in order to motivate innovative research programmes that will push forward the frontiers of societally acceptable Companion Robotics (CR). This includes CR capabilities for solution integration that remains responsive to a spectrum of social requirements for robots to act as team workers or to offer companionship in a variety of contexts. In this respect Companion Robotics builds on the advances of service robotics to open up additional opportunities for exploitation of technological advances in cognitive systems that could be integrated with advanced robotics to offer new business models to realise the social benefits that can arise from advances in robotics research enabling robots to act as social players.
The CRI Founding Chair and Coordinator and Scientific Leader of the CompanionAble Integrated Research Programme (www.companionable.net) is Atta Badii.
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