School of Robotics for the European Heritage Days: robots for art&culture

For some years now Scuola di Robotica has been committed to applying service robotics and digital tools to promote our cultural heritage.

Since the 208-2019 school year, the NAO Challenge, the humanoid robot competition that we have been organizing for some years, has had as its objective and mission the use of the NAO robot to promote an Italian cultural heritage. This year’s NAO Challenge will have a similar mission.

The National Final of the NAO Challenge 2019-2020, June 2020, was held online, due to COVID-19, but it was a beautiful kermesse, attended by about ten cultural heritage experts and directors of Italian and world museums.

Every year in September, the 50 signatory States to the European Cultural Convention take part in the European Heritage Days – a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, putting new cultural assets on view and opening up historical buildings normally closed to the public. The cultural events highlight local skills and traditions, architecture, and works of art, but the broader aim is to bring citizens together in harmony even though there are differences in cultures and languages.

On 26 and 27 September 2020, In Italy and all over Europe on different days, the European Heritage Days will offer free entrance to the museums, sites, and other cultural heritage areas. “The European Heritage Days are the most attended of the cultural events in Europe, promoted since 1991 by the Council of Europe and the European Commission. The aim of the event is to make all citizens appreciate and know the shared cultural heritage and to encourage active participation for its preservation and transmission to the new generations” (from the MIBACT website).

In the enclosed article, our Colleague Andrea Germinario from Madlab 2.0 and collaborator of Scuola di Robotica describes in detail the event we have organized, in close cooperation with Madlab 2.0, at Genoa’s Royal Palace: a treasure hunt led by the humanoid robot Pepper.

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Robot Pepper touring the Genoa’s Royal Palace