The Missions
In previous editions, the missions proposed to the teams always involved using the NAO robot for social solidarity activities:
In one edition, NAO was supposed to be programmed to keep the children company at home. In another, assisting an elderly person.The mission of the 2021 edition is the support NAO can offer to the knowledge and promotion of a cultural asset, a museum, an archaeological site, a monument, a picture gallery.
Humanoids for cultural heritage
As the UNESCO definition says, “Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today and we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration, our touchstone, our reference point, our identity”.
Furthermore, as the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) makes clear, “cultural heritage is the expression of ways of life developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions and values”.
For the social and economic development of a nation, cultural heritage is a fundamental strategic resource. This statement is all the more valid for Italy, which has the largest number of sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In UNESCO’s list there are 54 sites, of which 5 are natural sites: Aeolian Islands, Monte San Giorgio, Dolomites, Mount Etna, Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe ,and 7 are cultural landscapes: Amalfi Coast, Portovenere, Cinque Terre and Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto), National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano.
This immense world heritage needs new methods to be protected, preserved, promoted, discovered and told. This is why Scuola di Robotica has chosen the protection and defense of cultural heritage as the main theme for the 2021 edition of the Nao Challenge.
The teams will have to select, contact and collaborate with a museum, educational, scientific and cultural organization to create, in synergy, a project with the humanoid robot Nao to develop paths for the protection of cultural heritage to be presented during the contest.
