Robots could have a role to play in COVID-19, whether it's automating laboratory research, helping with logistics, disinfecting hospitals, education, or allowing carers, colleagues or loved ones to connect using telepresence. Yet many of these solutions are still in development or early deployment. The hope is that accelerating these translations could make a difference. This page aims to compile some resources for roboticists who are able to help, users who need robots for COVID-19 applications, and people who want to learn about robotics while on lockdown. This is not an exhaustive resource page, and we will regularly be updating the content.

As a member of the Royal Society's Working Group on Machine Learning, Dr. Hauert is an expert in science communication. As a frequent speaker on the future of robotics, Hauert explains how robots are game-changers, but not in the way we think. Robots aren't going to replace humans; they're going to make our jobs much more humane. Difficult, demeaning, demanding, dangerous, dull--these are the jobs that robots will be taking. Productivity is one of the primary benefits of robotics in the workplace. In Europe, the goal is to attain a 20 percent increase in productivity by 2020. Central to achieving this is the exploration and use of robotics in the workplace.

A new generation of swarming robots which can independently learn and evolve new behaviours in the wild is one step closer, thanks to research from the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE). The team used artificial evolution to enable the robots to automatically learn swarm behaviours which are understandable to humans. This new advance published this Friday in Advanced Intelligent Systems, could create new robotic possibilities for environmental monitoring, disaster recovery, infrastructure maintenance, logistics and agriculture. Until now, artificial evolution has typically been run on a computer which is external to the swarm, with the best strategy then copied to the robots. However, this approach is limiting as it requires external infrastructure and a laboratory setting.

A new generation of swarming robots which can independently learn and evolve new behaviors in the wild is one step closer, thanks to research from the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE). The team used artificial evolution to enable the robots to automatically learn swarm behaviors which are understandable to humans. This new advance published today in Advanced Intelligent Systems, could create new robotic possibilities for environmental monitoring, disaster recovery, infrastructure maintenance, logistics and agriculture. Until now, artificial evolution has typically been run on a computer which is external to the swarm, with the best strategy then copied to the robots. However, this approach is limiting as it requires external infrastructure and a laboratory setting.

Dr. Sabine Hauert, President and Co-Founder of Robohub.org and Assistant Professor in Robotics at the University of Bristol, provided the InterConnect 2017 audience with an insightful (and interactive) discussion about robotics – highlighting the need for balanced media and communications around robotics and artificial intelligence. As a member of the Royal Society's Working Group on Machine Learning, Dr. Hauert is an expert in science communication and a frequent speaker on the future of robotics. In her talk, Hauert explains how robots can be game changers, but not in the way we think. Robots are not going to replace humans, they are going to make their jobs much more humane. Difficult, demeaning, demanding, dangerous, dull – these are the jobs robots will be taking. Productivity is one of the primary benefits of robotics in the workplace.

Many people are unsure about exactly what machine learning is. But the reality is that it is already part of everyday life. A form of artificial intelligence, it allows computers to learn from examples rather than having to follow step-by-step instructions. The Royal Society believes it will have an increasing impact on people's lives and is calling for more research, to ensure the UK makes the most of opportunities. Machine learning is already powering systems from the seemingly mundane to the life-changing.

A form of artificial intelligence, it allows computers to learn from examples rather than having to follow step-by-step instructions. The Royal Society believes it will have an increasing impact on people's lives and is calling for more research, to ensure the UK makes the most of opportunities. Machine learning is already powering systems from the seemingly mundane to the life-changing. Here are just a few examples. Using spoken commands to ask your phone to carry out a search, or make a call, relies on technology supported by machine learning.

Developers of artificial intelligence (A.I.) now have an added incentive to pursue their work: $5 million dollars. The prize money was announced at the annual TED conference Wednesday, in a joint initiative between tech giant IBM and X Prize, the company behind the world's first private space race to reach the moon. Motivating the backers of this competition is, among other things, a desire to demonstrate the potential benefits to mankind of advances in A.I., but many skeptics have yet to be convinced. "Personally, I am sick and tired of the dystopian conversation around artificial intelligence," said X Prize founder Peter Diamandis when unveiling the prize. The competition challenges teams to "develop and demonstrate how humans can collaborate with powerful cognitive technologies to tackle some of the world's grand challenges," according to an X Prize statement.

There's no question that technology is drastically changing the way we work, but what will the job market look like by 2050? Will 40% of roles have been lost to automation – as predicted by Oxford university economists Dr Carl Frey and Dr Michael Osborne – or will there still be jobs even if the nature of work is exceptionally different from today? To address these issues, the Guardian hosted a roundtable discussion, in association with professional services firm Deloitte, which brought together academics, authors and IT business experts. The future of work will soon become "the survival of the most adaptable", says Paul Mason, emerging technologies director for Innovate UK. As new technologies fundamentally change the way we work, the jobs that remain will be multifaceted and changeable. "Workers of the future will need to be highly adaptable and juggle three or more different roles at a time," says Anand Chopra-McGowan, head of enterprise new markets for General Assembly.

It's a cliché to proclaim that technology is having a disruptive influence on our lives, changing our society and the way people work. And, are employees and organisations prepared for the future of work? A recent event – "The Robots are coming: The future of work"- at the South Bank Centre brought together a panel of experts on robotics and artificial intelligence to debate what awaits our working lives in the near future. I was there to explore the topic and report on the talk. Sabine Hauert (pictured right) is a lecturer in robotics and member of Bristol Robotics Laboratory, an academic centre for multi-disciplinary robotics research in the UK.