Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – Robots powered by AI that do housework, recycle objects or deliver packages, all developed by European laboratories: Europe has illustrated its desire to exert influence in a sector dominated by the Chinese and the Americans, during a full-scale demonstration at the European Parliament.

Published on: 03/09/2026 - 11:59

In around ten minutes, four human assistance robots, designed in particular by INRIA, a French institute, and DLR, a German aerospace center, join forces to clear a large breakfast table completely autonomously: while one tidies up the cupboards and wipes with the sponge, the others put the orange juice and milk in the fridge, throw away the empty packaging, and fill the dishwasher.

The movements are slow and it sometimes takes several attempts to achieve their goals. But this is normal, underlines Serena Ivaldi of INRIA, since they are designed "to act in a human environment", without rushing the people they assist, and prioritize precision over speed.

A few meters away, an articulated arm developed by the CEA, another French organization, dismantles the components of an electric battery model with a view to recycling them.

"Transform"

And KYON, a quadruped robot ("Black Mirror" style) from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) designed for logistics, makes a convincing first public outing, bending its legs to pick up a package, and takes a few steps to bring it to a human.

And, to applause, the aptly named “Transformer” from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, repositions its four members in the blink of an eye to change form and functions. Going from a quadruped configuration to that of a humanoid biped without losing its balance, it returns to four legs, takes side steps, goes up and down steps without flinching...

So much concrete proof that Europe has serious assets, thanks to its numerous public and private applied research institutes, without forgetting the start-ups and industrial groups that are banking on this sector.

“Our vision is that in 10 years, Europe will have developed a major robotics sector, of a size comparable to its current automobile industry”, and that it will be able to capture a third of the global market for intelligent robots by this time, launched Alin Albu-Schäffer, coordinator of the European network euROBin, organizer of the event in Brussels.

“Next industrial revolution”

A very daring bet, as China is investing massively in humanoid robots, and has just carried out demonstrations of force during the "World Robot Games" at the end of August in Beijing, during which one of its machines beat Usain Bolt's 100 meter record.

While the American champion Boston Dynamics (which belongs to the South Korean Hyundai) makes Wall Street dream of an IPO with its robots that dance or engage in parkour...

“Robotics is of capital importance for us today and for our future, and Europe is faced with a choice: we can watch as spectators the next industrial revolution which will take place elsewhere, or decide that Europe will be the architect,” underlined MEP Axel Voss (EPP, right), ardent defender of European sovereignty in digital technology.

“We have a problem: we are often very good at inventing technologies, but less so when it comes to turning them into global companies. The United States and China are changing scale rapidly, capital is flowing elsewhere and non-European companies are increasingly shaping the global robotics market,” noted the German elected official.

"Europe has generated a lot of scientific research, which has also been the basis of certain successes in China or the United States", but "we lack political will and money", explains to AFP Professor Pedro Lima, president of the robotics institute at the University of Lisbon.

Hence the importance of this type of event to mobilize decision-makers, in the midst of negotiating the future budget of the European Union...

© 2026 AFP

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