Technology introduces dramatic new ways that work can be accomplished in teams of humans and between humans and machines. Rapid progress in artificial intelligence and robotics has raised opportunities for machines to either replace or augment human physical labor. However, achieving this vision and generating real-world impact will clearly require advances that go well beyond the core field of robotics, spanning cognate areas such as bi-directional human-machine interaction, redesign of joint human-machine processes and workflows and enhancement of human capital to maximize the organizational and societal benefits of human-robot synergy. In addition, advances in digital technologies are also destabilizing and re-defining long-standing definitions of “work”, “jobs”, and “workplace”. The Mens, Manus, and Machina (or M3S) program under the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre is an ambitious, multi-year effort that brings together an interdisciplinary team to develop state-of-the-art AI and Robotics technologies for various real world use cases, while also studying the societal impact of such technologies on the future of work and human capital development. A key goal of M3S is to advance the use of AI-enhanced robotics as a core technological capability that goes beyond automation of well-structured tasks in factory environments to encompass joint human-machine execution of physical tasks and operations in unstructured new workplaces, such as airports and marine platforms.

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In this forum at IROS 2024, we hope to generate a cross-disciplinary, integrated dialog on framing a symbiotic research agenda around planned breakthroughs in robotics and these cognate areas. We shall draw upon a range of aspirational but tangible use cases, which have emerged from M3S’s conversations with a variety of industry partners in Singapore, to highlight opportunities and challenges for task execution in AI & robotics-augmented workplaces. Academics and researchers from MIT and Singapore, as well as global technical experts and national research program leaders, will take the stage to share their ideas and vision on these topics as well as detail the work being executed as part of the M3S program.