The recently published open-access book “Artificial Intelligence, Data and Robotics: Foundations, Transformations and Future Directions” provides a comprehensive overview of the technologies and initiatives shaping Europe’s digital future.
Published within the framework of the AI, Data and Robotics Association (ADRA), the book reflects the collective work of the European AI-Data-Robotics ecosystem, bringing together researchers, innovation projects, and industry stakeholders working to accelerate the development and deployment of these technologies across Europe.
Among the initiatives featured in the book is ARISE, together with its sister projects FORTIS and JARVIS, which are highlighted in the chapter “Advancing Industrial Collaboration: The Next Generation of Human-Robot Interaction.”
The book reflects the broader strategic vision behind the European AI, Data and Robotics Partnership, which aims to strengthen Europe’s leadership in these technologies while ensuring that innovation remains human-centric, trustworthy and aligned with European values.
Artificial intelligence, robotics and data technologies are increasingly converging to create new possibilities across sectors such as manufacturing, mobility, environmental monitoring and healthcare. This convergence is explored in the chapter “Data, AI, Robotics: Transformative Power in Industry 5.0” where the authors (among them partners in the ARISE project Polimi, Engineering and Cartif) explain how Industry 5.0 builds on the foundations of Industry 4.0 by integrating human-centric, resilient and sustainable manufacturing practices. This chapter reviews a series of European initiatives and industrial pilot cases demonstrating how AI, robotics and data technologies can support circular manufacturing processes, data sharing across value chains and new decision-support capabilities through technologies such as digital twins and real-time industrial data infrastructures.
However, unlocking the full potential of these technologies requires more than individual innovations. It requires digital infrastructures that allow heterogeneous systems to interoperate and share data seamlessly.
This is where open digital infrastructures become essential. Across the European ecosystem, researchers and innovators are increasingly focusing on building interoperable platforms and architectures that allow AI systems, robotics technologies and data infrastructures to work together across domains.
ARISE: contributing to the next generation of human-robot collaboration
In our chapter, we explore (together with our sister projects JARVIS and FORTIS) the evolution of human-robot interaction (HRI) and the technological foundations required to support collaborative robotics in industrial environments.
In particular, we present the ARISE framework, designed to accelerate the deployment of collaborative robotics systems that integrate human expertise with advanced automation technologies. Through experimentation in Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs) and collaboration with SMEs, ARISE aims to bridge the gap between research and real industrial deployment.
Our work focuses on enabling more intuitive interaction between humans and robots, safer collaboration in industrial settings, scalable robotics deployments, and the integration of artificial intelligence into industrial decision-making processes.
FIWARE and ROS2: an open middleware for industrial robotics
A key innovation highlighted in the book is the architectural approach used in ARISE.
The project integrates FIWARE technologies with ROS2 robotics frameworks, creating an open middleware that enables interoperability between robotic systems, industrial applications and AI services.
This architecture allows data to flow seamlessly between robots, digital platforms and industrial systems, enabling:
real-time monitoring of robotic operations
integration of AI-based services
coordination between robots and industrial systems
scalable deployment of robotics applications.
By combining ROS2 robotics capabilities with FIWARE context-management technologies, ARISE demonstrates how open-source platforms can create a flexible and interoperable digital infrastructure for robotics.
This interoperability layer is essential for enabling complex industrial environments where robots, machines, sensors and digital platforms must work together.
Interoperable data infrastructures for AI and robotics
The role of FIWARE technologies is not limited to robotics architectures.
In another chapter of the book, dedicated to the CyclOps project, “CyclOps: Leveraging Semantic Technologies for AI and Data Life Cycle Management and Governance”, FIWARE technologies appear again through the use of NGSI-LD context brokers, which support interoperable data exchange and semantic data management across distributed environments.
FIWARE-based interoperability approaches are also referenced in discussions around emerging data ecosystems, such as in the chapter “Toward the Irish Mobility Data Space: Challenges, Opportunities, and Requirements”, which explores the technological foundations needed to enable cross-domain mobility data spaces.
Context brokers such as Orion-LD, Stellio and Scorpio, available within the FIWARE ecosystem, enable the storage, retrieval and sharing of contextual information across domains such as smart cities, Industry 4.0 and IoT applications.
These technologies illustrate how standardized data infrastructures can support the integration of AI and robotics systems within broader digital ecosystems.
Toward open digital infrastructures for robotics
Taken together, the projects and technologies presented in the book highlight an important transformation in the way Europe approaches technological innovation.
Rather than focusing solely on isolated technological components, the European AI-Data-Robotics ecosystem is increasingly building open digital infrastructures that allow different technologies to work together across sectors and domains.
Within this vision:
ARISE contributes to the development of human-centric robotics systems
FIWARE provides the interoperable data infrastructure that connects digital services, AI applications and industrial systems
This combination of open platforms, interoperable data architectures and collaborative robotics represents a key step toward the realization of Industry 5.0.
The inclusion of ARISE in this ADRA publication highlights the project’s contribution to Europe’s rapidly evolving AI, Data and Robotics ecosystem. By combining open-source technologies, interoperable architectures and human-centric design, ARISE demonstrates how collaborative robotics can be deployed in ways that enhance human capabilities while supporting industrial innovation. At the same time, the broader presence of FIWARE technologies across different chapters of the book reflects the growing importance of open standards and interoperable data infrastructures as foundations for the next generation of digital systems.
Together, initiatives such as ARISE and FIWARE are helping to build the open digital infrastructures that will support Europe’s future in AI, data and robotics.