Paolo Denti, co-founder of Oversonic, discusses safe, human-centered humanoid robots for industrial and healthcare work at the World Technology Congress, following remarks from Dominica and Jodi.
Denti says progress depends on building an ecosystem that includes education and institutions. He estimates there are about 250 humanoid projects worldwide, most launched in the past two years, while Italy and Europe account for less than 5 percent. He questions why European industrial automation companies are not extending their work into humanoids and warns that the region could lose ground, as Nokia did in an earlier technology shift.
Denti says fewer than 10 of the roughly 250 projects appear ready for industrial or healthcare use once safety certification is considered; many others target entertainment. Oversonic’s purpose took shape during the COVID pandemic, when he considered whether its prototype could help with emergency room triage. The company focuses on hazardous or physically demanding jobs, and became a benefit company in 2022 to formalize safeguards.
Denti says labor shortages now affect every sector, with night, weekend, and other difficult shifts increasingly hard to staff. He says large international corporations are seeking Oversonic’s machines, but limited alternatives make comparison difficult. He also points to Italy’s aging population: senior-care users could rise from four million to nine million within a decade, while care facilities lose 10 percent of their staff each year after COVID.
Denti argues that AI can support tasks and decisions only within mapped, defined settings, with people remaining involved. He says open-ended large language models are not readily suited to certified industrial or hospital use. Safety also includes privacy, GDPR, the AI Act, and data security; Oversonic uses wheeled humanoids to meet current industrial certification needs.
Denti says Oversonic is deploying a humanoid fleet in semiconductor manufacturing and plans a third clinical trial at a major Italian hospital, assisting pediatric intensive care. He presents these applications as examples of robots working alongside people where support is needed.
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Paolo of Oversonic Robotics explains the company’s approach to humanoid robots for industrial work and healthcare at a Bloomberg Tech event in London, with host Bloomberg Live and a demonstration by robot R.O.V.A.
Bruno Siciliano, robotics professor at the University of Naples Federico II, and Fabio Puglia of Oversonic discuss why humanoid robots such as RoDyMan and RoBee may help people and machines work together in research and industry.
