On June 19, 2024, Oliver Bendel gave a presentation at the IDEepolis 2024 conference in Stuttgart entitled „Es wird ein Mensch gemacht: Die Vision des universellen Roboters“ („A Human Is Being Made: The Vision of the Universal Robot“). The scholar of German studies and philosophy opened his talk with a quotation from Goethe’s „Faust II“: „MEPHISTOPHELES: Willkommen! es ist gut gemeint. WAGNER: Willkommen zu dem Stern der Stunde! Doch haltet Wort und Atem fest im Munde, Ein herrlich Werk ist gleich zustand gebracht. MEPHISTOPHELES: Was gibt es denn? WAGNER: Es wird ein Mensch gemacht.“ („MEPHISTOPHELES: Welcome! It is well meant. WAGNER: Welcome to the star of the hour! But hold your words and your breath, A magnificent work is about to be completed. MEPHISTOPHELES: What is it then? WAGNER: A human is being made.“). Oliver Bendel then explained what general-purpose robots are and how they could evolve into universal robots. He also discussed androids such as Harmony. At ICSR 2026, he encountered Euclid, another android, developed by Dr. Carl Strathearn, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, and Emilia Sobolewska, Lecturer and Researcher. It was Emilia Sobolewska who, in the Debate Hall of the Senate House, playfully twirled a piece of facial skin before placing it into the hands of the session participants. Oliver Bendel kneaded the face in his hands and thought: „Es wird ein Mensch gemacht!“ („A Human Is Being Made!“). The article based on the presentation will be published later in 2026 in the book „Mensch – Maschine revisited“ („Human – Machine Revisited“), edited by Petra Grimm, Kai Erik Trost, and Oliver Zöllner.
The paper „The Universal Robot of the 21st Century“ by Oliver Bendel was published in February 2025 in the proceedings volume „Social Robots with AI: Prospects, Risks, and Responsible Methods“ … From the abstract: „Developments in several areas of computer science, robotics, and social robotics make it seem likely that a universal robot will be available in the foreseeable future. Large language models for communication, perception, and control play a central role in this. This article briefly outlines the developments in the various areas and uses them to create the overall image of the universal robot. It then discusses the associated challenges from an ethical and social science perspective. It can be said that the universal robot will bring with it new possibilities and will perhaps be one of the most powerful human tools in physical space. At the same time, numerous problems are foreseeable, individual, social, and ecological.“ The proceedings volume comprises the papers presented at Robophilosophy 2024 in Aarhus. Leading philosophers, computer scientists and roboticists met there in August. Like the ICSR, the conference is one of the world’s leading conferences on social robotics. General-purpose robots, the predecessors of universal robots, have now become widespread, as exemplified by Digit, Apollo, and Figure 03. The author accepted manuscript of this article is therefore being made freely available on this site for non-commercial use only and with no derivatives, in line with the publisher’s self-archiving policy.
Abb.: Ein malender Roboter bei der Biennale Architettura 2025
The workshop description „The social significance of human effort – What parameters for a positive human-robot interaction in the context of Industry 5.0?“ by Margherita Pugnalello, Leonardo Massantini, Alberto Pirni, Paolo Dario, Oliver Bendel, Nicola Vitiello, Danica Kragic Jensfelt, and Simona Crea was published in February 2025 in the proceedings volume „Social Robots with AI: Prospects, Risks, and Responsible Methods“ … Oliver Bendel from Zurich was invited to the workshop at short notice and supplemented the topic with his field of research. His presentation was entitled „Metamorphoses in the factory: From classic industrial robots over cobots and classic service robots to universal robots“. The proceedings volume comprises the papers presented at Robophilosophy 2024 in Aarhus. Leading philosophers, computer scientists, and roboticists met there in August. Like the ICSR, the conference is one of the world’s leading conferences on social robotics.
Fig.: Oliver Bendel at Robophilosophy 2024 in Aarhus (Photo: Katharina Kühne)
The paper „The Universal Robot of the 21st Century“ by Oliver Bendel was published in February 2025 in the proceedings volume „Social Robots with AI: Prospects, Risks, and Responsible Methods“ … From the abstract: „Developments in several areas of computer science, robotics, and social robotics make it seem likely that a universal robot will be available in the foreseeable future. Large language models for communication, perception, and control play a central role in this. This article briefly outlines the developments in the various areas and uses them to create the overall image of the universal robot. It then discusses the associated challenges from an ethical and social science perspective. It can be said that the universal robot will bring with it new possibilities and will perhaps be one of the most powerful human tools in physical space. At the same time, numerous problems are foreseeable, individual, social, and ecological.“ The proceedings volume comprises the papers presented at Robophilosophy 2024 in Aarhus. Leading philosophers, computer scientists and roboticists met there in August. Like the ICSR, the conference is one of the world’s leading conferences on social robotics.
Fig.: The conference gala dinner took place in this building
In recent years, a large number of quadruped and bipedal robots have been created. Many of them were inspired by Spot and Atlas from Boston Dynamics. These, in turn, can be traced back to Sparko and Elektro, which became famous around 1940. Atlas paved the way for the so-called general-purpose or universal robots that are now conquering the market, from H1 to Figure 01. They are not yet truly universal, but they are getting there. In these dynamic and productive times, the company, which is part of the Hyundai Motor Group, announces the end of the hydraulic version of the humanoid robot. A post on LinkedIn from April 17, 2024 states: „Atlas has sparked our imagination, inspired new roboticists, and leapt over technical barriers. Now it’s time for our hydraulic Atlas robot to kick back and relax. Take a look at everything we’ve accomplished with the Atlas platform to date.“ (Boston Dynamics, 17 April 2024) At the end of the video, it says that one could meet again. This immediately raised hopes of a successor. In fact, Boston Dynamics presented an electric, extremely mobile version on its blog just a few hours later. The title of the article is: „An Electric New Era for Atlas“.
Fig.: A screenshot from the video of the electric version (Image: Boston Dynamics)
