Canada faces a critical window of opportunity to define its economic future through leadership in robotics and AI. From the Canadarm to deep neural networks, AI-robotics excellence is deeply embedded in Canada's history and is a defining characteristic as a nation. However, a prevailing perception among Canadians is that the country's advanced technologies sector is either overshadowed by larger global players or out of touch with everyday realities. Reshaping this narrative is crucial, as broad public understanding and support are vital for fostering the policy changes and investment necessary for a robust, tech-driven economy.

Building a confident national identity around advanced technologies—one that effectively attracts business investment and talent—requires a collaborative effort. The insights of training institutions and economic development agencies are essential, as their expertise in leveraging place-based branding to drive economic growth and attract top talent is invaluable. Canadian robotics and AI experts, with their strong international networks, are uniquely positioned to illuminate the compelling stories and potential for a technology-enabled future, providing unique content to empower broader national awareness. This collaboration can create a powerful blueprint and storybook that showcases Canada as an advanced tech-faring nation, inspiring Canadians and attracting global partners. 

Our session will begin with a brief overview of robotics and AI in Canada (10 mins). The core discussion will examine specific case studies where other regions have successfully reshaped their self-image around robotics and AI through strategic public engagement (50 mins). We will then review how these strategies can be adapted to elevate Canada's national identity as a robotics and AI leader, enhancing its overall appeal for economic development, investment, and talent attraction across critical sectors, (e.g. mining, forestry, space, manufacturing), reflecting the country’s unique economic challenges and opportunities (30 mins).

Our goal is to co-create the foundations for a strong national narrative in AI-robotics. Key outcomes of this session include: 

• Identified Communication Gaps: A concise summary of challenges hindering public understanding and perception of Canada's robotics and AI innovation.
• Blueprint for Engagement: Initial strategic directions, stakeholders and actionable concepts for both grassroots and national approaches that empower partners (tourism, economic development, talent development) at a variety of scales to leverage Canada's AI-robotics strengths for investment, talent, and homegrown adoption.
• Narrative Building Blocks:  Core messages, compelling stories, and historical touchpoints from Canada's AI-robotics landscape to seed future campaigns.

Partner & Funding Pathways: Identification of potential key partners and preliminary funding considerations to sustain national awareness efforts.

This roundtable aims to foster a critical discussion on safely implementing human-robot collaboration, specifically addressing how to apply the latest ISO standards to achieve this. We will explore common misconceptions that lead to unsafe applications and collectively identify implementation challenges. Our goal is to understand how current standards either support or hinder the wider adoption of collaborative applications.

This session is designed for manufacturers, integrators, and end-users with experience or a keen interest in implementing collaborative robot applications.

We will begin with a guided presentation followed by an interactive open discussion:

• Presentation & Q&A (60 minutes)
  • Topic 1: Overview of Key Industry Standards and Recent Changes: We will review the latest technical revisions to ISO 10218-1/2, particularly the crucial shift from "collaborative robots" to "collaborative tasks and applications." Understanding these changes is vital for correct implementation.
  • Topic 2: Critical Safety Considerations and Common Misconceptions: We will address the dangerous misconception that 'collaborative robots' are inherently safe and require minimal or no safeguarding. We will highlight how this leads to inadequate risk reduction measures and puts workers at risk, emphasizing important safety considerations for both end-users and integrators.
     
• 30 minutes: Open Discussion
  • Question 1: Current Challenges: What specific challenges do integrators and users currently encounter when implementing safe collaborative applications?
  • Question 2: Evolving Standards: What changes or additions are needed in industry standards to further support the safe and widespread implementation of collaborative applications?

Our ultimate aim is to enhance understanding and encourage greater participation in robot industry safety standards. By the end of this session, we intend to:

1. Develop a set of high-level questions that end-users can effectively ask robot integrators when implementing collaborative applications in their facilities.
2. Provide a practical tool to help ensure that appropriate risk reduction measures are consistently implemented, thereby reducing technical barriers to the adoption of collaborative applications.

This roundtable builds directly on our work at the 2024 CRC Symposium, exploring responsible integration of robotics in the workplace, which emphasized the critical need for early worker engagement and cross-sector collaboration in robotics adoption. In this follow-up, we invite participants to help refine a draft toolkit for ethically integrating robotics into the workplace, specifically by centring the role, agency, and well-being of the workforce.

The toolkit is based on Foresight into AI Ethics (FAIE), a structured methodology developed by the Open Roboethics Institute to guide ethical decision-making in AI development. Originally designed for non-embodied AI systems, the toolkit is now being adapted to address the distinct challenges posed by robotics, particularly their embeddedness in physical environments and direct impact on human labour. This session is for anyone invested in the responsible adoption of robotics in the workplace, including workers, labor representatives, HR professionals, robotics developers and integrators, business leaders, policymakers, ethicists, and researchers.

• Toolkit Overview (10-15 minutes)
  • We will introduce the FAIE toolkit and explain our motivation for adapting it to robotics, emphasizing the unique ethical considerations of embodied AI.
• Interactive Co-Creation (60 minutes)
  • Participants will critique and expand on the existing toolkit through discussions of real or imagined workplace scenarios involving robotics integration. We'll explore practical applications and identify areas for improvement. Key questions will include:
• Why do workers need to be involved in the design, integration, and adoption of robotics?
• What forms of worker engagement are appropriate at different stages of robotics adoption, and how should they be structured?
• What safeguards can ensure robotics enhances, rather than undermines, job quality, safety, and career progression?
• Synthesis & Next Steps (15 minutes)
  • We will collaboratively synthesize ideas, surface key case examples, and identify interest in continuing this work through a dedicated working group or as an open resource.

Session outcomes will include:

• Refined Draft Toolkit: Direct participant feedback will lead to a more robust, practical, and worker-centric version of the FAIE toolkit for robotics integration.
• Documented Workplace Scenarios & Solutions: We will capture specific real or hypothetical workplace scenarios, along with co-created solutions and ethical considerations relevant to robotics adoption.

Foundation for Future Collaboration: The session will identify individuals and groups interested in continuing this important work, fostering ongoing development and dissemination of ethical robotics integration practices.

With AI surging in this decade, efforts are made around the world to organize AI governance. The European Union enacted the AI Act, and other jurisdictions are acting to steer AI development in line with public policy aims. In Canada, Bill C-27 died with the 2025 election, but the new federal government is bound to return to AI governance soon.

By all accounts, AI governance will affect the robotics industry, since measures rest on a broad AI definition that encompasses AI embodied in robots. Yet there is a disconnect: on the one hand, the robotics industry appears not to engage with AI governance, while on the other hand, AI governance measures seem to be designed for software-implemented AI. This roundtable is for everyone following regulation and policy in the AI and robotics sectors, including robotics manufacturers, developers, integrators, policymakers, legal professionals, and researchers.

Presentation – Navigating the AI Governance Landscape (30 minutes)

• An overview of current global AI governance debates, including key aspects of the EU AI Act and anticipated Canadian regulations.
• A focused analysis of how these evolving regulatory frameworks are poised to affect the robotics industry, particularly concerning the broad definition of AI that includes embodied AI systems.

Open Discussion & Workshop Insights (60 minutes)

• Presentation of key findings and results from a recent industry workshop on AI governance and embodied AI (held in August 2025).
• Ample time for a facilitated discussion where participants can react to the workshop results, share their perspectives, and raise critical questions.

Key outcomes from this session will include:

• Actionable Insights for Robotics Stakeholders: Attendees will gain a clear understanding of specific regulatory trends and compliance obligations directly impacting the design, development, and deployment of robotic systems. 
• Identified Gaps and Opportunities for Policy Input: We will pinpoint areas where current AI governance frameworks don't adequately address the unique challenges or opportunities of embodied AI, fostering a shared understanding of where the robotics industry needs to contribute its expertise to policy development.
• Strengthened Industry-Policy Dialogue: Our ultimate goal is to build a foundation for ongoing collaboration to shape effective and innovation-supportive AI governance for robotics.

This roundtable is linked to a research project entitled “Filling the governance gaps in embodied AI”, led by Profs. AJung Moon (McGill University) and Pierre Larouche (Université de Montréal), with Dr. Keri Grieman and Ms. Leah Davis. The research benefits from the support of IVADO and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.