Date published: 04 November 2024
Our Executive Director, Bern Grush, was honoured to be a speaker at the 2-day launch-event for the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) Institute Canada (Atlantic), on October 28-29 2024 at the NBCC campus in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
The ICF Institute Canada (Atlantic) joins ICF Institutes in the United States and Taiwan to contribute to the acceleration of regional economic and community growth and spread the Intelligent Community model. As a global partner to ICF, the Urban Robotics Foundation offers member discounts to ICF members; URF members are also eligible for discounts on ICF publications and courses.
At the launch, Bern spoke about public-area mobile robots (PMRs) touching on their definition in the ISO draft technical standard, their evolution since the early 1970s, projections into the 2030s.
In addition, he discussed some of their public urban uses and challenges, their scale, draft standards, and missing regulations, while highlighting accessibility, livability, social, and traffic considerations. He positioned standards as the key to improve outcomes and regulations as the key to Urban confidence.
His closing advice: strive for balance, remain aware of consequences, and prepare for scale.
On his return, Bern posted: “My biggest insight? The difference between a ‘smart city’ and an ‘intelligent community.’ Simply said, a smart city uses technology to improve services, traffic, and parking or to measure emissions and find potholes. An intelligent community uses information and communications technology for inclusion and prosperity, to address social problems, and to enhance livability.”
About ICF
The Intelligent Community Forum® is a global network with a think tank at its center. It connects hundreds of cities and regions on five continents for collaboration on economic development and for exchange of expertise and information that drives progress. Through this network, ICF researches how Intelligent Communities use information and communications technology to build inclusive prosperity, solve social problems and enrich their quality of life in our connected century.
URF and ICF are co-developing a spotlight course to help communities prepare for the deployment of public-area mobile robots. Please contact us for more information.
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