The future of robotics:

To some, the future of robotics has never looked brighter. While robots are now a fixture in factories, robotics experts expect to see their range increasing. The author of Theory of Applied Robotics: Kinematics, Dynamics, and Control (2007) states, “Robots are prospective machines whose application area is widening.”Other observers are even more excited, expecting robots to lead from the factory to other areas of life relatively soon. As the author of Robots: From Science Fiction to Technological Revolution (2005) put it,“Now, on the cusp of the 21st century, [robots] are poised to saturate every aspect of our culture, from medicine, science, and industry to artworks, toys, and household appliances.”

Production of bipedal robots that mimic human movement are being created around the globe. Honda Motor Company's ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) robot is considered the world's most advanced humanoid robot. It can climb stairs, kick, walk, talk, dance, and even communicate and interact via its voice

and facial recognition systems. Honda plans to one day market the robot as an assisted-living companion for the disabled or elderly. Other robots that simulate human movement have been created at Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Holland's Delft University of Technology.

Chip Walter's 2005 article, “You, Robot,” discusses renowned robotics researcher, Hans Moravec, Carnegie Mellon University scientist and cofounder of the university's Robotics Institute. Moravec is known for his longstanding prediction that super-robots that can perceive, intuit, adapt, think, and even simulate feelings, much like humans, will be practicable before the year 2050. His confidence in his predictions led him to open his own robotics firm in 2003, the Seegrid Corporation, to assist him in fulfilling his claims. His path toward that vision is to start simply—to create mobile carts with software and vision systems that can be “taught” to follow paths and navigate independently. Moravec believes that machines will evolve in small steps, eventually reaching the levels of human intelligence and movement. His bedrock belief, on which he bases his technology, is “… if robots are going to succeed, the world cannot be adapted to them; they have to adapt to the world, just like the rest of us.”

Stuart Brown reports that navigation technologies such as the global positioning system (GPS) are allowing industrial robots to move around in the world. GPS in conjunction with inertial navigation systems (INS) and the booming field of silicon micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are impacting robotics from simple automated lawn mowers to complex airplane control systems. Robotics are reaching the micro-level with the exploration of robotic water “insects” equipped with biomechanical sensors that could be used as environmental monitors. The current prototype weighs less than a gram and draws power from ultra-thin electrical wires. An affordable and time-saving alternative to locating gas leaks has been developed in a pipe-inspecting robot crawler; equipped with multiple joints and video cameras, it easily navigates sharp turns and narrow pipes while projecting images of pipe integrity to a monitor. Plans for the future include a sensor that will detect corrosion and cracks in the pipes that do not appear in the video images.

Robots have come of age. While they were initially used for fairly simple tasks such as welding and spray-painting automobiles, these machines have increased tremendously in ability over the last decade, reaching further than simple auto applications. Robotics will remain vital in the decades to come due to expanding scientific fields and increasing demand for more affordable and sophisticated methods of accomplishing common tasks. If robotics experts and forecasters are correct, people will soon see robots leaving the factory and taking their place among the rest of society, performing tasks once imagined only in science fiction.