Robots have
been around for quite a while now. From their first appearances, to where they stand now, they have come a long way through technical developments. And, we are
already getting used to the idea of them helping us. But to what extent? At
what point can we see a robot in every household, not only helping us with day
to day tasks, but also with more sophisticated issues. In many different
companies, they are already dependent on robots. This is due to their
newly found mobility. Just think of Amazon’s latest delivery, hovering robot and you will know what we are talking about.
From
Nanobots to da Vinci surgical robots, each offers different and important
business values that can be seen in logistics, the medical sector, space and
the U.S. army. We have seen how robots are able to improve the
driving abilities of the Bugatti Veyron or to drive a car completely on its own, thanks so artificial intelligence. The da Vinci surgical robot represents a new
era in medical technology, as it helps to eliminate human error. The robots
that have been developed by NASA have done a lot of research for us, which we
could never have done on our own. And just as well, the U.S. army is helped by
robots in places where no human being can go.
Humanoids
are the group of robots that represent the most tangible and most typical
human-machine interaction. Think back to R2D2 and then take a look at Asimo.
The features of robots today are much more humanlike, as their faces resemble a
human's. Their intelligence is so advanced that we are really starting to
feel and treat them as human beings. The way they are able to recognize objects
and persons, to react in different situations without any
intervention, creates the opportunity to employ them in a wide range of
activities: from serving a dinner in a restaurant to doing dangerous rescues in
a nuclear plant. Together, we are approaching a new age of robot-human
collaboration.
But of
course we still have a long way to go. As many of the advanced robots are still
in the beginning stages of development, small productions often come with big costs. Every
new invention, every new step towards artificial intelligence presents new
problems. Robots are dependent on the way we create and program them; that
means that they are a product of the human mind, and therefore bound to human errors. Their mobility has already come a long way: Asimo can run up and
down stairs and the Packbot can pick itself up. But still, they are a long way
away from the movements and the mobility of a human being. Another constraint,
that we as human beings also lack, is power. We need food and sleep, just as robots need to recharge their batteries. Hopefully over time, these limitations will be
eliminated one by one. But, we are going to have to wait a little longer before we can send a robot to get our groceries, or let a robot bring goods
from a distributor to a retail centre.
