Foresights
Robotics
What is it?
The term robot first appeared in the 1920 play Rossum’s Universal Robots by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek, in which robots are mass-produced automata designed to work in the place of people. The common view of robots since then has largely been informed by science fiction. Although we are still many years away from the sentient humanoid robot icons of the big screen, robots far closer to Čapek’s original vision increasingly surround us – machines that automate the work of humans.
Automation of large-scale process using robots has been common in factories and on production lines for many years. Incremental technology improvements combined with sustaining innovations continue to improve efficiency and to expand the range of tasks that can be automated. Sales of factory robots increased 28 percent in 2005 and the international market for robotic manufacturing already exceeds US$5 billion (source: Robotics Industries Association).
Robots are also entering the consumer sector as workers, as evidenced by the success of iRobot’s range of robotic mops and vacuum and swimming pool cleaners (nearly two million have shipped to date).
There is another strand of robotics, still largely confined to research laboratories, seeking to create robots with human characteristics of intelligence and empathy – social robotics. Social roboticists aim to create machines that will interact with humans on their own terms and take on roles of caring and companionship, as well as being able to carry out a far wider range of tasks traditionally undertaken by people. Significant investment in this area is being made in countries such as Japan and South Korea.
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