Robotics seems to be one of the few areas of technology that makes it into the national media on a fairly regular basis. To clarify that observation, it’s one of the few “hard” technologies to do so. As an engineer, what do you think of the future of robots?

Anything involving Microsoft or the virus-of-the-month also makes headlines but, except for the (sometimes) associated CD or User Leaflet, these are not physical things that can be touched — or touch back.

Hollywood’s brought us a wealth of robotics exposure in recent decades. Consider, for example, the following short list.

• Fritz Lang’s movie, Metropolis, which, as described on this site, deals with a robot-like society controlled by an evil super-industrialist. The effects were extremely impressive for its day, as were sociological aspects of workers enslaved underground in a futuristic city. Even though the dialogue of the translated-from-German subtitles was choppy, it was truly an amazing experience to have seen it on The Big Screen in a downtown Philly movie house a few years ago. If you have the same opportunity, jump on it. (1926)

• The strong, silent, stoic type: Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

• The genuinely scary (if you were a kid living in a different time), robotic “slinky-vision” elements of the craft in the original War of the Worlds (1953). (To the younger folks in our audience: Yes, the movie existed long before Tom Cruise. Even before that, we have the classic Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds from 1938).

• The intimidating yet goofy (at least by today’s standards) Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet (1956)

• The handy-to-have-around, go-to robot who had some issues of his own — appropriately named “Robot” from Lost in Space (1965)

• The first time every single person on the planet saw really cool robots in action: C3P0 and R2D2 in the first Star Wars (I know, I know, actually the fourth in series.). (1977)

• The first Terminator movie, which displayed the greatest hydraulics, servos and gears-style robotics footage to-date. (1984)

• Johnny Five — the robot with so much emotional baggage that there still might not be enough skycaps to get ‘im to the curb — who became “alive” in the movie Short Circuit. (1986)

• Sonny, who is, to date, probably the most sophisticated robot ever portrayed on-screen. He made is debut, of course, in I, Robot (2004).

Some of us have been lucky enough to watch the development and implementation of industrial robots since the 1960s with, for example, General Motors’ purchase and production line implementation of a Unimation robot in 1962. (I’m not that lucky. I didn’t start paying attention to the industrial side ’til the 1980s which, on the positive side, served as an oh-so-needed distraction from the mostly God-awful popular music of the time.)

Industrial robots have held a strong, money-making position in U.S. manufacturing for decades, have long been used in such areas as assembly, material handling, and packaging. But they’re remote controlled. They’re programmed. Some have “vision” of a sort. They’re not, to my knowledge, incorporating real AI. They’re not autonomous, and they’re certainly not humanoid.

Here are examples of but a few robotics stories that have appeared in the mainstream:

• A robotic arm wrestler for the elderly
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000277069955/

• Honda’s famous Asimo robot which, at the time this article was written, is the most humanoid robot we’ve seen. Little problems such as, for example, Asimo’s (then) inability to get up after a fall, were being addressed.
http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20030502asimosci3p3.asp

• Today, the five-year-old Asimo robot is growing up — advancing so quickly, in fact, that the droid is now ready to Put On the Ritz a la Young Frankenstein, fetching refreshments, greeting visitors, pushing carts (while walking straight, sideways or backwards), and doing simple office work. (No need to worry, undocumented immigrants: You’re still more cost-effective for now.)
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5992906.html

What does Joe Engelberger, “the father of modern robotics,” have to say about Japan’s latest and greatest ‘droids? At the international robot show earlier this month, Engelberger was quoted in this article as having said, “Nothing serious. Just stunts. There are dogs, dolls, faces that contort and are supposed to express emotion on a robot.”

He added, ‘”I’ve talked to visiting nurses who say that older people have to go to the bathroom more often and are embarrassed to say to somebody in the house, ‘Please take me to the bathroom again.’ But who cares how many times you ask a robot to take you to the bathroom?” The future market for robots installed in the homes of elderly people was bigger than the luxury car market, he said, predicting that they would be leased out for $US500 ($673) per month.

The article continues, “What the $US8 billion robotics industry needs is for engineers to design practical robots for personal care. So why isn’t more work being done? Mainly, Mr Engelberger thinks, it’s because everyone is immersed in needless research and companies are distracted by the uneconomic quest for the humanoid, which he derides as toy making. ‘I say, stop it all … go for the whole damn schmeer … I’ve recently become an octogenarian and I’d ask you, please, hurry up.’”

Do you think Mr. Engelberger will — or should — see a truly valuable, fairly autonomous robot in his lifetime? Do you think you will — or should? What do you see as the real-world applications for such robots?

A Few Interesting References

History Timeline of Robotics
http://trueforce.com/Articles/Robot_History.htm

Fritz Lang and Metropolis: The First Science Fiction Film
http://www.persocom.com.br/brasilia/erika.htm

Ultimate Robot, by Robert Malone (Brief bio here)
http://www.scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3082114