The Robotic Revolution

When we think of robots, we think of them as humanoids. We might find robots like those in our homes someday soon doing everyday chores for us, like preparing dinner, mopping up floors, cleaning dishes, washing our clothes, etc. We might think we do not have any robots in our house, but that is a common misconception that we all have. What about our dishwasher or washing machine – we put in dishes or clothes, walk away, and a half hour later they're clean. It’s the same with our programmable coffeemaker. Even though these everyday mechanical devices do not look like humans or the kind of robots we have pictured in your minds, they are very much on the robotic spectrum. They perform functions with minimal human involvement, just like robots.

The word “Robot” is almost impossible to define. Robots have come to be used for too many different things these days. Autonomous machines that evolved initially with the help of humans are also known as Robots. Some people might call these mechanical devices as smart machines.

Be it robots or smart machines, the bottom line is that these devices are quickly becoming everyday feature of our lives. As per the study of the International Federation of Robotics, there were almost 3.4 million personal domestic service robots in use at the end of year 2007. It is predicted that another 4.6 million domestic service robots will be sold between 2008 and 2012.

If we talk about the future of robotics, there are two possibilities. The first one being that we’ll eventually have general purpose humanoid robots that can perform many tasks and interact with us and each other. This is the possibility that is most generally predicted in the science fiction movies and novels. The second possibility is that homes of the future will have function-specific robotics integrated transparently into the house itself. The house will become a network of smart machines that interact with you and each other.

Robots continue to fascinate people, if only because they see themselves reflected in these machines. And as they become more common, questions of the ethics of this kind of labor might come to the fore.