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Robotic futureslocked

  • Alan Winfield

Abstract

The story of robots is still unfolding. ‘Robotic futures’ looks to the future of robotic science in space exploration and other areas of everyday life. Would it be possible to build a planetary rover that could have the intelligence of a geologist and exobiologist? Will we ever see a swarm of medical micro-robots able to operate inside the human body and carry out medical procedures directly? Will we ever have humanoid robot companions? Robots will always be of interest because they embody three ideas: they can be useful machines; they can be working models of life, intelligence, evolution, and culture; and they are an imitation of life.

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