I’ve talked previously about the many ways in which technology is changing
our lives, ever so gradually it tweaks our pre-conceptions to the point that we
don’t even realise how different the world before us is. I’m rather obsessed
with analysing the future of our technology sectors, but I’ve talked relatively
little about robots.
The word itself conjures up hundreds of famous images related to
pop-culture and science fiction; it almost proves robotics is still in a stage
of infancy that computers and mobile technology once was. Some people are even
scared of a future alongside robots, reminiscent of Skynet or the Matrix, in
which an artificial life-form overpowers and defeats us. Perhaps it is this
vision of the future that has held back our development of robotics, whilst
computing and internet technology soars higher.
I’ve been taking an interest in the how robots have already penetrated
aspects of our everyday lives. Currently, most robots live mundane lives in
factories or assembly lines performing repetitive tasks such as assembling cars
or computers. More recently however, robots are becoming privately owned by
individuals and organisations, appearing more frequently in homes performing
various domestic services.
Examples of these include the Roomba, a popular
vacuum cleaning robot that maps the layout of a home using sensors. Another
example is the Zodiac
Vortex, a pool cleaning robot that maps out a swimming pool
design and cleans its structure whilst calculating the
chemical mix of the water. Whilst both these robots perform seemingly basic
tasks, they are heralding a new era of domestic application which will change
the consumer technology market.
Eventually when consumer robotics has advanced sufficiently,
corporations will seek new ways to introduce this technology to mass market in
both business and public sectors. Many of the world’s biggest technology
companies are already looking at ways of bringing robotics to market, one of
the most prominent of which is Google who have been utilising their mapping
technology to create a self-driving
car. This kind of development will cause a major rethink of how we
accomplish tasks in many fields, in much the same way that computers, the
internet and mobile data has.
Notably, Google is using all three of these to make its own dream of
robot cars a reality, so we can assume a future of robotics will utilize our
pre-existing computing and cloud technology to function in a similar way. Even
Mercedes-Benz is developing a concept for a
driver-less car controlled via smartphone.
Eventually, robotics will pierce our most precious institutions such as
healthcare and education, trusted to help teach our children or perform life
changing surgery. At this point, we will have to talk about a future in which a
major rethink is needed about the human relationship with robots. We have
already placed trust in them in more ways than we even realise; whenever we fly
on a plane or eat at Yo! Sushi, we give our consent for advanced everyday
robotics in our lifetime.
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