Where Is My Robot?

We all grew up watching movies where robots were just part of everyday life. Shows like the Jetsons and films like Star Wars with droids like R2 D2 a C3P0 had us all believing that helpful robots would one day soon be gracing our homes, our businesses and in many other aspects of our lives.  And perhaps if you were anything like me you thought, "One day I'll have a robot all for myself!" Well those days aren't quite here yet. So perhaps you are wondering... Where is my robot?

The problem with robotics is a complicated issue. Robotics have come a long way from those clog driven dynamos we saw in the 60's shows like Lost in Space or Star Trek (those were actors in big heavy costumes) but we still have decades to go before we have our very own C3PO to drag along with us and translate Chinese for us on our overseas adventure. So what is going on with robotics that has us stuck doing everything for ourselves? There are a multitude of issues with creating a robot that is capable of doing the things even simple living organisms like bugs can do. The main issue computing power. Computers are advanced and have massive memory now. They are faster and more capable of tasking than ever before but they are not smart... they have no intelligence. They are programed to do what we tell them to do but they are incapable of problem solving like a human does or even an ant can. There are computer scientists working on creating software capable of doing simple problem modification and decision making processes. But those programs are many years away from being able to make choices like we do or to learn at a rate that even a dog can.

Most of the robots today are still nothing more than remote controlled automatons. They still require a human operator to tell them what to do. But as far as agility and grace the robots of tomorrow and of today are finally beginning to catch up to humans. Robotic designers have created human like robots able to move with the grace of a human using gyro technology stabilizers. These robots though controlled by humans are beginning to do amazing things. Some can sing, some can dance, some even are capable of helping elderly people. Once our computing power increases to the point where our robots are capable of making decisions like humans or even our pets do then we will see the dawning of self capable robots able to live in our homes with us and do the mundain work we all hate doing.

In a sense we have some of the machines in our homes now as appliances like our dishwashers, washers and dryers, microwaves and fridges. In a few years with the help of RFID tags our fridge will be able to make a digital print out of the food we need to get at the grocery store. Even then there will be huge vending machines like they have in Japan that we can stop at like convenience stores to buy items like milk and cheese. If you use a Red Box to get movies then you already use one of these vending machines to get your movies. So we may be some forty to fifty years out from Robby the Robot but robots are already with us. Just not in the way we all saw them in the movies.

The military is using robots now, there are drones used by bomb squads and police by remote control. These robots are becoming more and more complex. In this article I will include some video of the advances made in robotics. Just think we may not have our own live in droids yet but soon enough we will. Have fun and thanks for reading.