This article is about the future of robotics for civil use.

Types of robots

Humanoid robots:

• Lara is the first female humanoid robot with artificial muscles (metal alloy strands that instantly contract when heated by electric current) http://robocup.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/humanoid/index.en.php?language=en http://robocup.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/humanoid/lara/ueberlara.html instead of electric motors (2006).
• Asimo
  ASIMO
  is a humanoid robot created by Honda. Introduced in 2000, ASIMO, which is an acronym for "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility", was created to be a helper to people. With aspirations of helping people who lack full mobility, ASIMO is used to encourage young people to study science and mathematics...
  
   is one of the most advanced projects as of 2009.

Modular robots: can be built from standard building blocks that can be combined in different ways.

• Utility fog
  Utility fog
  Utility fog is a hypothetical collection of tiny robots that can replicate a physical structure. As such, it is a form of self-reconfiguring modular robotics.-Conception:...
  
  
• M-Tran - a snake-like modular robot that uses genetic algorithms to evolve walking programs
• Self replicating robots http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=748180 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4538547.stm - modular robots that can produce copies of themselves using existing blocks.
• Swarmanoid http://www.swarmanoid.org/ http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72176-0.html?tw=wn_technology_1 is a project that uses 3 specialized classes of robots (footbots, handbots and eyebots) to create an effective swarm. Such swarm should be able, for example, tidy a bedroom with each robot doing what it is best at.
• Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robotics
  Self-Reconfiguring Modular Robotics
  Modular self-reconfiguring robotic systems or self-reconfigurable modular robots are autonomous kinematic machines with variable morphology...
  
  

Educational toy robots:

• Educational toy robots

Sports robots:

• RoboCup
  RoboCup
  RoboCup is an international robotics competition founded in 1997. The aim is to develop autonomous soccer robots with the intention of promoting research and education in the field of artificial intelligence...
  
  
• TOPIO
  TOPIO
  TOPIO is a bipedal humanoid robot designed to play table tennis against a human being. It has been developed since 2005 by TOSY, a robotics firm in Vietnam. It was publicly demonstrated at the Tokyo International Robot Exhibition on November 28, 2007...
  
  

Applications

• Caterpillar
  Caterpillar Inc.
  Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
  
   plans to develop remote controlled machines and expects to develop fully autonomous heavy robots by 2021 http://www.communistrobot.com/viewblog.php?id=241. Some crane
  Crane (machine)
  A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
  
  s already are remote controlled.
• It was demonstrated that a robot can perform a herding http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/work/stephen.cameron/sheepdog/ task.
• Robots are increasingly used in manufacturing (since 1960s). In auto industry they can amount for more than half of the "labor". There are even "lights off" factories such as an IBM keyboard manufacturing factory in Texas that are 100% automated.
• Robots such as HOSPI http://www.mew.co.jp/corp/news/0610/0610-11.htm are used as courier
  Courier
  A courier is a person or a company who delivers messages, packages, and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of express services, and swift delivery times, which are optional for...
  
  s in hospitals, etc. Other hospital tasks performed by robots are receptionists, guides and porters helpers, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061104/tc_afp/japanrobotmedical_061104212903 (not to mention surgical robot helpers such as Da Vinci)
• Robots can serve as waiter
  Waiter
  Waiting staff, wait staff, or waitstaff are those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers — supplying them with food and drink as requested. Traditionally, a male waiting tables is called a "waiter" and a female a "waitress" with the gender-neutral version being a "server"...
  
  s http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/At_Hong_Kong_High_Tech_Cafe_Everything_Is_Served_With_Microchips_999.html http://www.communistrobot.com/viewblog.php?id=175 and cooks http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/18/content_710686.htm.

Market evolution

Today's market is not fully mature. One or more software compatibility layers have yet to emerge to allow the development of a rich robotics ecosystem (similar to today's personal computers one). The most commonly used software in the robotics research are Free Software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 solutions such as Player/Stage

Player Project

The Player Project is a project to create free software for research into robotics and sensor systems . Its components include the Player network server and Stage and Gazebo robot platform simulators...

 or cross-platform technologies such as URBI

URBI

Urbi is an open source cross-platform software platform in C++ used to develop applications for robotics and complex systems. Urbi is based on the UObject distributed C++ component architecture. It also includes the urbiscript orchestration language which is a parallel and event-driven script...

. Microsoft is currently working in this direction with its new proprietary software Microsoft Robotics Studio

Microsoft Robotics Studio

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio is a Windows-based environment for robot control and simulation. It is aimed at academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers and handles a wide variety of robot hardware....

. The use of open source tools helps in continued improvement of the tools and algorithms for robotic research from the point one team leaves it.

Impact on the economy and job market

Some analysts such as Martin Ford, author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future, argue that as information technology advances, robots and other forms of automation will ultimately result in significant unemployment

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

 as machines and software begin to match and exceed the capability of workers to perform most routine jobs.

As robotics and artificial intelligence develop further, even many skilled jobs may be threatened. Technologies such as machine learning may ultimately allow computers to do many knowledge-based jobs that require significant education. This may result in substantial unemployment at all skill levels, stagnant or falling wages for most workers, and increased concentration of income and wealth as the owners of capital capture an ever larger fraction of the economy. This in turn could lead to depressed consumer spending and economic growth as the bulk of the population lacks sufficient discretionary income to purchase the products and services produced by the economy.

Projected robotics timeline

• Robot
  Robot
  A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
  
  s capable of manual labour tasks--
  • 2009 - robots that perform searching and fetching tasks in unmodified library
    Library
    In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
    
     environment, Professor Angel del Pobil (University Jaume I, Spain), 2004
  • 2015-2020 - every South Korean household will have a robot and many European, The Ministry of Information and Communication (South Korea), 2007
  • 2018 - robots will routinely carry out surgery, South Korea government 2007
  • 2022 - intelligent robots that sense their environment, make decisions, and learn are used in 30% of households and organizations - TechCast
  • 2030 - robots capable of performing at human level at most manual jobs Marshall Brain
    Marshall Brain
    Marshall David Brain is an American author, public speaker, and entrepreneur. A former college instructor and computer programmer, Brain is the founder of HowStuffWorks.-Background:Marshall Brain was born in Santa Monica, California...
    
    
  • 2034 - robots (home automation
    Home automation
    Home automation is the residential extension of "building automation". It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC , appliances, and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and...
    
     systems) performing most household tasks, Helen Greiner
    Helen Greiner
    Helen Greiner is the co-founder of iRobot and currently CEO of CyPhyWorks.-Career:Helen Greiner holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in computer science, both from MIT...
    
    , Chairman of iRobot
    IRobot
    iRobot Corporation is an American advanced technology company founded in 1990 and incorporated in Delaware in 2000, the iRobot Corporation designs robots such as an autonomous home vacuum cleaner , the Scooba that scrubs and cleans hard floors, and military and police robots, such as the PackBot...
    
    
• Military robot
  Military robot
  Military robots are autonomous robots or remote-controlled devices designed for military applications.Such systems are currently being researched by a number of militaries.-History:...
  
  s
  • 2015 - one third of US fighting strength will be composed of robots - US Department of Defense, 2006
  • 2035 - first completely autonomous robot soldiers in operation - US Department of Defense, 2006
  • 2038 - first completely autonomous robot flying car in operation - US Department of Technology, 2007

• Developments related to robotics from the Japan NISTEP  2030 report :
  • 2013-2014 — agricultural robot
    Agricultural robot
    An agricultural robot or agribot is a robot deployed for agricultural purposes.-Examples:* "Ag Ant", an inexpensive foot-long bot that works cooperatively.* The Oracle Robot * The Shear Magic Robot * Fruit Picking Robot * LSU's AgBot...
    
    s (AgRobots,).
  • 2013-2017 — robots that care for the elderly
  • 2017 — medical robots performing low-invasive surgery
  • 2017-2019 — household robots with full use.
  • 2019-2021 — Nanorobots
  • 2021-2022 — Transhumanism
    Transhumanism
    Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
    
    

Robot rights

According to research commissioned by the UK Office of Science and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre , robots could one day demand the same citizen's rights as humans. The study also warns that the rise of robots could put a strain on resources and the environment.

External links

• Future of Robotics
• Future Robotics - The Human Algorithm
• Investigation of social robots - Robots that mimic human behaviors and gestures.
• Wired's guide to the '50 best robots ever', a mix of robots in fiction (Hal, R2D2, K9) to real robots (Roomba, Mobot, Aibo).
• RobotNet has its finger on the pulse of recent developments in robotics.
• Robotic Nation How robots will affect our economy.
• ANDROID WORLD
• Robot Info directory of robotics news, books, videos, magazines, forums and products.
• Quacktu robotics resources, links and a directory for robotics hobbyists.