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The technology is in sight and an aging population should create the demand BY JOHN MORAN HARTFORD, Conn. He's expecting to deliver on that promise one day soon. Moravec, a professor at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, says the pace of progress in robotics research labs suggests that household robots might become commercially available in five to 10 years. "Robots have started doing things all over the place," says Moravec, author of the book, Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind." "The performance is just astronomically above what it was in the 1970's and '80's, when we could barely make a computer cross a room," he says. |
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Although most consumer-oriented robots are still being refined in the labs, a few have begun making their way into the marketplace, showing the tantalizing potential of self-guided machines. One is AIBO, a robot pet manufactured by Sony Corp. The dog-like device can walk on all fours, wag its tail, sit, beg and even dance. About 2,000 of the devices sold out instantly when they were offered at $3,700 each. Another is Auto Mower, a battery driven lawn mower that will trim your grass, untouched by human hands. The Auto Mower uses sensing technology to stay on your property and to avoid obstacles such as trees, flower gardens and even the family dog. When its battery starts to run down Auto Mower simply finds its docking station and recharges itself. The maker, Husqvarna, expects to introduce the mower to the North American market early next year at a price of $2,250 to $2,700. |
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"I think everyone today is looking for technology to help simplify their lives," says Husqvama spokesperson Barbara Paez. "This is just another way that technology can help take away one of the household chores." That, at least, is the hope that's driving robotics experts to take their creations to a new level of performance. Robots of a sort have already been working for some time in industrial settings. Often, they're single-function devices that simply pick up a piece of material to move it, or spot-weld two pieces of metal together. But such robots are so limited in capability and function that many don't even consider them worthy of being called robots. "Most of the things that are out in; the world that call themselves robots are not," says Jake Mendelssohn, an adjunct professor at Hartford s Trintity College. To Mendelssohn-and plenty of other robot fanciers-a bucket of bolts just isn't a robot until it can perceive its environment and automatically respond. No remote control by humans allowed. |
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