If you're like me,
it is funny to see when supposedly smart robots mess up a trivial
task or fall over.
Deep down inside I know that if I laugh too hard,
they will remember and come back for me once the robot uprising happens.
In this episode,
I'll take a closer look at the robots of today and how they will develop in the
future.
Follow me from eerily human robots to enormous Japanese mechanical samurai's.
As I investigate, learn and submit to our new robot overloads.
And I am definitely not held captive.
[Inaudible]. There are robots,
and then there are robots. They come in, all colors,
all flavors and all sizes. I start with incredibly small robots.
So small. You can't even see them. Nanobots.
These are 0.1 to 10 micro meters, big, small,
which is about that, that, that big, small.
These are used to deliver targeted medicine to the cells in your body,
for example. And if you're interested in nanotechnology,
there's a whole Future of Tech episode on this too.
You could click right here to watch it. Okay, let's go a bit bigger,
drones. I have featured drones in many previous episodes of the show,
mainly because they have so many amazing uses; disease control,
animal conservation, data collection, weather forecasting, waste management,
city planning, mining, and so much more.
Now robots, we've always imagined them to help out sort of on the day-to-day.
Starship technologies have a local delivery robot delivering parcels
within a two mile radius. Cute.
What about a robotic laundry folding machine? Yeah.
FoldiMate is its name and yes, I have already ordered one as well. Romeo,
the robot can assist in opening doors,
climbing stairs and reaching for hard to get objects.
But if Romeo isn't what you hope for then maybe spot the dog, is?
This advanced and slightly Orwellian robot by the small but
impressive team at Boston Dynamics is a nimble robot that climb stairs and
traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease yet is small enough to
use indoors. Not quite your everyday helper robot,
the Aquanaut by Houston Mechatronics is an underwater super bot.
The name itself makes me want one. Mega tronics, Aqua naut.
I know. This slightly larger than human submersible,
superbot can inspect the seabed navigate underwater structures,
carry out repairs and much more within a 200 mile mission range.
And finally, the largest humanoid robot ever made standing 8.4,
six meters tall and roughly four meters wide and long.
Mononofu meaning Japanese warrior in Japanese. And that was my best Japanese.
Is more a vehicle than a robot, but it's big, like very big.
Oh, its use you ask? It's an amusement. Yep.
These nerdy robot engineers made it because they could.
With robots being used for every day and not so everyday users,
I think it's safe to say they're here to stay,
but how will they affect the world we know?
Most of the ones I've mentioned are doing a task we can't or don't want to do.
In most cases, robots makes our lives easier and safer. Yet,
we feel they're going to replace jobs and take over many functions of modern
society. So how can we coexist with them in the future?
I'll start with online retail giant Amazon.
In order to get you that extra bag of kittens shaped biscuits in less than two
hours, they have had to turn to robot helpers,
200,000 of them in fact.
This was done to both increase speed of logistics and to save workers from
walking unnecessary miles.
Many of the repetitive tasks in the warehouses are now done by robots.
And the more complex tasks such as wrapping odd size items are left to
humans.
It saves space in the warehouse and humans are focused on the task they're good
at. What about cars are humans really that good at driving?
Most of us prefer not to, but we do need to travel to work,
see family, to go to the movies, go camping and well much, much more.
What if we could let robots or the car itself drive and we could relax,
take that important call or reply to that email?
This is already in the works of course.
And you can check out the Future of Tech episode on Autonomous Vehicles as well
to find out more. What about sewer management? You want that job? No,
me neither. It will soon be handled with robot inspections,
computerized monitoring, and 24 seven waste management processes.
So thank you robots from the bottom of our... bowels? Other jobs,
robots would be excellent at could include data entry, image processing,
many logistics tasks, space exploration, cleaning,
and much more. Like I said,
a lot of these jobs are those that humans are either rubbish at or don't want to
do in the first place.
Robots are taking over all these new roles. Where do we fit in?
At the end of 2019, the robotics industries were worth a staggering,
$135 billion.
From this boom whole new sector known as cloud robotics has emerged.
The approach is that robotics will predominantly rely on cloud when it comes to
artificial intelligence, information, sharing, and teamwork.
This makes it possible to build even smaller, lighter, smarter,
and low cost robots placing the intelligence in the cloud and they can get very
intelligent. And we have an episode on that too.
I've added a link to our AI episodes in the show notes.
One of the areas that designers of robots have to deal with is the concept of
the Uncanny Valley.
It means the relationship between the degree of an objects resemblance to a
human being and the emotional response to such an object.
In other words, how human is a robot before triggers the creep factor in you?
Do you make a robot humanoid? And if so, how human do you make it?
It's not just a dial is it? This is important to get right,
as you need humans to accept robots as part of the world to make them efficient.
Okay.
Last couple of decades,
there have been many attempts at making robots as human as possible.
One of the best attempts is Sophia.
She is the world's first robot citizen,
and the first robot innovation ambassador for the United Nations Development
Program.
She has been on The Tonight Show and Good Morning Britain and spoken
at numerous conferences. She's even a citizen of Saudi Arabia.
Sophia is used as a framework for cutting edge robotics and AI research,
particularly for understanding human robot interactions and the potential
service and entertainment applications.
At least until her AI brand gets a hold of YouTube,
likes my video meets Romeo who opens all the doors for it and
lives a sweet robotic life.
Robots already roam the earth. They come in vast arrays of sizes,
colors, shapes, and pre-programmed abilities to take over society.
Our modern way of life and the convenience of robotics mean that we can't just
ignore them and they're here to stay.
We might as well join them and learn from them rather than fighting progress.
Do you have some interesting robotic helper? Let me know in the comments below.
You can also find me on Twitter.
@LarsKlint or through A Cloud Guru's social media channels.
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This episode of Future of Tech was hosted by robots since 2034.