Robotics concept

[zeon23445]

I was wondering what you all think robotics in the 2030`s will look like

[Mr Monkeybat]

I think robotic cars will be commercial by then putting most taxi, bus, and truck drivers out of work.

 

Some people say that expiration of patents in laser sintering will see a 3d printing boom in 2014.

[CaptainPanic]

I think that they will not improve much over the next 17 years. The reason is not that we cannot do it. The simple and sad reason is that humans are so cheap that there is no point in building an expensive robot to do simple tasks.

 

Robots will mostly be used where they are used now: for precision work, as well as certain automated heavy lifting tasks. But our streets will still be cleaned by humans in 2030.

 

The only thing I can see improve quickly are the 3D printers. Perhaps those will become so advanced that you can call them a robot.

[EdEarl]

I cannot ever remember a person sweeping a street, unless you consider the person driving the street sweeper. And, our trash is now picked up by robot arms and dumped into a truck. Not too long ago, each garbage truck had three people on it, the driver and two to empty cans and pick up things on the ground.

 

I think robots are already changing our lives, after all anyone can buy a robot vacuum cleaner. The Japanese are building robots to care for the aging population. Self driving vehicles are real, and vehicles that parallel park themselves are commercially available. Robots will continue to change our lives as we approach 2030. I think robots will be made of plastics, including soft plastics, for home use to reduce the possibility of injuring people. And, recent advances in making circuits in and on plastic that can be molded will be used in home robots, a technology that promises to distribute computing power throughout the robot and provide touch sensitive surfaces similar to the human sense of touch.

 

Recent advances in cybernetics will give paraplegic and quadraplegic people mobility, with control and sensation integrated into their brain. In addition, the visual analog of the cochlear implant will give some blind people sight. Experiments with these things have already been successful or partly successful.

 

The open source 3D printer market will probably morph into open source manufacturing, and include processes to mold and assemble things, in addition to additive and subtractive 3D printing (i.e., depositing material and removing material). Expiration of the Selective Laser Sintering patents will not immediately affect the open source 3D printing market, because it is technically difficult and dangerous (high energy lasers and dust like metal particles).

[Enthalpy]

Zeon23445, maybe you could define more precisely what kind of "robots" you mean?

Some people understand autonomous androids, which are not close to be useful in daily life.

Other already call "robot" a computerized arm that paints a car according to a memorized path, and these are common now and under strong push to progress further.

For instance the trucks that move individual containers on the ground at Hamburg's haven are fully automatic. Or the cleaners at some metro stations in Paris. Robots with this extent of autonomous operation will expand.

[Zant]

I would say daily life robots will be worn by us in the form of self regulated pacemakers and equipment of the like. But do I believe that we will have robots running around shopping and other menial tasks? no its to much work for little gain, when you look just how much work is needed just to make a robot walk by itself its easy to become skeptic. That is just my basic take on it.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Zant

[Mozart]

@CaptainPanic, you probably are wrong. Well, actually, Robots are highly sophisticated. especially, the one with the human resemblance. but, Let's not loose sight of the fact that other technologies are sophisticated too. Due to the cheapness of human beings, you feel you can't involve capital, resources and brain power to make a robot that can shop, drive, sing, play the organ etc because you think they are probably simple tasks humans do gladly without much energy. Didn't it occur to you that the visual capability of a robot, or maybe, to catch a ball thrown to it involves lots of complexity? the robot has to sensor the object mid- air, with the programs already scripted into it's IC, It'll calculate the 3D position (x, y, and z. components and angle , ) get the velocity, and calculate it's exact position when it's an arms length and then catches it. for the robot to be able to grip anything that enters it's hand fastly in this case involves another process too. Yeah, actually if I'm correct, Then my point is that, no matter how sophisticated it might be, we only make the progress once. we always solve a complex puzzle once and look for another, so all robot engineers don't solve one particular problem individually once a clear solution is reached. The fate of robots come 2030 is wonderful. they will be accepted and made wildly especially in Africa.

Edited September 21, 2013 by Mozart