Brooks Forecasts Future of Robotics Technology
From: Cornell Daily Sun (NY) - 04/13/2005
By: Maya Rao

Roboticist and director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory (CSAIL) Rod Brooks discussed how intelligent robots could impact
society over the next half century in an April 12 lecture. He said humans and
robots exhibit greater similarities to each other than people think, and
backed up his assertion with videos of several CSAIL-designed robots. One
video showed a scientist and a robot passing an object back and forth, a
situation in which the machine picked up motion cues from the researcher in
much the same way that an infant picks up motion cues from a parent. Several
robots from CSAIL can also be taught words, which they can repeat and
associate with corresponding objects. Brooks said the next 50 years will see
a global demographic shift that will make robots useful in such fields as
agriculture, elderly assistance, and manufacturing. He envisioned the
roboticization of big agricultural machines for taking care of individual
plants and removing the need for humans to perform tedious chores such as
pruning and picking. Brooks also foresaw the employment of robot arms for
fixed automation, which entails making the devices as dexterous as a
six-year-old, while a third application for in-home elderly care was also
projected. Brooks said the biggest challenge could be convincing people to
accept machines whose abilities may be equal to or greater than their own,
while emotional machines would be an even tougher sell. 

Read the entire story at:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/13/425ca4a070ebc

Links:
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
http://www.csail.mit.edu/index.php

Rodney Brooks
http://people.csail.mit.edu/people/brooks/index.shtml