Today as
our world becomes more and more advance, we find ourselves being surrounded by
technologies more than ever before. From the introduction of the world wide
web, the first touchscreen mobile phone and now, the beginning of a new era,
robotics. Many engineers are competing in creating the best but not least, the
most life-like robotic to be introduce to the world. Although there are 7
billion and growing people roaming this planet yet, we are still lacking in
human resources and labor. Thus, we are creating the birth of robotics in hopes
to solve this matter.
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| Source: Sullivan Corporation |
The idea of robotics is an ingenious idea as they are capable of traveling
where people cannot go (Bekey et al., 2008). Not only to the extent of which
humans cannot reach but robotics can be helpful towards the simple human needs
for instance, housecleaning, cooking or practically taking care of the
household. The reason why we are considering about living with robots is
because we are always on-the-go, busy and doing the laundry is merely the least
of our concerns. According to the Business Insider Malaysia, they asked 9
successful people to share one thing they would buy that makes their lives
easier or better, Tim Ferriss, an entrepreneur mentioned, he would buy
housecleaning as he doesn’t have time to wash and fold his clothes (Torabi,
2015). In South Korea and Japan, they have long started when it comes to
investing in robotics especially, personal and service robotics vehicles. They
are currently in the works of creating eldercare robotics due to Japan and
South Korea’s high aging population (Bekey et al., 2008).
The idea
of robotics wouldn’t be realistic without having any loopholes to begin with.
Many would argue that robots does not know how to ‘feel’ and it will be hard
for it to connect with us. Safety is very important which means the significant
challenges in human-robot interfaces need to be overcome by the industry
(Bekey, 2008). Therefore, the research of human-robot interaction (HRI) is in
the works. Not only that, us, humans are developing and learning each day, so
for a robot to grasp on it would be difficult and it was need a lot of
upgrading as well. However, Sony and Fujitsu may be changing that fact as they
are creating systems from eye-hand coordination, well-developed visual
perception to a fast, power-efficient and well-packaged torso and set of limbs
(Hirukawa et al., 2004).
References
Bekey, G.,
Ambrose, R., Vijay, K., Lavery, D., Sanderson, A., Wilcox, B., Yuh, J., &
Zheng, Y. (2008). Robotics: State Of The Art And Future Challenges.
World Scientific & Imperial College Press, London.
Torabi, F.,
2015, 9 successdul people share the one
thing they buy that makes their lives easier or better, Business Insider Malaysia, viewed 4 May 2015,
<http://www.businessinsider.my/successful-people-what-makes-my-life-easier-2015-3/#AT2UrGxHqduzTMMF.97>.