Sneek Peeking into the Future of Robots and Robotics
In the first half of the last century, industrial robots such as the hulking one-armed Goliaths dominated the robotics space. Even though they were highly disruptive and served many human purposes, industrial robots were not sexy. Opening the door to the second half of the 20th century, attractive humanoid robots made their debut. Today, more and more robots are cropping up in offices, hospitals, and schools, and especially in labour intense workplaces like warehouses, fulfilment centres, and small manufacturing centres. They are also jumping out of the confined spaces into roads and flying aboard.
In the modern world, robots are becoming more powerful and faster in computing, process command, and applications, which are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. When humans think about robotics, two extreme concepts pop up in their mind. One is plain machinery or humanoid automation that helps humankind in many ways in their daily routine. Unfortunately, the other one is quite a nightmarish prediction. People anticipate that if the upsurge in robotics and automation continues, then very soon, there will be an apocalypse where humans become slaves to machines. They also fear that robot domination in the workplace will occupy human jobs, causing a huge unemployment crisis. Science fiction movies often envision autonomous robots with the full capabilities of humans, such as navigation of complex environments, dexterous manipulation of physical objects, and learning from experience and instruction. The reality is that human perception and decision-making remains beyond the level of automation through computation and engineering. However, even though this could be possible in the far future, today, robotics is definitely helping humans. As intelligent machines begin their march on labour and become more sophisticated and specialized than first-generation cousins like Roomba or Siri, human-robot collaboration will unravel a new world of automation.
Starting from doing home chores and delivering medical supplies to befriending children and assisting the elderly, robots are taking up all the labour-intense jobs and making space for people to use their intellect. They are often commanded to perform jobs that are mostly boring, mostly dangerous, and sometimes, even dirty. Robots are designed to do tasks that are too complex for people. Many industries including retail, food, and healthcare, that were on the brink of collapsing with fewer human hands to help during the Covid-19 period, adopted robotics for a more resilient and automatic outcome. A report indicates that the robotics market will be valued at US$73 billion by 2025 and the current pandemic has accelerated robotics adoption greatly.
Even though robots are intelligent than humans because of their computational power and memory, researchers are the ones who blew life into the assembled metal. Since humans brought them to action, they also believe that they’ll be the end of the robots in case it gets uncontrollable. At a time when it is critical for humankind to adopt technology, many robotic companies are working on a variety of innovative products including autonomous vehicles, mobile robots, toy robots, and software feed robots with common sense and make them easier to use. The world is evolving at a faster pace where different robotic companies have achieved much more in the past two decades. Plenty of them have unleashed a new feat where their range of robots has already started working in diverse sectors.