Robots of the future - a question often discussed about robots

Whatever it is about robots, they enchant us. There have been many books and movies made about robots, their potentials, and their possible drawbacks. We want them to do so many things – tasks that we ourselves could perform, but we are too lazy to do. There have been many advances in the uses of robots, but it is generally agreed that here is a lot more potential to robots.

A discussion about robots in a general setting between friends, family, workmates, or someone off the street, will give you a wide variety of answers as to what they want a robot to fully perform – all the tasks they want a robot to be able to do. However, there is a variety of common tasks we would like the robot of the future to perform. These include:

· As Friends and/or companions – a way of helping elderly or lonely people feel loved. Robots like these would be welcome in nursing homes and in refuge shelters. We would also like to see them in the household.

· As helpers – with all the common household chores, it would be handy to have a robot that would not tire of the work. This is probably the most common ability most people want their robots to have. I’m sure all the ladies (and some men) would agree that a helper doing the household chores would be helpful. I think children around the world would rejoice – no more household chores (although I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing…)

· As police officers - no pay strikes, no disputes. I’m sure most people would want robot officers, as it would just be easy to increase police numbers. There are, however, numerous coffee table discussions involving what capabilities the police officer robot should have. The include, but are not limited to:

o How humane do you want the police robot to be?

o Shoot to kill on sight?

o What type/s of arms should it be equipped with?

· As nurturers – they would play with your children and feed them while you are out at work. This would increase your productivity as you no longer about whether your children are being fed properly

There are many more things people want in their robots, but they are too numerous to list. Instead, I hope the above list of the three most common ideas of the what the ideal future robot should do helps stimulate discussion about robots with the people you know.