Robot

Robotic manipulators create manufactured products that are of higher quality and lower cost. But robots can cause the loss of unskilled jobs, particularly on assembly lines in factories. New jobs are created in software and sensor development, in robot installation and maintenance, and in the conversion of old factories and the design of new ones. These new jobs, however, require higher levels of skill and training. Technologically oriented societies must face the task of retraining workers who lose jobs to automation, providing them with new skills so that they can be employable in the industries of the 21st century.

Automated machines will increasingly assist humans in the manufacture of new products, the maintenance of the world's infrastructure, and the care of homes and businesses. Robots will be able to make new highways, construct steel frameworks of buildings, clean underground pipelines, and mow lawns. Prototypes of systems to perform all of these tasks already exist.

One important trend is the development of microelectromechanical systems, ranging in size from centimeters to millimeters. These tiny robots may be used to move through blood vessels to deliver medicine or clean arterial blockages. They also may work inside large machines to diagnose impending mechanical problems.

Perhaps the most dramatic changes in future robots will arise from their increasing ability to reason. The field of artificial intelligence is moving rapidly from university laboratories to practical application in industry, and machines are being developed that can perform cognitive tasks, such as strategic planning and learning from experience. Increasingly, diagnosis of failures in aircraft or satellites, the management of a battlefield, or the control of a large factory will be performed by intelligent computers.