Another breakthrough in robotics technology

March 31, 2011

If you want to see more evidence of the rapid growth in robotics, then watch this video. These “quadro-copters” have been developed by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The robots use motion-capture cameras which track the ball movements from above. A computer program then manoeuvres each vehicle accordingly, using four upward-facing rotor blades.

This demonstration is the latest in a series of breakthroughs which include Boston Dynamic’s Big Dog, a high-speed robot hand, a robot that can fold towels, increasingly lifelike Japanese actroids, and IBM’s Watson supercomputer (to name just a few).

Now, imagine what another few decades of progress could achieve. Perhaps by the 2040s, we’ll see teams of life-sized androids capable of running and beating humans at football.

Now combine this with exponential growth in Artificial Intelligence – orders of magnitude greater than Watson – and it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine robots entering mainstream society, performing all manner of roles.

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