Robots for fun and research

Robots will play an increasingly important role in the development of Artificial Intelligence. Many researchers are convinced that for machines to become truly intelligent, they will need to be embodied. Contemporary research in intelligent robotics does not only draw inspiration from biology and psychology, but also provides these disciplines with the means to test hypotheses by using robots as research tools.

Outside the lab, the main market today for robots is moving away from industry robots to the home, with robotic companions being developed for entertainment purposes. As hardware costs are getting smaller and smaller, the same development that happened several years ago with personal computers can now be applied to personal robots. A new trend is to modify existing commercially available robots and add new functionalities (also called `robot hacking'). These different approaches will be presented, and their implications for the future of robotics will be discussed.