Making robots see

"There is a fundamental disconnect between what we roboticists say and what the public perceives," says Ian Reid, deputy director of the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision, in Brisbane. And that leads to the heart of the problem, and what researchers mean when they talk about "robotic vision": using cameras to guide robots to carry out tasks in increasingly uncontrolled environments. Is this another of Ian Reid's "disconnects" between the research world and the public's sci-fi driven expectations? "In rich countries like Japan where there are also demographic challenges, you will see a big increase in social robotics – in aged, robotic companions and robotic pets," Mahony predicts.