Before robots can take over they need better security against hackers

Today's robots are far smarter and more capable than the clumsy and awkward robots of the 1980s and 1990s. And although we have a long way to go before autonomous robots reach the sophistication of TV science fiction, we do seem to be getting closer. Engineers, entrepreneurs and academics from the US and UK met this week to think out loud about the past, present and future of robotics during a conference hosted by the British Consulate General, a short walk from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. The robotics and artificial intelligence sectors will be a 2.6 trillion industry by 2020, according to the consulate, with robots playing an ever-larger role in healthcare, military and autonomous systems such as self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles and surface/underwater drones. I went to the conference to investigate a simple question: are the robots we're researching, designing and building today secure against hackers?