Driving Artificial Intelligence and Robotics on the Factory Floor

Rodney Brooks wasn't willing in 2002 to hazard a guess about when the challenges of robotics would be overcome. "Not in two years or three years," Brooks asserted during an IndustryWeek interview that year. "But is it going to be here in 30 years or 40 years? I'm not quite prepared [to make a prediction]." Still in a book published then and the interview, he gave us a peak at what it would look like when it arrived: "robots that take instruction easily rather than ones that require hours of programming time; robots that can help in small-batch operations rather than ones that only make financial sense in continuous or nearly continuous fixed operation settings with long runs; robots with social interaction skills;" and robots that reduce costs on the factory floor.