What The Election Means For Robotics - AlleyWatch

Since the beginning of the republic, Presidents have had a great deal of influence on promoting innovation. A year after Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words on the telephone to Mr. Watson, Rutherford B. Hayes installed a phone in the White House. The Obama administration has prided itself on its relationship with emerging technologies, from hosting White House Science Fairs to the Frontiers Conference this past August at Carnegie Mellon University. This week the administration updated the U.S. Robotics Roadmap that was first initiated by the President in 2009. Henrik Christensen the author of the Roadmap, and director of UC San Diego's Institute for Contextual Robotics, explained that the purpose of the document is to identify the future impact of robotics technology on the country; outline its economic, social, and security needs; and to provide a strategy for addressing various scientific and technological challenges.