To be more useful, robots need to become lazier

That's the principle underpinning "lazy robotics," a field of study championed by René van de Molengraft, a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. He believes that teaching all kinds of robots to be "lazier" with their data could help pave the way for machines that are better at interacting with things in their real-world environments, including humans. Essentially, the more efficient a robot can be with information, the better. Van de Molengraft's lazy robotics is just one approach researchers and robotics companies are now taking as they train their robots to complete actions successfully, flexibly, and in the most efficient manner possible. Teaching them to be smarter when they sift through the data they gather and then de-prioritize anything that's safe to overlook will help make them safer and more reliable--a long-standing goal of the robotics community.