What We Can Learn from Robots

On a crisp october day last year, Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute kicked off its 25th-anniversary celebration, as the world's robotics experts came to Pittsburgh to see C-3PO, Shakey the robot, Honda's Asimo, and Astro Boy inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame. The next day saw demonstrations of running, snaking, and bagpipe-playing bots. On the third day, it was Mitsuo Kawato's turn to speak. The lights went down, and the director of the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, made his way to the stage to the beat of rock music. Despite such a welcome, Kawato is an outsider here, dismissive of the self-congratulation that creeps into conversations about modern robotics.