Artificial intelligence (AI) and robots continue to creep into our working lives. Not only are truck drivers, janitors, and bricklayers facing obsolescence in the near future but AI is also influencing knowledge work including paralegal, medical diagnostic and other professions that require less physical manipulation and more interpretation of data. Job automation has also extended to journalism and the creation of news and other content. It is possible that robots might infiltrate the scientific communication ecosystem in the same way. Robotics has been employed in newsrooms for several years, starting small but becoming much more sophisticated lately.

Forget everything you know about robots - the market is about to explode with growth. To date there has been much commercial success with floor cleaning and even window washing robots and both of these are huge markets. But they may be nothing compared with the next frontier of this amazing technology which will allow them to navigate around humans in operating rooms at hospitals. You see iRobot just got FDA approval for a new robot to do just that. The robot, also known as Remote Presence Virtual Independent Telemedicine Assistant (RP-VITA), received 510(K) clearance from the FDA and can be used for active patient monitoring in pre-operative, peri-operative, and post-operative situations.

In a mere 50 years, robots have gone from being a topic of science fiction to becoming an integral part of modern society. They now are ubiquitous on factory floors, build complex deep-sea installations, explore icy worlds beyond the reach of humans, and assist in precision surgeries. These robots are improving our health, adding to our scientific understanding, raising productivity, and performing tasks that humans cannot do. The rapid increase in the capabilities, varieties, and applications of robots has been built on scientific and engineering research into power and actuation systems, artificial intelligence, onboard navigation, environmental sensors, manipulators, control systems, novel materials, microfluidics, systems integration, and many other advances. With this growth, the research community that is engaged in robotics has expanded globally.