Today’s robots designed to mingle with humans are still very slow, cannot do very many tasks and mostly dispense information. Ro

Robots in this car factory quickly weld auto bodies, but there are no humans around. Because this type of robot would not know how to prevent inadvertently harming a person. These robots are effectively blindfolded. They perform the same task all over and over again, and cannot adapt to any changes.
    Okay, it is on this floor. Today’s robots designed to mingle with humans are still very slow, cannot do very many tasks and mostly dispense information.
    Arizona State University robotics professor, Heni Ben Amor, says roboticists are now developing the next generation of automatons that will be able to take into account their human co-workers. These robots can, for example, hand over a tool to you. They can help you lift a heavy object, etc.
    And this is a paradigm shift when you compare it to original or kind of old-school robotics, industrial robotics.
    Since robots are more powerful than humans, their designers will have to make them incapable of harming their co-workers. In order to do that, these machines will have to be much more intelligent. The robot’s motion will have to be continually coordinated with the human’s motion.
    It’s all about understanding the human co-worker, engaging and interacting at the right time. Because what you’d like to have is a robot that helps you out in all situations when you need it.
    But at the same time, if you don’t need the robot, it should not be cluttering the environment.
    It remains an enormous engineering feat, so Ben Amor says robots in domestic environments are still a long way off.
    Autonomous cars, he says, are much closer, and collaborative robots should start replacing traditional robots in manufacturing industries within the next five years.