When companies develop a new technology, do they ask how it might affect the people who will actually use it? That, more or less, sums up Brian David Johnson’s duties as Intel’s futurist-in-residence. In this fascinating book, Johnson provides a collection of science fiction prototyping stories that attempt to answer the question. These stories focus on the same theme: scientists and thinkers exploring personal robotics as a new form of artificial intelligence. This isn’t fanciful speculation. Johnson’s stories are based on Intel’s futurecasting research, which uses ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and science fiction to develop a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing. 21st Century Robot presents science fiction designed to bring about science fact. Get real insight into technology and the future with this book. It will open your eyes.

This book aims to discuss the technical and ethical challenges posed by the present technological framework and to highlight the fundamental role played by human-centred design and human factors in the definition of robotic architectures for human–robot collaboration. The book gives an updated overview of the most recent robotic technology, conceived and designed to collaborate with human beings in industrial working scenarios. The technological development of robotics over the last years and the fast evolution of AI, machine learning and IoT have paved the way for applications that extend far beyond the typical use of robots performing repetitive tasks in exclusive spaces. In this new technological paradigm that is expected to drive the robotics market in the coming years, robots and workers will coexist in the same workplace, sharing not only this lived space, but also the roles and functions inherent to a process of production, merging the benefits of automated and manual performing. However, having robots cooperating in real time with workers, responding in a physical, psychological and social adequate way, requires a human-centred design that not only calls for high safety standards regulating the quality of human–robot interaction, but also demands the robot's fine-grained perception and awareness of the dynamics of its surrounding environment, namely the behaviours of their human peers—their expected actions/responses—fostering the necessary collaborative efforts towards the accomplishment of the tasks to be executed.

“[Singer's] enthusiasm becomes infectious . . . Wired for War is a book of its time: this is strategy for the Facebook generation.” —Foreign Affairs “An engrossing picture of a new class of weapon that may revolutionize future wars. . .” —Kirkus Reviews P. W. Singer explores the great­est revolution in military affairs since the atom bomb: the dawn of robotic warfare We are on the cusp of a massive shift in military technology that threatens to make real the stuff of I, Robot and The Terminator. Blending historical evidence with interviews of an amaz­ing cast of characters, Singer shows how technology is changing not just how wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws, and the ethics that surround war itself. Travelling from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to modern-day "skunk works" in the midst of suburbia, Wired for War will tantalise a wide readership, from military buffs to policy wonks to gearheads.

This book includes papers presented at the International Conference “Educational Robotics in the Maker Era – EDUROBOTICS 2020”, Online, February 2021. The contributions cover a variety of topics useful for teacher education and for designing learning by making activities for children and youth, with an emphasis on modern low-cost technologies (including block-based programming environments, Do-It-Yourself electronics, 3D printed artifacts, the use of intelligent distributed systems, the IoT technology, and gamification) in formal and informal education settings. This collection of contributions (17 chapters and 2 short papers) provides researchers and practitioners the latest advances in educational robotics in a broader sense focusing on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education. Teachers and educators at any school level can find insights and inspirations into how educational robotics can promote technological interest and 21st-century skills: creativity, critical thinking, team working, and problem-solving with special emphasis on new emerging making technologies.

"With robots, we are inventing a new species that is part material and part digital. The ambition of modern robotics goes beyond copying humans, beyond the effort to make walking, talking androids that are indistinguishable from people. Future robots will have superhuman abilities in both the physical and digital realms. They will be embedded in our physical spaces, with the ability to go where we cannot, and will have minds of their own, thanks to artificial intelligence. They will be fully connected to the digital world, far better at carrying out online tasks than we are. In Robot Futures, the roboticist Illah Reza Nourbakhsh considers how we will share our world with these creatures, and how our society could change as it incorporates a race of stronger, smarter beings. Nourbakhsh imagines a future that includes adbots offering interactive custom messaging; robotic flying toys that operate by means of "gaze tracking"; robot-enabled multimodal, multicontinental telepresence; and even a way that nanorobots could allow us to assume different physical forms. Nourbakhsh follows each glimpse into the robotic future with an examination of the underlying technology and an exploration of the social consequences of the scenario. Each chapter describes a form of technological empowerment -- in some cases, empowerment run amok, with corporations and institutions amassing even more power and influence and individuals becoming unconstrained by social accountability. (Imagine the hotheaded discourse of the Internet taking physical form.) Nourbakhsh also offers a counter-vision: a robotics designed to create civic and community empowerment. His book helps us understand why that is the robot future we should try to bring about."--Jacket.

A collection of articles examine the current trends in robotics technology.

In this compelling book, Hans Moravec predicts that machines will attain human levels of intelligence by the year 2040, and that by 2050, they will surpass us. But even though Moravec predicts the end of the domination by human beings, his is not a bleak vision. Far from railing against a future in which machines rule the world, Moravec embraces it, taking the startling view that intelligent robots will actually be our evolutionary heirs. "Intelligent machines, which will grow from us, learn our skills, and share our goals and values, can be viewed as children of our minds." And since they are our children, we will want them to outdistance us. In fact, in a bid for immortality, many of our descendants will choose to transform into "ex humans," as they upload themselves into advanced computers. This provocative new book, the highly anticipated follow-up to his bestselling volume Mind Children, charts the trajectory of robotics in breathtaking detail. A must read for artificial intelligence, technology, and computer enthusiasts, Moravec's freewheeling but informed speculations present a future far different than we ever dared imagine.

Robots work in homes every day. Some vacuum floors or mow lawns. Others keep people company. And some help kids have fun! What robots might you find in someone's home? Read this book to find out!

Argues that treating people and artificial intelligence differently under the law results in unexpected and harmful outcomes for social welfare.