Open Questions: Robotics

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Introduction

Evolutionary robotics

Recommended references: Web sites

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

Recommended references: Books

Introduction

Recommended references: Web sites

Site indexes

Open Directory Project: Robotics: Categorized and annotated links. A version of this list is at Google, with entries sorted in "page rank" order. May also be found at Netscape.
AI, Cognitive Science, and Robotics: Guide to resources such as conferences, publishers, FAQs, bibliographies, and other guides and indexes.
Galaxy: Robotics: Categorized site directory. Entries usually include descriptive annotations.

Sites with general resources

New Scientist Special Report on Robots: Primarily offers links to many news articles from the past several years of New Scientist magazine. But there are also other features, including facts and figures, external links, frequently-asked questions, and a short bibliography.
Intelligent Sytems and Their Societies: A free e-book by Walter Fritz dealing with intelligent systems, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Main page has some useful links.
Humanoid Robotics Group: Web site of this research group of the MIT AI Lab offers information on group members, research, and publications.
Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute: Home page of the Institute, with information about projects, labs, publications, staff
Hans Moravec: Moravec is Principle Research Scientist at the Robotics Institute and has written extensively on robotics. Site includes a number of his papers and publications.
NASA Space Telerobotics Program: Covers many aspects of robotics. Includes external links, and highlights a Cool Robot of the Week.
UC Berkeley Robotics and Intelligent Machines Laboratory: Site contains descriptions of active research projects and links to external sites, including Robotics Related Sites of Interest.
Cornell Robotics and Vision Laboratory: Site describes projects of the robotics research group and lists selected publications.
Delft Biorobotics Laboratory: The laboratory specializes in biologically inspired robotics, for example biped robots capable of humanlike walking. Site includes a good list of external links.
Rodney Brooks: Brooks is Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and specializes in robotics, especially mobile robots. His site includes a list of publications.
Andy Ruina: The Biorobotics and Locomotion Lab: Information about research laboratory at Cornell University, run by Andy Ruina, dealing with robotic locomotion. Includes general information, papers, and external links.

Surveys, overviews, tutorials

Robot: Article from Wikipedia.
Robots, Re-Evolving Mind: Paper by Hans Moravec giving a good overview of his ideas on the direction of robotic intelligence. Similar papers: Ripples and Puddles, Rise of the Robots, Simulation, Consciousness, Existence.
Devin Balkom: Home page of a PhD student in robotics whose research focused on robotic origami folding and related topics.
Android Science: May 2006 Scientific American article about Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, whose main interest is android robots.
A New Robot Rolls, and a New Prize Is Set: May 2006 Scientific American In Focus article, subtitled "The quest to build autonomous vehicles for the battlefield continues."
You, Robot: January 2005 Scientific American article about the ideas of Hans Moravec.
In the Waiting Room: December 2000 Scientific American Technology and Business article, subtitled "Robodocs may be here, but remote surgery remains remote."
Enter Robots, Slowly: September 1999 Scientific American Technology and Business article, subtitled "Faster computing means some technological hurdles are falling."
Here's Looking At You: January 1999 Scientific American Technology and Business article, subtitled "A disarming robots starts to act up."

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

A Robot in Every Home
Bill Gates
Scientific American, January 2007
Toy Stories
Mark Pesce
The Sciences, September/October 2000, pp. 25-31: Popular toys of recent years such as the "Furby" may indicate the way to the successful development of useful robots. The key is the provision of sensing mechanisms which allow the robot to learn what it needs from the environment in order to improve its own performance.
Rise of the Robots
Hans Moravec
Scientific American, December 1999, pp. 124-135: By 2050 computer speeds should reach about 100 trillion instructions per second. This is, very roughly, the same processing power as the human brain. While robots using such computational power may not duplicate human abilities, what they are capable of should be quite impressive.

Recommended references: Books

Rodney Brooks – Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us
Vintage Books, 2002: Brooks has been the director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, so he knows what he's talking about. He is known as a proponent of the idea that progress in artificial intellegence goes hand-in-hand with progress in robotics, and the latter in turn depends on understanding the importance of robot "embodiment". Brooks surveys the history of robotic research, and then considers the future, and how humans and robots may eventually converge.
Hans Moravec -- Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind
Oxford University Press, 1999: The author is a leading researcher in robotics. The first third of this book is a relatively sober account of the history of work in robotics. A chapter follows that considers arguments pro and con on whether computers will be able to "think". From the conclusion that the answer to this question is "yes", speculation and extrapolation on future developments proceeds apace.
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