Everyone out there has, at least once, wished for a robot to do at least one of his or her tasks, especially the undesirable ones. Now, with modern technology, we have robots to carry out many of these tasks.
I was at my friend’s house one night, and I noticed that they had Roomba and Scooba robots. We got into talking about them and how they work, thus leading into this rundown of what I consider the 5 coolest robots (real, not fictional):
I think that the ASIMO robot is just awesome. Standing at 130 centimeters and weighing 54 kilograms, the robot resembles a small, white suited astronaut wearing a backpack and can walk or run on two feet at speeds up to 6 km/h .- In second place, Multifunctional Utility/Logistics and Equipment Vehicle (MULE). Now maybe I have Ghost Recon on the brain, but this thing is cool. It is an Unmanned Ground Vehicle that will support ground troop and helicopter or airborne assaults. There even may be a tank-killer variant.
- Of the flying robots, the Sikorsky Cypher beats all. It is essentially a robot with the rotor blade within the body, and is about 1.75 meters in diameter.
- The Roomba/Scooba series are freaking awesome. I want one to clean my room! They have a few math algorithms that makes sure they cover the whole room and sensors to stop them from falling down the stairs! The even have a portable charging dock.
- The Japanese Paro robot. It is a robotic baby Harp Seal designed for therapeutic purposes. It is so cute…
My only worry is the creation of artificial intelligence. Once this day comes, I fear mankind will be wiped out in a Matrix or Terminator like fashion. Also, a country with a robot military could be over-run with some simple hacking. Or, of course, we could end up like the humans in the movie Wall-E, who are morbidly obese because of robots.
In all, I think that robot technology is cool and quite successful. We have many options now, and much more to come, just don’t give them the ability to think!
