Mobile Robotic Systems Of The Near Future

William J. Wolfe

doi:10.1117/12.937783

25 February 1987 Mobile Robotic Systems Of The Near Future

William J. Wolfe

Proceedings Volume 0727, Mobile Robots I; (1987) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.937783
Event: Cambridge Symposium_Intelligent Robotics Systems, 1986, Cambridge, MA, United States

Abstract

Imagine, if you will, that all human beings suddenly disappeared: Literally: Needless to say, some catastrophic events would occur. Automobiles and airplanes would crash, machinery would grind to a halt, meals would burn, etc. Some things, however, would continue in their present state for a while. Automatic devices would operate on their own for a while and power supplies would continue to provide energy for lights and other devices. At some point, maybe years down the road, all man-made devices and systems would halt. Now, one may argue that some low-power devices such as a microchip in a hand calculator somewhere or a space probe may continue for many years, but in an engineering sense there will be point when manmade activity is essentially zero. Now, imagine that instead of performing this "thought experiment' at the present time, it were to take place 100 years in the future. This stretches the imagination a bit because now we must conjure up a picture of two things: (1) the instant disappearance of humans, plus (2) what technology will be like one hundred years from now. It is likely that things would not grind to a halt as quickly as they would today. In fact, one might imagine that the degree of automation would be such that many things would continue unaltered in the slightest and might possibly be improved by the removal of humans. It is quite possible that mail would continue to be delivered, "read", and responded to; business meetings held, decisions made, actions taken; products manufactured, commercialized, sold, and brought in for repair; etc. Is this perhaps the subconscious goal of mankind? To build a "world" where humans are expendable?

Citation Download Citation

William J. Wolfe "Mobile Robotic Systems Of The Near Future", Proc. SPIE 0727, Mobile Robots I, (25 February 1987); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.937783

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KEYWORDS

Robotic systems

Mobile robots

Sensors

Navigation systems

Robotics

Environmental sensing

Space operations

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