Robots and the Democratization of Quality

Rich Mahoney, Ph.D. will discuss the emergence of personal robots and the drivers that may lead to their evolution and wider adoption by society.

Robots play a fascinating and increasingly vital role in the world. Although they have contributed significantly to the manufacturing base that defines our modern existence, there is still some disappointment in society's collective expectation of what robots should be doing for us. To counter this skepticism, however, there is a nascent, promising trend to design robots able to perform services for human users in more personal settings. Some of the latest inroads include products like Roomba, the da Vinci surgical robot, and a variety of military robots used to defuse roadside bombs.

In contrast to the robots of destruction often featured in movies and literature, we are witnessing the rise of "good robots", designed to work closely with humans. Dr. Mahoney will explain how these robots can increase widespread access to quality services in healthcare and personal care, by augmenting human capabilities. This talk will include a sketch of SRI's technology roadmap for dexterous telemanipulation robotics, from the precursors of the da Vinci system to new non-medical applications, leading to robots of our future.

Dr. Mahoney will also provide some highlights on the current landscape in robotics and will offer his vision of how robotics technology will evolve to enable broad access to high quality in everyday services.