Page 151 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

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RADICAL ROBOTICIST

HANS MORAVEC AND THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS

ersonal computer users can
Prelate: Every couple years or
so, it seems that new technologies
necessitate a computer ugrade—
Windows or Mac, desktop or lap-
top. Each new PC costs a bit less
than the supposedly obsolete model
and always seems to have about
twice the processor speed and stor-
age capacity.
Carnegie Mellon University robot-
ics researcher Hans Moravec has
stated in numerous writings, start-
ing with his book Mind Children
(1988), that the same thing is now
happening to robots. Although the
processing needed for robots to
Hans Moravec has made impor-
function in the real world is vastly tant contributions to many aspects
more intensive than that found in of robotics, including vision and
most computer software, Moravec navigation. Today, though, he
believes that robots are catching up is perhaps best known for his
speculations on the future devel-
with the exponential growth that
opment of robotics and the fate of
has been characteristic of PCs. This
humans in a world of intelligent
may mean that the high school machines. (Photo courtesy of Hans
students of today may be served in Moravec)

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