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RADICAL ROBOTICIST 145

“mind children,” Moravec speculated that advanced robots might
care for humanity out of a sense of affinity or obligation, perhaps as
children try to provide for the needs of their aging parents. Perhaps
all humans’ needs will be provided for, except the need to be useful.
It is a sobering thought.

Chronology

1948 Hans Moravec born November 30 in Kautzen, Austria
1953 Moravec’s family emigrates to Canada

1958 Moravec builds his first mobile robot at the age of 10
1965–67 Moravec attends Loyola College

1969 Moravec receives his bachelor’s degree from Acadia University
in Nova Scotia

1971 Moravec receives his master’s of science degree from the
University of Western Ontario
Moravec moves to the United States and attends Stanford
University, where he later works with the Stanford Cart
1980 Moravec is awarded his Ph.D. by Stanford University
Moravec begins his career at Carnegie Mellon University
(CMU) and organizes the Mobile Robot Lab

1980s Moravec works on CMU Rover, a much-improved successor
to the Stanford Cart

1984 Moravec and students begin working on sonar-based grid
navigation systems

1988 Moravec’s book Mind Children predicts human-level robots
in a generation or so

1990s Navlabs demonstrate the ability of robot-controlled vehicles
to drive on real roads

1998 Moravec revisits the future in Robot: Mere Machine to
Transcendent Mind