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REAL-WORLD ROBOTS 61

challenge is to identify the time when available technology and an
appropriate design can deliver robots whose performance will justify
their cost.
Meanwhile, as Angle noted to Business Week Online:

The Roomba is a first step. It’s not intimidating. And it works.
People find that surprising. The Roomba has gotten more people to
accept the idea that robots can be useful. Maybe it could be a home-
maintenance system, where your floors are forever clean. Then think
about robots taking care of people, especially for elder care. That’s
ultimately the killer application for robotics.

In an interview with Engadget.com, Greiner expanded on this
vision. She believes that

in 30 years chores around the house will be a thing of the past. The
robots will have evolved from automatic appliances to home automa-
tion systems. iRobot (and others) will be selling clean floors, clear
windows, organized closets, mowed lawns, sparkling toilets, and
dust-free surfaces that the consumer never has to think about. The
robots just come out and do the job when it needs to be done.
There will be a robot in every squad car and it would be unthink-
able to send an officer into an unknown situation. Robots will help
the massive problems caused by the world aging demographic.
Predictions currently are dire about the availability of caregivers for
the folks who will need them. Enter the robots, that allow doctors to
go on house calls through telepresence, that bring your grandmother
water in order to hydrate, assure medication compliance, and even
find the spectacles that Grandpa has lost for the 1000th time.

In the nearer term, iRobot has a prototype remote-control robot
that could allow someone to “phone home” via the Internet and
guide the robot around the house (it can even climb stairs). Besides
checking to make sure everything is all right, the user can use the
robot’s communications abilities to chat with family members, per-
haps even read a bedtime story to the children.