Page 441 - Sensing, Intelligence, Motion : How Robots and Humans Move in an Unstructured World

416 SENSITIVE SKIN—DESIGNING AN ALL-SENSITIVE ROBOT ARM MANIPULATOR

animals—following us and staying out of our way the way a dog or a cat do.
The last thing one thinks of when first seeing these arm manipulators, large and
heavy chunks of steel, would be the word “gentle.” And yet this is what one
thinks when watching this dance. The robot follows the ballerina, steps back
when she changes her direction of motion, and hesitates when the ballerina puts
her arms around the robot (as if thinking, “Where should I move now?”). The
dance looks fascinating, for now at least: There are many such scenes in our
future, with robots much smarter and much more sensitive and also capable of
doing what we want them to do.