We Are Creating Our Own Robot Universe Have you been keeping up with developments in robotics? If you have, you must have noticed all the weird types of robots we are developing. They range from humanoid robots, animal type robots to microscopic robots. We are truly creating a robot universe. When we talk about humanoid type robots there have been some incredible advances. One advance is in the way they look. New types of skin for robots is being developed which looks a lot more like human skin. Some say if you touch it, it even feels like human skin. The movements the robots make are a lot less jerky than they used to be, due to better science and parts. The most important parts of the humanoid robot is its brain, and how it deals with humans. The three laws of robotics which protected humans from robots harming them are being bypassed in some cases however. Some scientists look upon robots as weapons and therefore want them to kill humans. In a way it is a sorry state of affairs. The scientists will say this saves lives on the battlefield, but if one looks at it, and both sides are using robots to kill humans, what have we gained? In the long run we will have robots using some computer algorithm to decide if someone should live or die. The movements of humanoid robots has been greatly improved and robots have demonstrated this by doing all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers. Boston Dynamics, a former American Company building and testing robots, was sold to Hyundai Motor Company in 2020. It was one of the leading robotics companies building human shaped robots. You would think we would have wanted to keep a company like this in American hands. When we see all these artificial intelligence web sites popping up, it makes me wonder if at least some of them are testing the A.I. for use in a robot. Boston Dynamics also makes the dog robot which has appeared in many videos. It has been used to patrol streets in a non-lethal way. It can open doors and climb stairs and carries a camera. Some incredible human looking robots are being built in China by a company named EXRobots. Even their skin has veins showing in some places. I am not saying their veins are real, but I am saying they make the robots look even more human. The idea is to build human looking robots which will interact with humans and sell them to us. It does remind me of the movie I Robot with Will Smith. This movie was about people who bought home robots which were ultimately taken over by a giant computer. Here is the kicker, and it is creepy. You can order one with the face of a real person, perhaps a dead relative. If you think the robots all use the same body you would be wrong, because you can also request a particular body type completing the effect. I know I wouldn’t want to see a replica of a dead loved one roaming my home. By the way, Russia has a similar robot building company. Robots are being developed which can take many different shapes. There are many different animal robots. You may be asking yourself why? One of the reasons is they make great spies. Some of the ones that have been around for a while are fish, birds, bugs and it is rumored cats and maybe squirrels, to name a few. The fish robots are sent out into waterways and oceans and can be equipped with cameras and sensors. They can spy totally unsuspected in many cases. You have to wonder if these robots are used during fleet war games and such, and if there is anyway to detect them. I have to think there might be if they are using a radio signal of any type to guide them, but the signal might be very dim. When we talk about animal robots, like birds, think about how easy it would be to track someone with a bird robot which also has a camera and sensors. They could follow moving vehicles and photograph the license plates on a vehicle, snap photos of who people are meeting with and if they are advanced enough, take video. The squirrel or cat robot can approach behind someone and not be detected if they are meeting in a public place. Even if they get spotted, the parties may not pay any attention to them. For the most concealment, an insect with a tiny camera can be used. The chances of this being detected are very slim. Recently it was announced by scientists they had developed something similar to what we had seen in the movies. In one of the Terminator movies there was a robot which could turn into liquid metal and reassemble itself. The scientists have said we have figured out how to do this using magnets for the reassembly. I don’t have a lot of details about this, but I do think while it might be useful for robots, there probably could be many other uses for this system. Imagine if this could somehow be applied to automobiles. It would put the repair shops out of business. It might also have a use in space for repairing damaged space stations or even spacecraft. There are many robotic toys for sale which seem incredible. There are robotic snakes and other animals, humanoid shaped robots which are miniatures and can walk across the floor and some can be controlled by remote controls. As far as toys go, toy robots have advanced quite a bit since my day. Scientists wanted to create robots which could go into the water and even be able to get into small spaces. They determined the snake shape might be good for allowing them to do this. Snake robots are also being used by the military for reconnaissance. Industry has also adapted snake robots for different industrial uses. One of which is being able to get into small spaces to examine equipment. They can been modified to be able to carry different equipment to be used in disaster situations. They are also well fitted to be able to travel over harsh terrain, which might be almost impossible to get over any other way. One last type of robot I want to mention are microscopic robots being developed. Hopefully, they might some day be able to travel through the blood eating cancer cells, and keep our bodies healthy. Robotic development seems to have no end in sight.
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