Question: Do we need to develop robots physically or more mentally?

Huma Shah answered on 17 Nov 2016:

Hello Rebecca,

It depends what we need a robot for.

If we need a robot to do a dangerous job, for example to do mining jobs going down deep into the earth, or jobs that require going deeper into the sea than humans can dive down, then those robots would need more thought given to their physical development so that their bodies can withstand the damage that could be done at deep depths into the earth or into the sea.

Robots or computer programmes developed for challenges such as the game of chess, or the GO game, these machines needed more mental strength, the ability to learn the rules of these games quickly and play to win. IBM’s Deep Blue machine beat a chess Grandmaster, Gary Kasparov in a machine vs. human chess game in 1997. Google’s DEEP MIND Alpha Go computer programme beat human GO champion players this year, in 2016.

So it depends what the job is you want the robot or machine/computer programme to complete, that purpose will drive whether the robot is developed as a purely physical system or a mental system.

Hope this interests you to get involved in robotics in some way 🙂

Huma