Session 1: Keynote 1

Title: Challenges of Future Robotics
Authors: Bernd Liepert
Abstract:

Robotics will change the world! It will unleash the same if not an even more disruptive and transformational power within the next 50 years as mainstream IT-technology and the Internet have over the last half a century. Nurtured by technological breakthroughs in industrial automation, robotics will exhaustively permeate all domains of the human living realm. Hence, our grandchildren will grow up in a society that is enriched and enhanced by assistive technologies in every imaginable way. Robotics and automation will be tailored into many everyday objects, becoming an integral part of all kinds of appliances. This Generation 'R' will be without fear of these technologies perceiving their beneficial nature - they will grow up as Robotic Natives. This implies, that today's people are already born to become the first society of Robotic Immigrants. Although it is not possible to precisely predict the world of tomorrow, the presented model of the 4 Robotic Revolutions provides a compelling, holistic approach to describe the future phases of robotic evolution, characterizing them according to their technological enablers and underlying interaction paradigms.