Jumping straight out of the world of science fiction robots seems to be making a mad dash to take over our lives and our jobs. Everywhere we look there’s another story of robots in the workplace, drones in our skies, machines driving our cars and jobs that are being lost to our mechanical brothers, but surely it’s not all that bad.

The robot (think Star Wars R2D2), android (think Star Wars C3PO) and drone marketplace is growing exponentially as technology and our needs evolve and we have certainly had more chatter in the press over the last year or so than ever before.

The stats are that service robots (robots that serve us and are typically in defence, medical, logistics, construction and in our houses) account for approximately 4.1 million units worldwide, in an industry worth around $6 billion, with year on year growth of 12%, which will take it to 18 million plus units in 2020 and an industry then worth approximately $15.69 billion.

The other major category of robots are industrial robots the ones we see in car manufacturing and large plants which currently account for 1.7 million robots with a year on year growth of around 23.7% that in 2020 will take it to about 4.1 million units, in an industry then worth $15.69 billion.

Now that the stats are out-of-the-way and we have a picture that in sheer volume terms shows it’s unlikely we’re going to be overrun by robots in the foreseeable future, lets take a calmer look at some of the things we’ve got them doing for us already.

In medicine, we have them running around hospitals, either digitally possessed by doctors who are physically in one place but able to offer remote consultations by jumping inside a robot and doing the rounds of far off hospitals, or we have physicians performing operations remotely guiding the hands and tasks of far distant machines, to perform the most difficult and complex of surgeries.

How about Baxter, a robot that learns a task in 90 seconds and then can repeat that task over and over again until you tell it to stop, all for the cost of about $3.40 per hour.

What about robot newsreaders, receptionists and sales teams

How about engaging a robot bricklayer for the perfect house finish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Or7A5w4ZE

Agriculture is also another great adopter of robots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTHMLJaXGFs

and my favourite robot at the moment is Jibo, not yet available, but possibly coming to your home very soon

Robots are set to work, live and play side by side with us in the coming years and there presence soon will be as ordinary and commonplace as the car, the dishwasher and the smart phone, so lets figure out how to tame them and make best use of them.

Have a listen to a couple of radio interviews I did today on robots and then share or like this post and let me know what you’re most looking forward to your robot doing for you.

ABC WideBay (8 minutes) – David Dowsett – Monday 23rd March

4BC – Evening Program (10 minutes) – Monday 23rd March