Robotics: Techniques, Functions, Social Role Part 2. Current Capabilities of Robots

Abstract

In order to assess the impact of robots on society, it is necessary to carefully analyze the state-of-the-art, and in particular the fundamental issues that have yet to be resolved, however having significant impact on the potential societal changes resulting from the development of robotics. The aforementioned impact depends on the level of intelligence of robots, so this aspect dominates in the presented analysis. The presentation has been divided into three parts: 1) analysis of technical factors affecting the intelligence and security of robots, 2) analysis of current capabilities of robots, 3) analysis of diverse predictions of how robotics will evolve, and thus the attitudes towards the influence of the result of this development on society. This part of the paper is devoted to the second of the above mentioned three issues.