What's next in robots? ∼Sensing, processing, networking toward human brain and body

Most of us dreamt about robots in our childhood interacting and assisting us in our daily life. They are way beyond fiction and have emerged to become unavoidable in minimally-invasive surgery and industrial automation. There is also an explosion in research areas around autonomous cars, humanoid/android, medical, mobile remote manipulation and personal assistance robots. Such advances largely benefit from to the advances in sensing, signal processing, analog/digital circuits, and devices in semiconductor technologies that are driven by consumer and automotive electronics. Increasingly robotic platforms are also benefiting from the wirelessly connected infrastructure and the cloud computing. Expansion of such applications is going to require more human-friendly and humanlike interactive systems. Improvements in energy efficiency, dependability, security, intelligent sensor networks are among technologies, which are expected from the next generation silicon system, that provide the means to the development of the next generation interactive robots. However, more closed collaboration of the hardware/software design, integration, and data fusion are also must. Robot developers' wish list for the semiconductor industry is endless and their creativ ity is admirable.