A concise, accessible introduction to robots, what they can do, what they can't, and what their increasing encroachment into our lives might mean for us. Since the turn of the millennium a quiet revolution has been underway. Millions of autonomous robots with some level of intelligence are now in domestic use, mainly as vacuum cleaners. Driverless cars - which are nothing less than autonomous robots - are starting to appear on our streets. There is a huge effort underway i...

There is a huge effort underway in industry and universities to develop the next generation of more intelligent, autonomous, mobile robots. Accompanying these arrivals has been a steady stream of inflammatory articles in the media raising concerns over the impending specter of super-intelligentrobots, along with stories about how most jobs will soon be lost to robots.Here, using the question-and-answer format, Phil Husbands gives a balanced and broad introduction to robotics...