The Age of Service Robots

Robotics is one of the major megatrends unfolding these days. Clearly, robots are capable of doing much more outside the factories than ever imagined, and that has a great impact on the whole society. This talk deals with two exciting aspects of automated technologies: robots on the roads, as self driving cars, and robots in the operating theaters, performing not only teleoperated surgeries but complex, delicate procedures as well. However, building reliable autonomous systems is not easy, and for another while, human operators will be required as a fallback option. Ensuring the safety of such hybrid control systems is complex, and requires novel human-machine interfaces. Situation awareness remains a key issue, keeping humans in the loop. Arguably, the social robotic sector is growing much faster than any industrial one, and as predicted, there soon will be robots in every household and around.)