I wonder if we are going to see the same thing with robotics that we have seen in the PC/Compute industry.
In the PC industry most people (in the States at least) started with a home computer, then things started getting gadgity with 100 little computers all over the house (cell phones, PDAs, MP3 Players, multiple printers, game consoles, handheld consoles, cable boxes, DVRs, laptops, tablets, CD/DVD/HDDVD/BluRay players, stereo, TVs, etc.). But now we are starting to see a consolidation of devices. Your PC is still a PC, but also acts as a server of sorts. Phones and tablets are beginning to eat up all of the multitude of mobile devices. Video game consoles tried consolidating the TV/Entertainment devices last generation, but just might manage to do it this time.
But the point is that where just a few years ago you 'had to have' all of these devices littering your life, now you only really need a smartphone, a tablet or laptop, a desktop, and a TV with console to have all of the same functionality. And in 5-7 years I imagine we will simply be down to a phone, desktop/NAS, and a TV with console to have the same functionality that we have today.
Anywho, the point is that we use to need (and most of us have) tons of single use devices, and we are moving to a point where you have less devices that are good at a lot of things. I wonder if robotics will follow a similar course where we have a vacuume/sweeper, a mop, a clothes washer/drier/folder, a lifter, a wall cleaner/painter, a hair cutter, a chef, a driver, etc. And then after 30-40 years move down to 1-2 multi-purpose devices.
Personally I am stoked that robotics is finally getting somewhere useful (no matter how silly this patent is)! Next we need it to get cheap, and then we need to consolidate functionality, and then we need to focus on efficiency. Here's hoping it all works out.
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