3 Is it important for robots to look like human beings?
4 Would you like to have humanoid robots at home, in the class or some other place? What for?
5 Make sure that you know the words below:
Decade, costly, emerge, battlefield, gesture.
6 Read the text.
Humanoid Robotics
Like never before, technology can bring imagination to life. For decades we have been informed about robots that look like humans. We are promised by films, fiction and television that humanoids will cook for us, clean for us, become our best friends, teach our children, and even fall in love with us. Recently a surprising number of new humanoid robots have emerged on the commercial market. The first generations of humanoids were costly and used mostly for entertainment. In time they will perform a wide variety of tasks at homes, battlefields, nuclear plants, government installations, factories and even space stations. Already humanoid robots can carry out complex commands given through gesture and speech.
Humanoids may prove to be the ideal robot design to interact with people. The humans have already adapted to the high level modality of the monitor and keyboard. In future technology will adapt to us.
Humanoid robotics also offers a unique research tool for understanding the human brain and body.
1 Answer the questions:
a) Why did people start producing robots?
b) What can robots do at battlefields, nuclear plants, space stations?