Robotics Fields
At the moment being, the number of robotics fields is nearly uncatchable, since robot technology is being applied in so many domains that nobody is able to know how many and which they are. Such an exponential growth cannot be fully tracked and we will try to identify and discuss upon the most evident fields of application, which, as far as we, comprehend are:
• Healthcare Robotics; Robotics used in the context of patient monitoring/evaluation, medical supplies delivery, and assisting healthcare professionals in unique capacities as well as, Collaborative robots and robotics used for Prevention.
• Medical and Surgery Robotics; Devices used in hospitals mostly for assisting surgery since they allow great precision and minimal invasive procedures.
• Body-machine interfaces help amputees to feed-forward controls that detect their will to move and also receive sensorial feedback that converts digital readings to feelings.
• Telepresence Robotics; Act as your stand-in at remote locations it is meant to be used in hospitals and for business travellers, with the idea of saving both time and money.
• Cyborgs, Exoskeletons, and Wearable Robotics. Allow users to augment their physical strength, helping those with physical disabilities to walk and climb (8).
• Humanoids. Combine artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to give robots human-like expressions and reactions.
• Industrial. Arms, grippers and all of the warehouse robotics used for automation of industrial processes. They are used both for saving money and speed up the productions.
• Housekeeping. Floors, Gardens Pools and all the Robot Cleaners.
Collaborative Robots. Recently the market has been opened to Domotics and other Home and Public Spaces (e.g. Shops) Automation coordinators.
• Military Robotics. Drones, Navigators, Researchers, Warriors and all of the possible robotics extensions which are to be applied in spying operations and battle fields.
• Underwater, Flying and Self -Driving
Machines. All the Robotics that deals with self-piloting in all circumstances, on earth, air and water.
• Space Robots. All of the Robotics used in Space missions, therefore highly resistant, expert in exploration and material data collection.
• Entertainment. Toys, Games and Interactive Robotics for children.
• Art. Most creative robotics, which don’t aim at a specific functionality but follows criteria of beauty and conceptual inspiration.
• Environmental and Alternately powered robots use sources like solar, wind and wave energy to be powered indefinitely and open up applications in areas that are off-grid.
• Swarm and Microbots allow emergency responders to explore environments that are too small or too dangerous for humans or larger robots; deploying them in “swarms” compensates for their relatively limited computational ability.
• Robotic networks emerge and allow robots to access databases, share information and learn from one another’s experience.
• Modular Robotics. Robots that can arrange themselves in pre-set patterns to accomplish specific tasks.
The Market.
Looking at the market, the richest applications are those that belong to industrial robotics, where automation of processes is requiring more and more clever and fast robots for assembling any kind of product. No
comparison, this is and apparently will be the most important robotics field for quite a while, at least.
Following that, there are at least few very promising fields, Entertainment, Medical, Surgery and Housekeeping Robotics. With a completely different
philosophy – few expensive vs. lots of cheap sells - they established themselves into the market in a quite
persistent way. Nevertheless, even if those market slices are not saturated yet, we would say they are getting close to it, leaving little space for future improvement. We cannot say the same for Industrial Robotics.
The Upcoming.
There are few promising fields of robotics for the early future. They are Exoskeletons, Wearable Robotics,
Healthcare and Collaborative Robotics. There is, indeed, a flow of investments both from Medical and Fashion Houses that are trying to sustain the research in these fields. Investments are motivated by marketing reasons and, sometime, by a real intent of generating a new trend in their consumers market.
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