Embracing robots in our lives [Editorial]

Abstract

Robotics has the power to change our lives by transforming manual jobs to autonomous ones, with increased economic growth and productivity. You may recall the surprising appearance of Sophia, the most advanced humanoid robot, which fluently interacted with people in 2016. We are eagerly waiting for Elon Musk's Optimus to be available in 2027, a new humanoid robot that could be part of our everyday lives. NASA's Robonaut 2 (or R2) was flown to the space station as part of STS-133 mission. A robot cooker is capable of large-scale, fully automatic cooking. In fact, robots are coming to our lives with applications in space missions, underwater exploration, agriculture and the food industry, medicine and health care, industrial automation and manufacturing, security, entertainment, search and rescue, and education. Robotics is a multidisciplinary and exciting research field that crosscuts computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, material science, etc.