Advances in “soft” robots, or those made of flexible and compliant materials instead of rigid links, could help robots become more capable in unstructured spaces, while advances in AI could help robots deal with environments they have never been programmed to encounter.
A growing direction in robotics is having robots and humans work together to capitalize on the advantages of each. Advances in “soft” robots, or those made of flexible and compliant materials instead of rigid links, could help robots become more capable in unstructured spaces, while advances in AI could help robots deal with environments they have never been programmed to encounter. Researchers today are working on several areas, including: