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Topic: Mobile and Sociable Robots:  At the Leading Edge of Computing

Although work on mobile robots has been going on in research labs for the past 30 years, consumer-grade robots have only become commercially available over the last 4 years.  As a result, general awareness of mobile and sociable robots and their applications is only just beginning, and the entire industry centered around the development of these new types of intelligent robots is still very embryonic.

Most people still consider robots to be something exotic, and separate from mainstream computing.  This, however, is not the case.  Research in sociable robots is helping us understand how to develop the most effective multi-modal user interfaces for human-machine interaction.  And, due to the fact that mobile robots need to understand how to navigate uncertain terrain, avoid obstacles, know where they are and where they are going in dynamically changing environments, this new generation of robots represent the leading edge of what’s exciting in computing systems of all kinds.  By building software that creates greater self-awareness and context-awareness into all future systems, vendors of all kinds of future computing devices and services can create much smarter, more intuitive products and increasingly personalized services.

This panel discussion will examine the market opportunities for mobile and sociable robots, as well as highlight some of the major categories of current and future robots.  Panelists will include a number of very different Massachusetts-area robotics companies, as well as experts in the field of mobile and sociable robots.

Please join us for an exciting evening of discussion around this topic at the “Robots and Beyond” gallery in the MIT Museum.

Parking:  Windsor Street lot behind the museum, or any open parking meters (free after 6:00 pm).  If you are not a Cambridge resident (with a sticker), please do not park anywhere on the street marked with a “resident only” sign, or you will be ticketed