Last year, more than 200,000 robots were shipped around the world for industrial use. Nearly 60 percent of them were installed in plants, building automobiles. But it might not be long before we see them off the factory floor and participating in everyday life.
There are cute robots, famous robots and robots that look like us. Robots have become more advanced and will likely become a bigger part of our daily lives in the years ahead.
"For free time, for security, for vigilance, for having help to clean our homes, for educating our children, for helping us to communicate with our friends, with the environment. I mean, robotics is so multi-sector, it is in so many sectors that, of course, it is going to offer possibilities in all of them," Enriq Fornet, CEO of Global Robot Expo, said.
Some robots are just for fun like these soccer-bots or this ping pong playing robot. Other robots may one day become our rivals in the workplace as they become able to: pick strawberries, stack boxes, direct traffic, prepare food and make us a cocktail-- shaken not stirred.
Robots have met heads of state including Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who met this somewhat confused looking robot. There have been robots on stage and robots in space.
Some robots are becoming more humanoid. This is Jia Jia - created at the University of Science and Technology of China.
A man in Hong Kong built this very human looking robot as a companion.
A robot so realistic looking that she- or rather it- can be a little unsettling.
"The more androids look like humans, the more humans fear them. That's a natural reaction," Creator of Asuna Takeshi Mita said.
Making a robot that is more like a human has several advantages if we want them to operate in a world built for humans.
Humanoid robots have an easier time driving vehicles, operating machinery and walking on stairs- even if they sometimes fall.
This is PETMAN- a robot created for the U.S. military. It's partially autonomous- which means it can make some decisions on its own. PETMAN was designed to test uniforms, but it's not hard to imagine a gun in its hand. A future with so-called "killer robots" is raising ethical concerns.
"Who will be responsible for one of these weapons systems killing an innocent person. It's very unclear, we don't have the framework in place to understand. Is it the person who built the autonomous robot. Is it the person who built the program. It is the person who turned it on Who is going to be responsible? We don't understand these questions," Toby Walsh with University of New South Wales said.
And as robots become smarter and more resilient, some fear that one day these creations of man could turn against us.
"Could there be a robot rebellion one day? Who knows. Researchers in that field are trying to create feelings, to create emotions and to express them, <dissolve to cover> but to create a machine that is able to think by itself is something complicated, and we won't see it in a near future," Santiago Martinez De La Casa Carlos III with University of Madrid said.
