WILL ROBOTS EVER REPLACE ATTENDANTS - EXPLORING THE CURRENT CAPABILITIES AND FUTURE POTENTIAL OF ROBOTS IN EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION

This article describes the current capabilities and future potential o f robots designed as supplements or replacements for human assistants or as tools for education and rehabilitation. A number of researchers have developed and tested a variety of robot assistants for individual s with disabilities. These robots can usually be classified as educati onal, vocational or independent-living assistants. Robots in all three categories are reviewed. A brief summary of the critical characterist ics of human service robots is also presented and the limitations of c urrent technology are discussed. Finally, current research aimed at ad dressing these limitations is described. While robots of all kinds hav e proven much more difficult to develop than people had expected, we c onclude that it will eventually be possible to create an effective, re liable robot for human service tasks, but not as quickly as was predic ted in the early 1980s.