Aided by Hobble telescope, cosmologists have long verified the accelerated expansion of the universe since the Big Bang. Similar conclusion may be drawn for human society’s advancement and the complexity associated with it, although there is no such instrument or directed experiment except the hypothesis from a few expansive and insightful minds. If human society’s complex expansions are following similar natural patterns, it could mean that our imaginable future will always come sooner than we think. Technology developments may well demonstrate this hypothesis over time. Among them, human-interacting robots, one type of the machine beings of the future, may come into our daily life soon, not just in sci-fi movies.

Most of the robotic helpers today are still very much industrial-focused, machine-looking, ugly, clunky tools, but that’s within the early iteration process of the robotic development – limited by all related technologies and the needs. With rapid advancements of industrial design, artificial intelligence, material science, etc., better-sized, nicer-looking domestic robots which can help with basic chores of cleaning and cooking, and also interact with humans in some autonomous ways, may come into existence earlier than we have anticipated.

We can’t totally expect them to be human-looking or super smart in the coming decade, but they should be prettier than the rustic Wall-E, or at least as cute as Eve (both are robotic characters in 2008 Disney movie Wall-E).

No doubt, they will become more and more intelligent and capable with each iteration of the releases.

More than ever, every piece of the robotic design needs the considerations of both hardware and software. The current major challenges for robotic developments are at the design of actuators and robotic software. Robotic software functions as the nerves and blood circulations of the robot beings and huge room of gap exists in this area today. Open-source-based Robotic Operating System is a very interesting concept in recent years, but a lot more industry support and focus are needed to truly propel the robotic industry to a new level so that we, as consumers, can expect to order our favorite robot maid to our household in a few years.