You may not have that robot butler you've always dreamt of just yet, but when you do, chances are high that it will come equipped with a brain. At least, that's the hope of the European Robo Earth project that was started back in 2011.
European scientists have spent the past two years developing a web-based database to help give directions to any robots that access it. This digital "brain" is named Rapyuta, and it stands to permanently alter the way robots are produced and perceived. Every robot linked to Rapyuta will be able to search the database for answers to various problems it does not know how to solve.
Rapyuta should also greatly reduce the cost of producing robots in the future. Many of their computational capabilities can instead be outsourced to the Rapyuta database, effectively lowering the price of robots while giving them a wider range of knowledge and problem-solving ability.
"On-board computation reduces mobility and increases cost" according to Dr Heico Sandee, Robo Earth program manager at the Dutch University of Technology in Eindhoven.
Because of the increase in both mobility and intelligence (along with a much more affordable price tag), the day could some come where humans and robots live seamlessly side by side. The European scientists behind Rapyuta believe it can help robots with all sorts of situations, from how to properly fold clothes all the way to better understanding human speech.
There are already several different machines that could immediately benefit from such technology. The drones that are being used in ever-increasing numbers by the U.S. government could be made even smaller than they already are without sacrificing any of their computational abilities. Likewise, the self-driving cars promoted by Google, among others, could make even better decisions on the road without suffering a massive spike in price.
It will still be a while before this technology has any noticeable impact on the general population, but its implications for the future are exciting. Who knows, we might all be getting that savvy robot butler sooner than we thought.
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