Roboethics - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 67

About 1.96 million domestic (household) robots, including vacuum and fl oor
cleaners and lawnmowers were sold in 2012. The other main applications were
entertainment and leisure robots, including toys, hobby systems, education and
research. Personal transportation and human security and surveillance robots are
expected to become increasingly important in the future. Despite the potential, only
159 assistive robots for disabled and elderly people were sold in 2012 ( http://www.
ifr.org/service-robots/statistics/ ) . It is probable that this is a signifi cant underesti-
mate, as a number of the systems in use are non-commercially available prototypes
which do not appear in the statistics. It is projected that about 6,400 robots for
elderly and disabled people will be sold in 2013-2016 and that there will be sub-
stantial expansion within the next 20 years.

2.2 Developments in Robotics

Some of the main developments in robotics are illustrated in Fig. 3.1 and a categori-
sation of different types of robots is presented in Fig. 3.2 . The earliest robots were
'unintelligent', stationary industrial robots. They were used mainly in production
systems equipped with numerically controlled or computer numerically controlled
(CNC) machines as well as in computer integrated and intelligent manufacturing
systems. The ethical issues raised are similar to those related to the use of other
types of machines in the industry, including safety issues, environmental impacts
over the life span and impacts on employment and skill levels.
Subsequently three main developments have taken place, namely, (1) mobility,
(2) 'intelligence' and (3) cooperation. The foundation for 'intelligent' behaviour is
information about the environment, which the robot can process and respond to.

Factory Environment Public and Home Environment

Advanced
Industrial
Robots

Service
Robots
(Fixed Base)

Industrial
Robots

(Pick & Place) (Assembly) (Fueling)

Service Robots
(mobile
Manipulators)

External
Sensors

Human-Robot
Interaction

(Fetch & Carry)

Service
Robots
(Mobile Platforms)

Intelligent
AGVs

AGVs

Tele-
Robotics

Networking

(Transportation) (flexible

Transportation)

(Intell. Wheelchair, Helpmate)

External
Sensors

Stability

Walking
Mechanisms

Multiped
Walking M.

Biped
Walking M.

Humanoid
Robots

Fig. 3.1 From industrial to service robots (Kopacek 2005 )