1 A short history of robots, from dolls to androids
- Machines as man throughout history
- Mechanical dolls: forerunners of the robot
- Enter the working humanoid robots
- The next step: android robots that look like you
- Uncanny valley: the problem with creepy robots
2. How do robots see their surroundings?
- Getting to grips with a new environment
- Seeing through the eyes of a robot
- Training robots to recognise objects
- Robots can see what a person cannot see
- Feeling with whiskers: sensing the way forward
- Robots use electronic ears to listen
3. How does a robot brain work?
- A robot must learn to think like a human
- Keeping it simple with an insect brain
- Machine learning is trial and error
- Robots can learn without supervision
- The football world cup for robots
- Developing robot emotional intelligence
4. Giving humans a helping hand
- Robots suck: doing the dirty jobs at home
- A robotic arm reaches deep into the supply chain
- Joseph Engelberger, father of car factory robots
- Co-bots will work alongside people
- Coping with variation is Amazon's challenge
- Building a robot car
5. Learning to speak to people
- The problem with machine talk
- SHRDLU! The first experiment in robot conversation
- Toilets are hidden: translation problems
- A robotic teacher never runs out of patience
6. Robots get emotional
- Emotional robots encourage humans to interact with them
- A robot can work out how you are feeling
- Why am I afraid? Understanding human emotions Help! My robot looks angry
- Establishing a bond with a robot
7. Humans need robots and robots need humans
- Meet the robot psychologists
- Under-promise and over-deliver performance
- Silicon Valley utopias vs calm technology
- What is the best ratio of robots to humans?
- In the rubble: the search and rescue robot
- The paradox of robotization
8. Humans need robots and robots need humans
- Meet the robot psychologists
- Under-promise and over-deliver performance * Silicon Valley utopias vs calm technology
- What is the best ratio of robots to humans?
- In the rubble: the search and rescue robot
- The paradox of robotization
9. Evolution designs the best robots
- How robots travel in a bumpy world
- Robothand has nature's grip
- A two-legged walking robot
- The first robot baby
- Working out the best path through evolution
10. Swarming robots show the wisdom of crowds
- The power of robots working together
- A robot swarm without a boss
- Goal is mapping a building about to collapse
- Predicting how a robot will behave
- Robot swarms in the real world
- A robotic swarm looks for a queen
11. The importance of building ethical robots
- Isaac Asimov's three rules about rogue robots
- When robots go wrong
- Responsible roboticists are planning for the future
- Robots and the UN's development goals
- How will robots change the human race?
- Killing machines: robots in the military
12. 2100 - A Robot Odyssey
- The future of work in a robotic world
- Fusing mind and body with soft robotics
- And then the smart robot became creative
- Was that move really creative?
- Will robots really take over the world?
Timeline of real and fictional robots
Sources and reading material