Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell!pacbell.com!ucsd!ucbvax!agate!shelby!portia.stanford.edu!sunrise!boehlke From: boehlke@sunrise.stanford.edu (Dan Boehlke) Newsgroups: comp.robotics Subject: Re: Robots in our Future? Message-ID: <1990Aug30.014817.8794@portia.Stanford.EDU> Date: 30 Aug 90 01:48:17 GMT References: <1990Aug28.234809.15660@portia.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@portia.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System) Organization: Stanford University Lines: 15 I see the next breakthrough in robotics being the introduction of very high accuracy manipulators-- say an order of magnitude (or more) better than any systems of the 80's. There are plenty of potential products that simply cannot be assembled today anywhere outside of a laboratory. Ultra-precision manipulators will be "enabling" technology. They will make it possible to produce consumer products that are impossible to manufacture on a mass-production basis today. Once the technology exists, new products will be developed which exploit it. Electronic minaturization will go far beyond where it is today, quality will get better, and cost will go down.