Robots With 'Feelings' In 10 Years

As a depressed machine roaming through space in the fictional Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Marvin the Paranoid Android popularised the concept of a robot with feelings. However, the real thing will be available far closer to home in just 10 years, scientists predicted yesterday. They now claim it is essential to give robots their own emotions if they are to be capable of running independently and efficiently enough to take on a variety of domestic tasks. As well as Marvin, robots with feelings were envisaged by the -science fiction movie I, Robot, in which they delighted in performing tasks such as cleaning, walking the dog and even caring for elderly relatives. At present, commercially available robots such as automatic vacuum cleaners are little more than drones capable of carrying out only one task. However, speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco yesterday, a panel of robotics experts said robots capable of multiple domestic tasks, that can also provide companionship for their owners, will be available within 10 years. And the scientists claim it is already possible to give robots such "feelings". A number of groups around the world are now developing robots that have basic emotions in a bid to motivate the machines.