Before, we only find robots on sci-fi movies without any idea that somewhere in our planet that a group of individuals are slowly developing machines of such kind. This remarkable feat has not only opened doors in the ever-so-broad world of technology but also made the people wonder that maybe someday we’ll find ourselves face to face with human-like robots. Human-like in a sense that these machines react the way humans do. Take the tortoise robots developed by William Grey Walters. These mechanical tortoises are capable of finding a recharge station. The design strategy applied by Walters is known as the behavior-based approach, in which intelligent systems are developed. This adaptive behaviors robotics doesn’t necessarily pertain to robots with higher level of intelligence. This approach is about robots capable of adapting and behaving perfectly well for a task, making these machines more efficient.
Starting from topic 64 on the 100 topics list “On growing up and not becoming an astronaut” we ask Randall if he’d rather be an astronaut (that is the question at the start). He takes the opportunity to discuss being, or not being, a roboticist.