Hi everyone, I’m Angelina and I’ve just jumped on board with GoRobotics as of late. I’m particularly inclined towards social cases and human-robot interaction, so I hope to bring you a lot of interesting stories on that front. I have a background in artificial intelligence (cognitive science) and so another thing I hope to do is to bring some of the interesting scientific developments into the public eye. Academic papers can be overwhelming even if you know the jargon necessary, so I hope to act as a translator and give you some tidbits of what’s going on in university robotics research.

In what has been an ongoing controversial move in the United Kingdom, police forces all over the nation will be able to draw on unmanned air drone robots for surveillance support. The units are remote-controlled and equipped with thermal imaging units, and they’ll set you back about $30,500. So far there is only one unit seeing action in the UK, and it’s already getting publicity for helping the police do their job.

The Merseyside police who happened to be lucky enough to have one of these $30,500 drones flicked on the thermal imaging on a tip that a suspected car thief was somewhere in the neighborhood. They managed to pinpoint the suspect from about three hundred meters away, and their actions also eventually led to the arrest of a second suspect shortly thereafter. Sky News has the coverage over here.

A young man was caught and arrested for breaking a law, which makes this a good day for robotics, and a good case for robots in a pragmatic, practical role. Still, speculation considers the increased use of robots within the police and military to be walking a rather fine line for safety, especially if future units are armed and are expected to operate with any sense of autonomy. Wired has an interesting article detailing the possible ways that police drones could be armed in the future.

If Presidents, Veterens, and Laborors get only a day, what do we give robotics? How about a whole week! That’s right, National Robotics Week has been announced and is slated for April 10-18, 2010.  The event is headed up by iRobot, along with a whole slew of robotics companies and organizations.

During National Robotics Week, a week-long series of events and activities is aimed at increasing public awareness of the growing importance of “robo-technology” and the tremendous social and cultural impact that it will have on the future of the United States.

Sounds pretty sweet. The stated goals are to:

• Celebrate the US as a leader in robotics technology (because we’re falling behind).
• Educate the public about the ongoing social and cultural impact of robotics technology (let’s avoid robomageddon).
• Advocate for increased funding for robotics technology research and development (well, at least their being honest. It’s not like most of iRobot’s funding doesn’t come from this).
• Inspire students of all ages to pursue careers in robotics and other science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) related fields (see the first bullet point).

So, what do you think? Is National Robotics Week worthwhile?