Leading Edge - 22/10/2009

Geoff Watts meets robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey and explores the relationship between humans and robots - past, present and future. One day in the early 1940s, a boy playing in the basement of his house discovered a robot; it became his secret playmate. A few years later the robot disappeared, and they didn't meet again for 50 years. The robot, called Elektro, was built by Westinghouse corporation in 1937. Over two metres tall, it was remarkably advanced for the time. Although he was actually intended as a PR stunt, he was designed by some of the finest engineers of the time and represented the forefront of technology. Elektro rapidly became a superstar, and received a rapturous welcome at the New York World's Fair in 1939. For a couple of years he lived the high life - then everything changed. When war came he was packed away and ended up in a basement where the boy found him. After the war, he (the robot that is) fell in with the wrong people and ended up playing a randy robot called Thinko in a 1960 porn movie. After that he disappeared, only to be rediscovered recently by the man, now in his 70s, who had played with it as a child. Robots are now taking on new tasks beyond assembly lines and science fiction films. Can robot nannies look after our child care and befriend the elderly? Should they be left in charge of our weapons systems? The programme also includes a report from the University of Hertfordshire on robot-human interractions. How can robots be made more personable so that, for example, they don't invade our personal space? Might they help to teach social skills to autistic children who cannot relate to other people?