Imagine a world in which robots can teach children, patrol borders, spoonfeed frail elderly people, even remove an injured soldier from the battlefield to an operating theatre – and then perform surgery on him. We are in that world. Rapid advances in robotics mean that robots are now capable of doing all this and much more.

Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, says: “Nanotechnology has reduced sensors and electronics to such a small scale that you can pack much more on to a robot now. It is a matter of creativity: think of any menial task and you can probably get a robot to do it.”

Sharkey, who was chief judge on the television show Robot Wars, says the developments in service robots are particularly exciting. “People will be familiar with industrial robots: big arms that paint cars, for example. There are about 1.2 million industrial robots on the planet. Service robots have only really been around in this millennium but there are 4.5 million already and there could be 11 million within the next two years.”

Given the pace of development, it is more important than ever to consider the social and moral implications of robots. Japan, which has a rapidly ageing population, is keen to develop robots to care for the elderly. Is it morally acceptable to remove human interaction from the care of older people if it enables them to live in their own homes longer?

The biggest employer of roboticists is the military. Sharkey says there are 6,000 robots on the ground in Iraq – mainly used for “good reasons” such as roadside bomb disposal. “There are some armed robots but they haven’t been used yet,” he adds.

The boundaries between robotics and other disciplines are breaking down. One of the growth areas is human robotic interaction. Studying robotics can involve engineering, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, artificial intelligence and computer science.

Chris Melhuish, director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, says robotics can open the door to careers in the automation, medical, leisure, transport and defence industries. “If you have a qualification in robotics then I think you will be a very attractive person to employers. Robotics requires a fusion of disciplines ranging from mechatronics and artificial intelligence to software and control theory.”

As new applications emerge, robotics will provide chances for people who do not necessarily have a solid engineering background, he adds.

Antonio Espingardeiro has just completed an MSc in robotics and automation at the University of Salford. His childhood passion for computer games and science fiction led to an undergraduate degree in computer science. During the final year he developed a software application to control a small robotic car and became hooked on robotics.

He says: “I believe that in 30 years’ time robots will be a big part of our economy and society. I want to explore their social integration: how we can use robots to provide a better quality of life. If we are going to live with robots we have to think about how we are going to manage these machines and what kind of intelligence we are willing to give them.”

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