Theme 2: Exploration
Robots make excellent explorers. Robots can be used to explore environments too dangerous for humans, such as the edges of volcanoes, the depths of the oceans, or outer space. Indeed, unmanned, robotic spacecraft have been exploring the planets and moons of the solar system since the 1960s. Robot planetary rovers Sojourner, and more recently Spirit and Opportunity have pioneered the exploration of the Martian surface.
Robots can also be used for a different kind of exploration. Since the development of biologically inspired robotics, or Artificial Life, robots are becoming increasingly important as working models for the study of life. Although at a very early stage laboratory robots allow us to test ideas about biology, for example how particular parts of an animal's senses or brain might work, by building working artificial models. At the boundaries of science, robots are exploring the nature of intelligence and consciousness.