In the ever evolving world of robotics, we see a constant interweaving of new and disruptive technologies. With the newest robotic developments arriving in the form of service and collaborative robots, RoboUniverse Conference & Expo was created this year by MecklerMedia as a platform for end users of this technology.

May 11-13, 2015 marked the inaugural show in New York City. The three day conference was the first of the traveling expo, hitting Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and San Diego next.

The impressive NYC agenda was loaded with influencers from the industry including Rodney Brooks of Rethink Robotics, Colin Angle of iRobot, and our very own ROBO CEO, Travis Briggs. A few of the same themes were repeatedly addressed over the course of the three day conference, suggesting that many areas in the industry are being molded by the same driving forces.

Here’s what the experts had to say about the trending topics in robotics:

EDUCATION AND JOBS

Are you really at a robotics show if the subject of jobs doesn’t come up? The topic is so relevant to the field that the show dedicated a panel to the matter. The job fear at the conference did not lie in robots taking human jobs but rather the lack of training for job positions in robotics.

“One of the biggest problems in robotics is the lack of people we have that are qualified to operate robots on factory floors,” said Dr. Robert Finkelstein, member of the panel and president of Robotics Technology Inc. “There are tons of jobs that can’t be filled.”

In a field that is so often tainted by fears of job loss, the experts made it clear that the deprivation of proper education and training is what we should actually be afraid of.

“We are going to have a pool of labor that doesn’t have the skills to match the pool of labor that we need. The solution is STEM education and robotics knowledge,” said Dennis Kambeitz of EZ-Robot.

SMART CARS

The RoboUniverse conference itself had an entire track of presentations dedicated to Driverless Cars. Time after time, the experts addressed the near immediate arrival of self-driving cars. They did not hesitate to make the prediction that smart cars will be taking over our roads in a matter of a decade.

“Our cars will probably be the first full autonomous robots that we will interact with in our day to day lives,” said Hod Lipson, associate professor at Cornell University, in his presentation about how deep learning developments are completely revolutionizing the progress of driverless cars.

Thanks to extensive machine learning capabilities, robotic cars are already recognizing street signs better than humans. Rather than focusing on the possible philosophical dilemmas, we need to face the facts - machine learning technology makes fewer errors than humans.

INTERACTIVE ROBOTS

With the elderly population on the rise, robotics will be crucial in the continued support of our aging population. From cobots like Baxter helping lighten the workload at small businesses to social robots like Milo that focus on improving the lives of elderly and autistic people, interactive robots are our inevitable future.

The experts are hopeful and extremely excited about the robotics possibilities in our day to day lives. Simple industrial machines on factory floors are the robots of the past. The technology will soon be helping to maintain our homes, doing the dirty, dull and dangerous tasks, and ultimately making our lives easier.

“We are going to have robots that are intimately interacting with us,” said Rodney Brooks, the founder of Rethink Robotics. “So I wish you all a great old age - surrounded by robots.”