Why does it seem like robotics is always niche and not practical yet? It seems like robotics is perennially on the cusp of being the next big thing, but never really is.
(I'd qualify that robotics are the old big thing in industrial manufacturing, though.)
A modern tractor is a phenomenally complex machine, capable of fully autonomous operation with millimetre precision. The system is guided by a complex set of 3D soil maps based on moisture holding capacity, compaction and texture, root formation and a multitude of other factors. Each square foot of field receives precisely controlled amounts of water, fertiliser and pesticide. Nobody calls it robotics or AI, because it works.
disclaimer: I have a Ph.D. in Robotics from CMU.
AI is similar: in the 1960s, it seemed machine translation was "just around the corner," but it turned out to not be practical for a long time. Until it was, in the 2000s or so.
AFAIK the real breakthrough wasn't that technology just got better, but that the whole paradigm shifted to statistical machine translation in the early 90s, and the whole paradigm is changing again from phrase-based statistical translation to neural network-based translations.
The shift to neural nets can be somewhat attributed to increased compute capacity, but it's not an automatic result of it.
I have no idea what the state of the art is in robotics, but I expect there will be some fundamental changes to how we do robotics before it becomes a break-out success.
I think this stuff should be taught in schools.
From Mossberg's POV industrial computing and industrial robotics are already ambient and invisible. Not everyone needs a professional understanding of how they work, but some basic clue wouldn't be bad.
Robots are not well defined, but I think at the minimum they imply the ability to be reconfigured for a large number of physical tasks that involve interactions with an environment.
When most people think 'robot', they think of something with human or animal-like elements. So for example a rolling delivery or security drone would be a robot, but an automated car would not.
Would you consider the relay in your internet connected smart bulb a robot?
Maybe it needs to also move to be considered...
Could the remote controlled computer and motor that pushes your car window up and down be considered a robot?
Maybe it needs some AI then...
What about the Nest brain to your house that switches all manner of things on and off to you liking?
Semi autonomous teslas, vending machines, drones, roombas, parking garage entries, energy efficient elevators....
Robots are fundamentally control systems, and they are absolutely everywhere. They just don't look like a T-800 (o;