ABSTRACT
A lready mankind has begun to embrace the “robot society.” In 2005 thegovernment of South Korea announced its intention to have a robot in every household by 2020. And the Japanese Robot Association predicts that Next Generation Robots will generate up to $ 65 billion of economic
activity by 2025. Also in Japan efforts have been under way for some time to ensure that, before long, elderly members of the population will routinely have robots to take care of them. Meanwhile, at many universities and other research centres, robots of just about every flavour are a hot topic.
