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My Robot Friends

The Inventors and Innovators in Robotics and AI

My Robot Friends cover

My Robot Friends

The Inventors and Innovators in Robotics and AI

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Description

Meet the innovators who have shaped our shared future with robots and AI-powered companions

Robotics and artificial intelligence are reshaping our lives at a pace that is both awe-inspiring and daunting. Humanoid robot funding has nearly quadrupled in recent years, drones fill the skies, and a wave of bots now inhabit our digital spaces. In this new era, everyone seems to be talking about how to use this technology and its benefits and pitfalls. But they fail to go behind the scenes of the robotics and AI revolution to share the stories of the people building it.

In My Robot Friends, Dr. Laura Scherling provides fascinating insight into robotics and AI by profiling eight pioneering individuals across four continents. Drawing on original, in-depth interviews, Scherling explores the lives and careers of the innovators who created chatbots long before ChatGPT, built human-like androids, developed the military PackBot, built the first drone in central Africa, developed carebots that support older adults, and more.

Through the stories of these impactful inventors, engineers, and designers, My Robot Friends shows how robotics and AI are changing companionship, caregiving, security, and human identity-and asks what guardrails responsible technology now needs. Written in a narrative style and grounded in the innovators' personal perspectives, historical research, and academic literature, it offers readers a human portrait of emerging technologies that will shape the rest of the century.

Accessibility Information

Additional accessibility information

  • EPUB 3.0
  • Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
  • WCAG level AA
  • WCAG v2.2 compliant
  • accessibility@bloomsbury.com

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Foreword

PART I: The Convergence of Robotics and AI
1: Hiroshi Ishiguro and the Android in the Mirror
2: Rollo Carpenter and the Cleverest Bot

PART II: A Personal and Mobile Robotics Revolution
3: Helen Greiner and a Mobile Robotics Revolution
4: William Elong and the First Made-In-Cameroon Drone

PART III: The Rise of Caregiving Robots
5: Cory Kidd and the Robot Caregivers
6: Hyodol, an AI-Powered Grandchild

PART IV: The Evolution of Robotics, Creativity, and Art
7: Madeline Gannon and the Art of Robot Whispering
8: Moon Ribas, Cyborg Artist

Glossary
Index
About the Author

Product details

Published 10 Jun 2027
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 208
ISBN 9798216449935
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Laura S. Scherling

Laura S. Scherling, EdD, is a designer, researcher…

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