Some simple robots are being used for dangerous jobs such as fire fighting, search and rescue missions and for military purposes. As robots become more advanced, they will need only the simplest emotions, started with such practical ones as fear of heights or concern about bumping into things. With time as these robots gain in capability, they will come to possess full fledged emotions: fear and anxiety when in a dangerous situation, pleasure when accomplishing a desired goal, pride in the quality of their work, and obedience to their owners.

How will my toaster even get better, by making toast the way I prefer,unless it has some pride? Without pride in the quality of our actions, why

would we endeavor to do better. Machines will not be smart and sensible until they have both intelligence and emotions. Emotions enable us to translate intelligence into action.

Suppose we wish to build a robot capable of living in the home, wandering about, fitting comfortably into the family- what would it do?

When asked this question, most people first think of handing over their daily chores. Everyone seems to want a robot that will do the dishes or the laundry. Actually today’s dishwashers and clothes washers and dryers could be considered to be very simple, special purpose robots, but people really have in mind is something that will go around the house collect

the dirty dishes and clothes, sort and wash them, and put them back in there proper places. All of these tasks are quite difficult, beyond the capabilities of the first generation of robots. Sony has announced this is the decade of the robot. Stating, “The 1980s was the decade of the pc, the 90s of the Internet, but this decade will be the decade of the robot”. Even if they are a little presumptuous, I believe robots will blossom forth during the first half of this century.

Robots will take many forms. I can image a family of robot appliances in the kitchen-refrigerator, panty, coffeemaker, cooking and dishwasher robots- all configured to communicate with each other and to transfer food dishes and utensils back and forth. The