Making an assistive robot partner expressive and communicative is likely to make it more satisfying to work with and lead to users trusting it more, even if it makes mistakes, a new study suggests.

If you follow technology news — or even if you don’t — you have probably heard that numerous companies have been trying to develop driverless cars for a decade or more. These fully automated vehicles could potentially be safer than regular cars, and might add various efficiencies to our roads, like smoother-flowing traffic. Or so it is often claimed. But the promise of artificial intelligence, advanced sensors, and self-driving cars could be achieved without full autonomy, argue scholars with deep expertise in automation and technology — including David Mindell, an MIT professor and author of a new book on the subject.

Virtual assistants are setting the bar for the kind of user experience people will expect from the social robots of tomorrow.

Socrates famously said that “the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Yet while we often equate human intelligence with the ability to recognize when help is needed and where to seek it out, most robots are simply not aware enough of their own actions to assess them, let alone ask for help — resulting in task execution failures that shut down production lines, require human intervention and reduce productivity. While occasional robot failures can be tolerated, relying on humans to clean up the mess does not make for a viable business model, especially for small production batch operations or non-repetitive tasks. If robots are to be successfully deployed outside large factory settings, and into small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), they will have to get smarter and learn to ask for help when they are stuck.

The benefits of assistive technologies are well known – reduced inefficiencies, low costs, available 24/7 and much more. But not so well known are the appropriate legal regulations that need to be negotiated in order for much assistive technology to be put to good use. A new interdisciplinary international workshop seeks to cover this terrain, bridging the gap between two very different disciplines.

We have a tall order when it comes to dreaming up a trustworthy care robot: a robot could clean the house, find and fetch objects, and even keep seniors company. But if robots take on so many daily care tasks for the elderly, is it possible that seniors will have to interact with them too much? Is there such a thing as a socially acceptable amount of interaction with a care robot? Let us know what you think as we continue our reader polls about care robots.

Robot surgeons promise to save lives in remote communities, war zones, and disaster-stricken areas. A grant from the National Science Foundation will allow researchers to design the optimum workplace of the future.

The Japanese theater company Seinendan and Ishiguro Laboratory at Osaka University are exploring new dimensions of human-robot-interaction on stage, a new field involving a fusion of theater, arts and science.