Intelligence Technology for Robots That Think [Application Notes]

The ability to think has been one of the most fascinating features of robots in science fiction since the introduction of the word ´robot´ by Karel Capek in his Czech science fiction play, known as ´Rossum´s Universal Robots´ in English [1]. Since Capek´s first depiction in 1921, science fictionists generally portray robots as intelligent humanoid machines that are subservient to humans. Android is another term used for such robots in modern linguistics. However, the development of robots with the ability to think has largely been a fantasy for robot scientists and engineers. Nevertheless, the evolution of robots has come a long way since the first industrial robot ´Unimate´ in 1954. Robots have transformed from large automated manufacturing facilities to applications in our homes and even into our pockets as software robots in our PDAs and smart phones [2], [3]. This paper classifies robot intelligence into six categories: cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, behavioral intelligence, ambient intelligence, collective intelligence and genetic intelligence. This classification categorizes the intelligence of robots based on the different aspects of awareness and the ability to act deliberately as a result of such awareness.