The Question that I propose is: Can insect-like robots perform tasks superior to that of any other style of robot? I am going to prove to you that the answer is yes, of course they can! With their superior stability and many less drawbacks that larger wheeled robots the legged "insects" can out perform even the most powerfully computing machines in many tasks. The applications of these robots are only limited by our imagination.

Many people believe that artificial intelligence and robots should only be for "unthinking and repetitive tasks, or for dangerous but straightforward undertakings" (Economist 83). But as human understanding and intelligence of computer systems and technology progresses the idea of artificial intelligence becomes more of a reality instead of a vision.

Right now a computer can be a matchmaker, a chess champion, and a useful searcher of medical information. And many people and programs are changing that with their leaps and bounds by actually giving the machine senses like a database of knowledge and sight and sound in the forms of a camera and a microphone respectively.

In one case a robot can sense "hunger" by making a decisi

One microbot named Genghis has been a marvel of engineering. With only simple commands the robot acts instinctively to walk, turn, and jump just as if it were full of life. As Genghis walks over obstacles it keeps its balance by pulling legs in and out even as it walks forward. If the robot doesn't lift its leg high enough to clear an obstacle it instinctively pulls it back and then lifts it a second time only higher than the first (Waldrop 963).

The vision of robots with the looks, similarities, and the dexterity of the human body is leaps and bounds away from reality. Many new technologies still have to be developed to achieve this goal even though some are in place as we speak. Robotics in general has a long way to move before it can have a drastic clutch on the term artificial intelligence. The area that is still showing the most promise is the world of microbots

The heir to Genghis is being prototyped to be a mars rover that can walk over the surface like a six-legged insect easily collecting data with its instruments on its three-kilogram frame. But the main advantage to the small robot is that for the same price as a hefty mobile robot you could place a couple of handfuls of the little robots; each of them carrying different instruments so that if one failed you would still have more left to take observations. Another advan

Some common words found in the essay are:
World Question, Communications ACM, Mitchell Fast, Thro Ellen, Artificial Intelligence-Are, Kanade Takeo, CQ Researcher, artificial intelligence, waldrop 963, task completed, leaps bounds,
Approximate Word count = 912
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)