Will robots ever replace attendants? Exploring the current capabilities and future potential of robots in education and rehabilitation.

This article describes the current capabilities and future potential of robots designed as supplements or replacements for human assistants or as tools for education and rehabilitation. A number of researchers have developed and tested a variety of robot assistants for individuals with disabilities. These robots can usually be classified as educational, vocational or independent-living assistants. Robots in all three categories are reviewed. A brief summary of the critical characteristics of human service robots is also presented and the limitations of current technology are discussed. Finally, current research aimed at addressing these limitations is described. White robots of all kinds have proven much more difficult to develop than people had expected, we conclude that it will eventually be possible to create an effective, reliable robot for human service tasks, but not as quickly as was predicted in the early 1980s.