Recently the robotics industry celebrated its 60-year anniversary. We have used robots for more than six decades to empower people to do things that are typically dirty, dull and/or dangerous. The industry has progressed significantly over the period from basic mechanical assist systems to fully autonomous cars, environmental monitoring and exploration of outer space. We have seen tremendous adoption of IT technology in our daily lives for a diverse set of support tasks. Through use of robots we are starting to see a new revolution, as we not only will have IT support from tablets, phones, computers but also systems that can physically interact with the world and assist with daily tasks, work, and leisure activities. The "old" robot systems were largely mechanical support systems. Through the gradual availability of inexpensive computing, user interfaces, and sensors it is possible to build robot systems that were difficult to imagine before. The confluence of technologies is enabling a revolution in use and adoption of robot technologies for all aspects of daily life. Thirteen years ago, the process to formulate a roadmap was initiated at the Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) conference in Atlanta. Through support from the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) a roadmap was produced by a group of 120 people from industry and academia. The roadmap has been updated 2013 and 2016 prior to this update. The present document is a summary of the main societal opportunities identified, the associated challenges to deliver desired solutions and a presentation of efforts to be undertaken to ensure that US will continue to be a leader in robotics both in terms of research innovation, adoption of the latest technology, and adoption of appropriate policy frameworks that ensure that the technology is utilized in a responsible fashion.

This collection of essays by 12 members of the MIT staff, provides an inside report on the scope and expectations of current research in one of the world's major AI centers. The chapters on artificial intelligence, expert systems, vision, robotics, and natural language provide both a broad overview of current areas of activity and an assessment of the field at a time of great public interest and rapid technological progress. Contents Artificial Intelligence, Patrick H. Winston and Karen Prendergast * KnowledgeBased Systems, Randall Davis * Expert-System Tools and Techniques, Peter Szolovits * Medical Diagnosis: Evolution of Systems Building Expertise, Ramesh S. Patil * Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering, Charles Rich and Richard C. Waters * Intelligent Natural Language Processing, Robert C. Berwick * Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding, Victor Zue * Robot Programming and Artificial Intelligence, Tomas Lozano-Perez * Robot Hands and Tactile Sensing, John M. Hollerbach * Intelligent Vision, Michael Brady * Making Robots See, W. Eric L. Grimson * Autonomous Mobile Robots, Rodney A. Brooks AI in the 1980s and Beyond is included in the Artificial Intelligence Series, edited by Patrick H. Winston and Michael Brady.