25-Paradigm+shifts

Robotic technology is an emergent field which is growing very fast and its dominant paradigms are shifting slightly. Based on Kuhn’s paradigm shifts, I think robotic technologies and its global viewpoints changing but gradually. Although, the paradigm shifts in robotic technology is not due to crisis and anomalies in its current paradigm, new ideas and theories are made for discovering their new functions on socio psychology. The first dominant paradigm on robots was that robots are compulsory labors and material agencies which are programmed to move and perform hazardous works more quickly and cheaply than nonmaterial agencies, human beings. So in the late 50’s and early 60’s, industrial robots as advanced machines were designed and programmed in order to be used in the factories in high risk positions. So robots were advanced technologies which were studied and designed just by mechanical and robotic engineers. The other first paradigm on robots was their entertainment roles as the best dolls for children. In the 1940-50 a huge paradigm shift in robotic technology occurred as technology scholars such as William Grey Walter struggled to announce robots for reasoning so they started reviewing robots abilities in cognitive and socio psychology fields, so the socio robotic program was coined. The new theory was that robots are autonomous or semi autonomous technologies which can interact with humans. Designing humanoid robots with the physical appearance of human beings and programming them as similar to human beings was the huge advancement in robotic technology. But the intellectual battles of new and past theories and paradigms in robotic technology started as some opponents of humanoid robots believe that robots can never replace human beings. They suppose the existence of humanoid robots in everyday life as staples of science fiction and believe that appearance is not everything. On the other hand, the proponents of humanoid robots and designing anthropomorphous robots believe that designing and making robots as similar to human beings bring intimacy and reduce the distance of humans and machines. Besides to paradigm shifts on the appearance of humanoid robots and designing anthropomorphic robots, there is a paradigm shift in using robots for psychological disorder as the recent endeavor was studying the possible role of autonomous, mobile robots as therapeutic tools for children with autism. So the new theories which are going to discover the functions of robots are that whether robots can be used in the future for the healthcare of humans? Can anthropomorphic robots be therapeutic agents and aid psychiatric clinics in treating people with psychological disorders?