It is a crazy world we live in, which is not that surprising if you think about it considering there are 7.5 billion of us. This large number allows us to work in several areas simultaneously so that we can march towards the future on full throttle.

There is so much stuff happening in the world that we can’t possibly cover everything, even though we live in the age of information and it is at the palm of our hands. 

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One such area is robotics. We have been fascinated with their portrayals in different movies and can’t wait for the real world to catch up. A lot of researchers throughout the world are working day and night to achieve just that.

In fact, in only the last 5 years, robotics has come a long way and suddenly robots are starting to become more like humans in terms of their abilities and in some cases in terms of their looks. Let’s look at just how that is happening.

1. Robots Can Now Create Art

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We have always thought that creativity is something that is unique to us. We have great painters, musicians, composers, designers who can create a thing of beauty that never existed before and up until now we thought only we could do it.

But now, researchers have given this ability to create something to a robot. That’s correct. Emily Howell is a computer program that can compose its own music derived from a source database adding its own personal style to it. If you want to listen to one of it's composition, Click Here.

Another example is that of “The Painting Fool” which is a computer program that can make paintings and portraits based on its mood and also assess its work and later learn from its mistakes. The photos above are only some of its creations!

2. Robots Can Learn Like Humans

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There are several technique that our brains use to learn new things right from the time we are babies. Sometimes we learn through hit and trial and sometimes we use visualisations to try out new things, essentially learning them in the process.

The same ability has been given to a toddler sized robot that learns to walk by ‘imagining’ movement before trying it out. This robot has learned to stand, move and walk all by itself pretty much like a real toddler.

One of the most important things here is that the engineers behind this robot have developed a simulated neural networks that give it its abilities of imagining things before trying them out which is basically mimicking the real thing.

3. Robots Are Beginning To Look Like Humans

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We have always tried to design robots in our images with two legs, arms, head, eyes and a torso. The reason behind it is two folds. One is that it looks more natural and other is that our bodies have been able to work in extreme environments and there are a multitude of activities that our bodies can perform.

So, it is natural that we would want our creations to look more like us. Up until now, it was limited to the shape and size of the robots but now researchers are going one step further to give these robots skin, eyes, hair, facial expressions and what not.

Chinese inventors unveiled Jia Jia some months ago that look very much like a real human. Jia Jia can speak and show micro-expressions by moving its lips and body. The photo above is of Jia Jia. Isn’t she life like?

4. A Robot Scientist Named Adam

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Yes, robots can apparently science now. Adam is a robot scientist or a laboratory robot as its creators like to call it. If you think that it just aids the real scientists in their jobs, you are wrong. It literally is a scientist. Wrap your head around that!

Adam is able to conduct independent experiments to test hypotheses and also interpret findings, either proving or discarding them without any human guidance whatsoever. In fact it can devise the said experiments itself!

One funny thing is that it can use other laboratory robotics to physically run the experiments that it needs to. In fact, it is producing usable results meaning that it is adding to the sum total of human knowledge. A robot adding to our knowledge base for us. Cool!