Actualizing dreams: Commercialization of civil robotics

In common with other emerging technologies such as information technology, nanotechnology, green technology and biotechnology, robotic technology has been expected to bring bright future to human beings for several decades. Commercially, in several applications including industrial robots and special purpose robots for military and exploration, the innovative technologies have been commercialized actively. Nevertheless, in the view of technology commercialization, the development of robotics as a real-life technology has seemed to be tardier than the general public´s expectation for recent years. The goal of this paper is to explore what the main obstacles are in the commercialization of robotics technology, and what the possible solutions to surmount the obstacles are. To respond to these questions, first of all, this paper defines recent and future markets of real-life robotics. And then, the critical technologies which need to be developed prior to the commercialization are studied. By extension, this paper analyzes the levels and bottleneck issues of each technology mentioned above.