Robots will become part of daily life

Technology's interdisciplinary nature will help foster robotics advancements, the panelists said. The consumer space will create the need for cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) with better batteries and these innovations will eventually be adapted to fit the robotics industry, Theobald said.

Meanwhile, developments in multicore computing and storage advancements have already affected robot development.

"Quad-core computing helps because each core handles a task," Mick Mountz, CEO of Kiva Systems, which builds robots that deal with tasks like moving goods in warehouses. Brooks said that storage is no longer a problem and noted how a single iPod could eventually hold all the books in the U.S. Library of Congress.

While the prospect of robots containing flash memory, several processors and hybrid batteries may imply a price beyond the budget of some companies and most consumers, Brooks countered this point.

"Robots should get faster and cheaper over time given how robot component prices have pretty much stayed constant," he said.

Technology will not be the sole driver of robotics innovation, said one panelist.

"Biology systems are great models for robotic systems," Theobald said. "It is interesting to think about how it could all come together."

Her company considered using muscle tissue in a robot. However, this would require blood to nourish the muscle and Vecna questioned the implications of sending robots that bleed into combat.

With robots already being used by enterprises, next up is the consumer market, where use of the devices will help them evolve.

"Consumer-driven growth is a great driver for robots," Hofmeister said. "In long-term evolution, the killer app with robots is taking over greater consumer issues."