Futures: Robots

Current usage in organisation. Potential for increased usage. Will they concern information systems? Could we be taking helpdesk calls from robots? Robots may not seem to be a concern for information system managers, but as robot take roles in companies and connect to the Internet to deliver and extract information, their maintenance, both in physical and informational terms may become a responsibility of IT management.

Question: Define what a robot is and give some example of robots in organisation. Particularly address the concept of the robot as an IT service worker. Using the example of the EU Roboearth project, explain how robots can interact with each other using the cloud and can provide information of use in information systems management. Suggest some principles that might need to be addressed in managing robots in the organisation.