We ask the experts: will robots take over the world?

Robots can do a lot for us: they can explore space or they can cut our toenails. But do advances in robotics and artificial intelligence hold hidden threats? Three leaders in their fields answer questions about our relationships with robots. By the end of the century, the entire solar system - planets, moons and asteroids - will be explored and mapped by flotillas of tiny robotic craft - Martin Rees The origins of robotics go back to the automata invented by ancient civilisations. The word robot entered our vocabulary only in 1920 with Czech writer Karel Capek's play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots). Over the past 20 years robots have been developed to work in settings that range from manufacturing industry to space. At Cambridge University, robotics is a rapidly developing field within many departments, from theoretical physics and computing to engineering and medical science. Lord Martin Rees is Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.