The United States is completely dropping the ball in the funding of robotics research to the point of endangering the future of our nation. Whereas we lead the field in some things we are very far behind in others and it is at the point that if we do not play catch up, we will put our nation’s national security at severe risk. This is coupled with the fact that we do not have enough children entering the math and science arenas.
Although recently with the DARPA Grand Challenge and robotics competitions in High Schools and Colleges we have made some headway, but lack of funding is undermining our future needs as a sovereign country.
The National Science Foundation, which has funded robotics research in the past is now putting less than 10-million a year in funding now. That is a national tragedy and a disgrace. To all we are and all we have built in this great country. A country founded on entrepreneurialism and innovation and it is a slap in the face to the forward progression of mankind. Some deny that the US lags other nations, but it takes only one look at Japan’s robotic research, white papers and commercial android like robotics to see, we are behind in many ways.
