ACE is a robot that will find humans, ask for directions, even interpret the pointing gestures of silly humans to find its way. He even says thank you before going on his way. With ACE, German scientists have shown that robots lost in urban areas don’t need to rely on their own faculties to get from place to place.

This is the real world that the robot is roaming, not a controlled environment. After 5 hours and 38 interactions, ACE reached its destination. So it is actively gathering and using real world data to find it’s way. It doesn’t seem very efficient, but it’s a huge step. As they say, knowledge is power. I’d much rather have a robot that is able to adapt then a dumb machine following a route.