From iRobot.com

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In 1973, the now nearly-sainted Michael Jackson first popularized the dance “The Robot” with the Jackson Five’s hit “Dancing Machine.” In 1984, the first Terminator movie hit theaters, with humans pitted against robots from the future.

In 2009 — right now — robots are, in fact, moving into more and more facets of life, from cleaning gutters to making war.

My guest today, iRobot CEO Colin Angle, says robots won’t take over the world, but they will merge with us. In fact, he says, they already are.

This hour, On Point: iRobot’s co-founder, and the future of the robotic world.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

We’re joined in our studio by Colin Angle, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of iRobot. iRobot produces – among other products – the popular floor-vacuuming “Roomba” robot, and the military “PackBot” robot, in wide use by the U.S. Armed Forces. Colin is one of the world’s leading experts on mobile robots, and formerly worked at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

More:

You can watch a number of videos of iRobot products on the company’s YouTube channel. Here are a couple we liked: a prototype of the iRobot Warrior and a “flying” iRobot PackBot.

Robotic Mars exploration has been no picnic. Half of all Mars missions have ended in failure. But right now, the Mars Phoenix Lander is up there, well-landed, sending back astonishing images, and — it appears — shaking off its problems extending the eight-foot arm that will dig for ice.

The Phoenix is looking for conditions that would support life on Mars. But the bigger search for life “out there” goes way beyond the Martian north pole, to “weird life” and “exoplanets.”

This hour, On Point: The Phoenix has landed: the new mission to Mars, and the search for life beyond Earth.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Peter Smith, principal investigator and project leader of the Phoenix Mars Mission and a scientist at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and associate professor of physics at MIT.

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.