A week after the World Trade Center disaster, I drove from New York City to Somerville, Mass., to visit the offices of iRobot, one of the country's leading robotics companies. I'd originally planned to fly there, but with the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11 fresh in my mind, I decided it would be prudent to rent a car. As I drove down the Massachusetts Turnpike, gazing at the American flags that hung from nearly every overpass, it seemed quite clear that traveling across the U.S., whether for business or for pleasure, would be more arduous and anxiety-provoking from now on. Coincidentally, this issue was related to the purpose of my trip:

I was evaluating a new kind of

This article was originally published with the title Long-Distance Robots.

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