How to Colonize an Asteroid
Autonomus robots are machines which function on their own, without human intervention. Except for a few experiments, this technology has a ways to go before it will live up to it's promise, but there are those who are working on it.
An autonomus robot must have enough intelligence to be able to survive in an environment without human intervention, and this level of intelligence currently takes computers which are much too large to be practical. This may change soon, considering the rapid strides which are being made by the computer industry.