Vision. Computer vision keeps getting better. Depth sensors are widely available. Interpretation of 3D scenes kind of works. A decade ago, the state of the art was aligning an IC over the right spot and a board and putting it in place.
> What I don think is much improved in the last decade is the infrastructure and vendor ecosystem - you can get a lot done no with commodity and near-commodity components, there is less need to start "from scratch" to do useful things.
Very true. Motors with sensors and motor controllers alone used to be expensive, exotic items. I once talked to a sales rep from a small industrial motor company that had just started making controllers. He told me that they'd done that because the motor and the controller cost about the same to make but the controller had 10x the markup.
