Tuesday, February 22

The Robot Army

From this Manila Bulletin Online article:

"Here’s a very interesting story from the New York Times that might well turn a reel story the likes of the Terminator series and I, Robot to real life. The article relates the American military’s development of new generation soldiers – soldiers that do not get hungry, do not know no fear, do not forget orders, do not care if the guy next to them gets shot, and do better than humans. Think robot soldiers, but not as human-like as those in the movies I mentioned."

Wednesday, February 16

Should Robots Have Rights?

"AT SOME POINT IN THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT FUTURE, we might actually face a sentient, intelligent machine who demands, or who many come to believe deserves, some form of legal protection. The plausibility of this occurrence is an extremely touchy subject in the artificial intelligence field, particularly since overoptimism and speculation about the future has often embarrassed the movement in the past.

The legal community has been reluctant to look into the question as well. According to Christopher Stone, a University of Southern California law professor who briefly raised the issue in his well-known 1972 essay, 'Should Trees Have Standing?,' this is because, historically, rights have rarely been granted in abstraction. They have come only when society has been confronted with cases in need of adjudication. At the moment, there is no artifact of sufficient intelligence, consciousness, or moral agency to grant legislative or judicial urgency to the question of rights for artificial intelligence.

But some A.I. researchers believe that moment might not be far off. And as their creations begin to display a growing number of human attributes and capabilities�as computers write poems and serve as caretakers and receptionists�these researchers have begun to explore the ethical and legal status of their creations. 'Strong A.I.' is the theory that machines can be built that will not merely act as if conscious, but will actually be conscious, and advocates of this view envision a two-front assault on the fortress of human exceptionalism involving both the physical and functional properties of the brain. And these researchers predict a breach within the next half-century. "

From Legal Affairs - Man and the Machines via this IPTAblog post.

Thursday, February 10

Elektro, the First True U.S. Robot


elektro
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.
"If you happen to be around Ohio this coming fall, don't miss an exhibit at the Mansfield Memorial Museum featuring the 7-foot-tall Elektro, the oldest U.S. robot with its 65 years. 'Elektro is the only survivor of a group of eight robots created by Westinghouse in Mansfield between 1931 to 1940 for several hundred thousand dollars each'...

Back in 1939, Elektro was able to walk, talk, raise and lower his arms, turn his head and move his mouth as he spoke. It used a 78-rpm record player to simulate conversation and had a vocabulary of more than 700 words.Thousands of people enjoyed Elektro at the New York World's Fair in 1939. It even appeared in a long-time forgotten movie, "Sex Kittens Go to College," also known as "The Beauty and the Robot."...

'Elektro was the first true robot ever built in the United States,' said museum director, Scott Schaut. 'Built in total secrecy by Westinghouse, Elektro was promoted as the ultimate appliance. In fact, it was thought that Elektro would one day be able to cook, do laundry and entertain the children.'"

Read more here.

Wednesday, February 9

William 'Red' Whittaker: A Man and His Machines

From an interesting profile of William “Red” Whittaker, now the Fredkin Professor of Robotics at The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University:

"Ideas for robotic creations come to Whittaker from various sources. The motivation for Groundhog, a robot that maps abandoned mines, came after the 2002 Pennsylvania coal mining accident that trapped nine workers underground for 77 hours. Whittaker wanted to develop a tool that would help remove human risk from the industry. In another effort to remove humans from risk, he has worked on developing robots that can explore the radioactive remains of nuclear power plants.

Other ideas come from observing animals in nature, as can be seen in his rugged terrain exploring creation, Ambler. Ambler’s eight-legged design was born from the animal world, but has been modified to use an energy-efficient overlapping gait that is more efficient than anything in the animal world.

'Motivations are in the events of our time – a Chernobyl or a mine entrapment. You can almost read the daily headlines and see the motivations,' said Whittaker of the sources for his ideas. 'Another great one is exploration, and the idea that there is still so much to be discovered in this world and worlds beyond.'”

Tuesday, February 8

Thinking Robot A Step Closer

"A pioneering new way of creating computer programs could be used in the future to design and build robots with minds that function like that of a human being, according to a leading researcher at The University of Reading.

Dr James Anderson, of the University’s Department of Computer Science, has developed for the first time the ‘perspective simplex’, or Perspex, which is a way of writing a computer program as a geometrical structure, rather than as a series of instructions.

Not only does the invention of the Perspex make it theoretically possible for us to develop robots with minds that learn and develop, it also provides us with clues to answer the philosophical conundrum of how minds relate to bodies in living beings."

From this press release from the University of Reading.

Friday, February 4

Trickle Down Robotics


SHERPA1
Originally uploaded by TigerTigerTiger.
The latest edition of TEQ Online the ezine of the Pittsburgh Technology Council contains a profile of Jorgen Pederson founder of resquared (Robotics Engineering Excellence) whose SHERPA robot is pictured here. Pederson is quoted in the article:

"'We don't yet understand exactly how the human brain works or how we seem to do things with such ease,' he says. 'Things that are easy for us are very complicated for a robot.' Pedersen gives the example of simple object recognition, a task that can require a monumental feat of programming in robotics. 'Most of the challenges for the robotics industry still lie there, in being able to better understand the cognitive processes of the human being,' Pedersen says, adding that better, faster, cheaper, smaller technical inventions can only take robotic innovations so far.

With billions of dollars going into new efforts to put unmanned vehicles in the military, Pedersen feels a focus on defense applications is one of the best ways to achieve a 'trickle down effect' for robotics applications. 'The Internet evolved similarly, with a kick- start in the military,' he explains. 'As the technology matures, it gets passed down into the commercial sector.'"

Wednesday, February 2

How Military Robots Work

"The U.S. military has been developing robotic systems for all sorts of jobs for years now, and some of them are even on the front lines in Iraq. In this article [from Howstuffworks], we'll meet some of the military's latest robot soldiers, find out what sorts of jobs they can do and get a glimpse of what the future holds for military robots. "

How Robots Work

"On the most basic level, human beings are made up of five major components:

A body structure
A muscle system to move the body structure
A sensory system that receives information about the body and the surrounding environment
A power source to activate the muscles and sensors
A brain system that processes sensory information and tells the muscles what to do

Of course, we also have some intangible attributes, such as intelligence and morality, but on the sheer physical level, the list above about covers it.

A robot is made up of the very same components. A typical robot has a movable physical structure, a motor of some sort, a sensor system, a power supply and a computer 'brain' that controls all of these elements. Essentially, robots are man-made versions of animal life -- they are machines that replicate human and animal behavior."

This article from Howstuffworks explores the basic concept of robotics and how robots do what they do.