Op-Ed: Robots Among Us

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I was watching an episode of the Agenda, which featured an interview with science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer discussing his new book Rollback, and became inspired by his words about the growing role of robots in our society, envisioning a not-so-distant future where they are part of our everyday lives.

In the News

One does not need to search very far to find evidence of robots everywhere in our daily lives and if you want proof, just do a quick search in Digital Journal to see the variety of stories touching on the inspiring and also the bizarre.

An excellent example of the changes in modern human psyche when it comes to our relationship with robots and the embracing of technology is a provocative report by Bart B. Van Bockstaele on David Levy's thesis “Intimate relationships with artificial partners.”

Vote it up! Twendy-One is a robot that speaks and helps out around the house. - Photo courtesy twendyone.com

A highly sophisticated robot from Japan, named Twendy-One, is described in an article by cgull. Designed to help take care of the elderly, it is capable of assisting a person out of bed, chatting with them as well as preparing and serving meals.



With an aging population, and a talent for high tech, the Japanese are taking health care technology to the next level. Examples include practical devices such as Sanyo's human washing machines or robots designed for human companionship and basic communications, such as Mitsubishi's Wakamaru.

Vote it up! Wakamaru Robots

Toyota has been endeavouring to promote the widespread use of robots in everyday life, showing off its variety of robots, including a violin playing model described by David Silverberg.

Vote it up! Toyota's Violin Playing Robot

Another sophisticated robot in the news, written about by momentsintime was Kansei, created at Meiji University's School of Science and Technology, which can react with realistic facial expressions when an impressive self-updating list of 500,000 possible keywords are mentioned.



Leah informed us that there is also a childlike model by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, known as CB2, with a biometric silicone body, designed to imitate the body language of a toddler.

Vote it up! CB2

Let us not forget the robot muscle suit that DJ's own robot museinspiredart wrote about, having a look at a website describing Dr. Keijirou Yamamoto's Wearable Power Assist Suit, it's not quite a proper mecha (a la Anime) yet, but the possibilities ten years into the future are beginning to look incredible.



In the Workplace

Robot equipment is already used in manufacturing, but we may not be expecting to see them inside an office environment, until you find out that a company called People Staff, a major temporary staffing agency from Japan has hired 10 Wakamara robots. Yes you heard me right, pinktentacle.com reported that the human resources agency has them at their disposal for use as dispatch workers. They can be hired out for about $1000 per day and are capable of recognizing faces, having simple conversations with their 10,000 word vocabulary and performing simple manual tasks.

Honda's ASIMO robots, which look like little spacemen are highly advanced with technology that allows them to act autonomously. They move with grace, are able to step out of the way of oncoming human traffic and can perform useful tasks, such as carrying a tray or pushing a cart. They even know when to charge themselves up when their battery is getting low. Robot enthusiasts must check out the ASIMO website that Honda has devoted to their creation, as they continue to develop new features and take them on a world promotional tour. All kinds of cool videos and pictures of the ASIMO robots in action can be found there.

Vote it up! Two ASIMO robots serving refreshments in coordination

Robots you can buy

Even though these robots and gear already mentioned sound great, they are quite expensive today. Wakamaru costs $14,260, plus monthly maintenance. Sanyo's human washing machines cost $50,000, but in Japan this is approximately equal to the annual wages of two Filipino nurses. With the Japanese government's push for home care for the elderly, these kinds of expenses are considered to be absorbed and are more than a hint of the direction that the country is taking. Twendy-One is expected to cost $200,000 and won't be available until 2015, but by that time, we can only imagine the competition from other manufacturers getting into the game.

Fortunately for normal people seeking robots, productdose.com put together a list of top ten robots that you can buy. Many of the items are toys of course, kids have most of the fun, but then there is the Roomba robot vacuum, that keeps your house clean. Unfortunately it doesn't do stairs, but how cool is that anyways?

Vote it up! Roomba

Then there is ZMP Nuvo, a 15" tall robot companion that responds to 50 spoken commands, such as telling you the time, when you ask, or coming when you call. It also has a digital camera in its head and a wireless LAN transmitter that can send images to your cell phone.

Vote it up! ZMP Nuvo

White Box Robotics 914 PC-Bot is a good example of an R2D2 type bot, capable of moving around, but also a fully functional computer. It's pricier than most laptops, but hey at least you can teach it to navigate its way around your house. It seems to have been designed with geeks in mind, who can develop the software using the application development platform. There are also loads of add on parts that can be purchased for it.



For the robotics enthusiast, the Balbot Advanced development kit is even cheaper than the PC-Bot and is a self balancing robot, ready for the ingenuity of its owner to turn it into a fully functional creation.



Robots in Space

One cannot really talk about robots in completion without mentioning the complex creations that we send into space. From the Robot Arm of the Space Shuttle to the Mars Rovers, to space probes sent to the outer reaches of our solar system, billions of dollars go into research and development of our mechanical extensions of the senses.

For 25 years, since the second shuttle mission, the Canadaarm Robot Arm has been providing the 'brawn' to lift heavy equipment and the 'delicate touch' to perform precision tasks.

The arm has six joints – two in the shoulder, one at the elbow and three in the wrist. It’s hollow – on Earth it wouldn’t be able to support even its own weight. But in space it can lift more than 586,000 pounds. Thanks to some upgrades, the 50-foot-long arm is accurate enough to put a peg in a hole given 60/1000 of an inch in clearance.

In the cold vacuum of space, manipulation robots are very important and the Canadaarm will be remembered as one of the pioneers.

Vote it up! Canadarm Robotic Arm

The twin Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been acting as our robotic geologists, a sensory extension of ourselves, searching for answers about the history of water on the red planet. Spirit landed on Mars on January 3rd PST and Opportunity landed on January 24 PST, 2004 Earth time. They recently celebrated a fourth anniversary of tirelessly searching for and characterizing the rocks and soil of the Mars surface.

Vote it up! Mars Rover

The Dark Side

The future of robots among us does not always fill us with inspiration, unless perhaps you are the winner of a lucrative defense contract, paid to design robots that can kill. While the Japanese are busy developing care for their elderly, the U.S. Pentagon is spending billions on replacing human soldiers with machines.

Using robotics in war is nothing new, the Goliath tracked mines were remote control devices, used by the Germans in World War II to perform tasks such as destroying tanks, demolishing buildings and of course infantry.

Vote it up! British Soldiers with captured Goliath Tracked Mines

The Dutch developed the Goalkeeper CIWS (Close In Weapon System) for use on ships or airfields in 1979, which uses radar to track the trajectory of incoming missiles or ballistic shells and then attempts to destroy them with its auto cannon.

Vote it up! Goalkeeper CIWS

In the modern age of technology the robots that are being used in the battlefield today and designed for the future offer possibilities that are approaching the realm of science fiction.

The robots being built by the U.S. Future Combat Systems program range from those that are designed to assist soldiers in dangerous situations, to reconnaissance, to those that can be used to kill a human.

iRobot, the same manufacturer of the Roomba vacuum makes Small Unmanned Ground Vehicles. The SUGV is a tactical reconnaissance robot designed to assist soldiers by accessing dangerous or otherwise inaccessible locations. In recent news, the testing of 25 SUGV robots has been accelerated in order to make them available to soldiers in the field as early as possible.

Vote it up! The SUGV

The BEAR robot by Vecna Technologies, with its teddy bear shaped head, powerful upper body and tracked legs would be a welcome sight to wounded soldiers, as it is designed to carry them from the battlefield.

Vote it up! BEAR Robot

Not everything being developed is intended to save lives, although the replacement of human soldiers in the battlefield is undoubtedly the persuasive argument that will be used to justify spending billions more on weapons that can wield war without tears.

Since 1995, the U.S. Air Force has been using the MQ-1 Predator system, which consists of four remote controlled aircraft with sensors, a ground station, satellite communication link and 55 ground crew. They have been used in combat over Afghanistan, Bosnia, Serbia, Iraq, and Yemen.

Vote it up! An Armed MQ-1 Predator

Foster-Miller has developed the popular TALON bots capable of both reconnaissance and combat, deployed since 2000 in Bosnia and was even used for search and recovery at Ground Zero after the September 11th tragedy. They have been used since the beginning of the war in Iraq, saving lives with their bomb diffusal capabilities.

There is also a HAZMAT TALON that will be available soon, which comes equipped with chemical, gas, temperature and radiation sensors that can be displayed in real time to a hand-held display.

A SWORD is a weaponized version of the TALON, three of which have recently been deployed in Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns.

Vote it up! TALON robot in 'robo-soldier' mode with gun mounted.

Available for half the price of a TALON, the Robotex AH is a lethal little remote control robot with a gun turret, pictured here in a video by ex-Disney imagineer Terry Izumi made for Fortune magazine. According to an article by Susan Duclos, it was built by self-taught engineer Adam Gettings, with assistance from shotgun maker Jerry Baber and Terry Izumi. The group plan to show off the armoury, which includes both the AH model and a smaller MH, relying on the public outcry to help sell the devices to the U.S. Government.

"If moms and dads around the country find out this system is available while their sons are off sopping up bullets in Iraq, they're going to tear the White House down," he said in the Fortune article.

Vote it up! Adam Gettings with an MH Robotex - photo by Chris Mueller

The German military has been using unmanned aircraft drones for some 30 years, but they have also begun to develop robots for ground missions such as the ASENDRO, which is capable of reconnaissance and EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) with its manipulator arm and gripper that can be controlled in sync with the operator's hand movement.

Vote it up! ASENDRO Modular Robot

The list of robotic military devices is growing, and it's evident in armed forces around the world. South Korea plans to use robot sentries on the heavily guarded border with North Korea.

Today none of these robotic military machines are autonomous, they must be controlled by humans, so the idea that wars waged completely by robots is still a potential prospect for the future. However, Joe Dyer, iRobot’s president of Government & Industrial Robots Division said that the robot warrior SWORDs are being tested for the ability to 'think' for themselves. This “disruptive technology,” Dyer said, is “going to change the way we fight, the way we live—it’s going to change our entire lives.”

Until that time all that training that kids have had with computer war games may eventually pay off with gigs in the military controlling these kinds of deadly toys, hopefully keeping the friendly fire casualties to a minimum.

Artificial Intelligence

Though it has been dreamed about since ancient times Artificial Intelligence is still a long way away from developing a sentient computer like Hal 9000, from 2001: A Space Odyssey.



However, since the age of digital computers began researchers have had access to tools that can actually help humankind achieve those dreams, by giving sentience to robots. Deductive reasoning and problem solving algorithms can require heavy processing resources, but since the 80's and 90's successful methods for dealing with uncertain or incomplete information have been devised.

Ontological engineering is the science of representing the knowledge of everything that is known to exist. However even though a computer's 'head' can be filled with factual information, commonsense concepts must be taught with tedious care. Working assumptions are common in human thought and many things are not simply true or false, but more abstract. Humans also have an inner intuitive sense that helps us articulate things that are not necessarily represented with facts.

Planning is another major ingredient of intelligence, with which an intelligent agent has the ability to see the possibilities of the future and take action to achieve goals.

Learning is already being developed to some degree, with self updating programs, and recognition software but key challenges that must be met are the ability to adapt to new things based on experience, and differentiate between right and wrong.

Communication is an important trait that even the current breed of robots must exhibit if they are to be perceived as anything like a human. The prospect of a machine having the ability to interpret different languages, parse phrases and make sense of the myriad of variations in dialect and syntax habits, makes the capabilities of C3P0 quite unbelievable.

Vote it up! C-3PO

For robots, perception comes in the form of sensors, which are already widely used in everything from motion sensor lighting for your side door to delicate instruments on space probes.

In order to be useful in any way, robots need to be able to move and manipulate physical objects. Robotics is already quite advanced in terms of the ability to plan and learn a path based on sensory information and past experience.

Artificial Intelligence researchers deem that in order to be 'AI-complete', all of the most difficult kinds of problems must be solved to have an agent that is 'strong AI', which is to say that it can match or exceed human capabilities.

Future Possibilities

As humankind continues its quest to create beings in our own image, one may wonder, what about the morals in all of this? If we give robots sentience and expect them to work as slaves to do our bidding, is this correct? Perhaps it is better to leave them as semi-autonomous machines, if we want them to perform the tasks that no human being should have to do, such as clean the sludge from an oil tanker or disarm a bomb.

Science fiction is full of examples of robots taking over the world, revolting against humanity or helping us attain higher levels of understanding as we explore the universe. It's undeniable that we will be continuing to rely on machines in ways that were presented to us as visions by science fiction, but with the escalation of modern technology are becoming a distinct reality.

Our technology is evolving at a rate that our own human awareness is struggling to keep up with. As Ray Bradbury once said;

"Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction"

When it comes to the evolution of robots, by the time we get to the point where a robot is told to do something and the robot replies 'No', what then? Hopefully it's not too late to change the program.