By Mark Devlin, IEN Staff
May 1, 2008 -- When we think of a robot, images of Robby, Gort, C-3PO, R2D2, Johnny 5, The Terminator, or Sonny might come to mind. As suggested in another IEN 75th Anniversary article here called Predicting the Predictions, Hollywood has played—and will likely continue to play—an enormous role in forming our futuristic perceptions, which certainly holds true for robotics.
Gort (background) was, quite simply, a protector—a heavily armed one at that. The robotic star of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Gort, who obviously enjoyed blowing #$*! up, destroyed weapons without harming humans (are you listening, DoD?), though his capabilities extended beyond such relative benevolence. As Klaatu (foreground), played by Michael Rene, described...
“The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets, in spaceships like this one, and preserve the peace. In matter of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk.”
See the end of this article for Klaatu's fictional (though interestingly timely, even for 2008) speech.
Staying with fiction for a moment, Gort was programmed to simply react to certain situations. The first robots of Star Wars analyzed situations and, accordingly, changed their course of action, leading us closer to artificial intelligence. Johnny 5 from Short Circuit was interesting, in that it was only partially humanoid in form—with an articulated, humanoid-like upper body combined with more realistic, tank-like, continuous-track mobility. The Terminator, from the movie of the same name, and Sonny, from I, Robot, were not only humanoid in form, but combined weapons, defenses, dexterity, and mobility in superhuman ways—and exhibited the ability to think, analyze, and make decisions far beyond their programming.
With few exceptions, the robots appearing in the American culture, even through fiction, have been humanoid. In actual use today, our culture shows a different pattern, however. Here and now, the most known robot in the daily lives of many is the iRobot Roomba—hardly what’s been envisioned, thus far, in even a brisk stroll through American science fiction. The reality of our culture to-date has placed robots, in various forms, in human service positions. Apparently, we want a device that will simply do our bidding, like “Have the carpets vacuumed by the time I wake,” or, if you’re in the defense industries, “Go do this task so human life or limb needn’t be risked.”
The latter has thus far set the tone for some of the most impressive robots we’ve got in our arsenal, both literally and figuratively. In Japan, for instance, humanoid robots such as the Honda Asimo are all the rage. In both Japan and the U.S., robots are also turning up in, for example, elderly care.
Much more prominently in the U.S., however, the military is where the robotic action is. In active duty, we have everything from UAVs to search, recon, and bomb-disposal robots, as discussed here in an interesting article from USA Today...
Troops call their robots Johnny 5 if they're dependable. The robots with consistent maintenance problems get names that can't be printed in a family newspaper, says Paul Varian, 42, a U.S. Army civilian employee at the robot shop, which is located on a U.S. base near the Baghdad airport.
Kapeluck is working on a Talon, the most common of the three models assigned to the military's Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams.
All three are variations of robots sometimes used by police department bomb squads in the USA. The big difference here is that they're used continuously, in an environment of grinding sand and extreme heat. Sometimes they get blown up.
"I've had (bomb disposal) units use the same robot for months," says Greg Thompson, 44, a contractor from Las Vegas. "Other times, they blew it up that (first) night. And all they brought back was a couple of tracks — that's all they could find," he said.
At up to $150,000 per robot system, the team tries to save all the parts it can.
Designed and manufactured by Foster-Miller, Inc., Talon and other military- and SWAT-use robots (for a lineup of their offerings, click here) are apparently pretty tough: “...was blown off the roof of a Humvee in Iraq while the Humvee was crossing a bridge over a river. TALON flew off the bridge and plunged into the river below. Soldiers later used its operator control unit to drive the robot back out of the river and up onto the bank so they could retrieve it.”
Some controversy has also, recently, surrounded Foster-Miller. According to Popular Mechanics and this article on The Register, Kevin Fahey, a U.S. Army official, said at a recent RoboBusiness conference there had been chilling incidents in which the company’s SWORDS combat bot “had swiveled round and apparently attempted to train its 5.56mm M249 light machine-gun on its human comrades. ‘The gun started moving when it was not intended to move,’ he said.” Foster-Miller’s site indicates that problems haven’t been serious, and that the combat bots have not been pulled from duty.
Another compelling piece, over on Defence Talk, says right in the headline, “Killer Military Robots Post Latest Threat to Humanity.” A tad dramatic, I’d think, but according to that article, “In a keynote address to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Professor Noel Sharkey, from the University's Department of Computer Science, expressed his concerns that we are beginning to see the first steps towards an international robot arms race. He warned that it may not be long before robots become a standard terrorist weapon to replace the suicide bomber.” Sharkey continued, saying, “With the current prices of robot construction falling dramatically and the availability of ready-made components for the amateur market, it wouldn't require a lot of skill to make autonomous robot weapons.”
Autonomy seems the key for the next generation of robots. Autonomy, the ability to start "thinking" and adapting to non-programmed surroundings, requires smarts. Dr. Robert Sturges Jr., Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, spoke with IEN on this topic, as an engineer and not an official of VT. “Robots are rather ‘smart’ right now, if you know where to look for them. The major search engines employ state-of-the-art AI, as does the graphics entertainment (gaming and film production) industry. Anthropomorphic devices (that play the violin, e.g.) are already eclipsed by modular assembly devices with far better dexterity. The usual ‘limitation’ is their interface to the physical world.”
Dr. Sturges’ comment about software is particularly noteworthy, as a ‘robot’ needn’t be humanoid—or even an assembly of servos and bearings and electronics.
Case in point: the DARPA Urban Challenge events. Within ten years, predicts Dr. Kevin Creehan—who at the time of this writing is a Research Assistant Professor specializing in manufacturing at Virginia Tech—technologies that are used in today’s DARPA Challenges will become evident in manufacturing, using the term “autonomous manufacturing”; that is, manufacturing processes that actually think for themselves. So strong is his belief in autonomous manufacturing, Creehan and a partner, Jeff Schultz, have started their own company (www.schultz-creehan.com/) to pursue this path. At first, this path will involve vehicles operating autonomously in material handling environments—using vision and GPS technologies, for example, to navigate through warehouses in the most time- and cost-efficient manners (without embedded guides or preprogrammed paths). Rather, these autonomous vehicles will not only be able to see, but automatically compensate for unexpectedly blocked aisles, for instance.
Especially with continued and dramatic advances in miniaturization (MEMS, for instance) and increases in computing power, the next decade will certainly bring the robots we know from the movies and today’s trials right smack into the middle of our everyday manufacturing lives, both in the factory and the warehouse. For instance (keeping in mind yet another scfi-fi/reality connection), the use of human exoskeletons (not entirely unlike the Aliens movie exoskeleton Loader; see YouTube video here), will certainly become commonplace within the next ten years. Consider, for example, the U.C Berkeley BLEEX exoskeleton (see YouTube video here) and the Raytheon XOS (pictured at left) as discussed in this fascinating PopSci article.
From the smallest nano-robots cleaning arteries, to the robotic insects swarming on search and rescue missions, to the largest working in space to eliminate the dangers of human spacewalks, there is virtually no limitation on what robots will look like, where they’ll go, and the tasks they’ll perform.
Interesting and off-the-wall caveat, however: illegal aliens are still less expensive and considerably more reliable. But, robots won’t need healthcare plans. So, sit back, have some popcorn, and watch the show. The ending of this chapter'll be great, but the sequels'll be killer.
RESOURCE LIBRARY
Like an iRobot Looj But Much, Much Smaller
(Medical: Arterial cleaning robots)
Source: RobotCentral.com
Learn More...
Get Grandpa a Dog – Or A Robot
(Social: Robots in Elderly Care)
Source: CNN.com
Learn More...
Robots Help Japan Care For Its Elderly
(Social: Robots in Elderly Care)
Source: Popular Mechanics
Learn More...
Robots Enter Japan's Daily Life
(Social)
Source: CNN.com
Learn More...
MindMentor, the First Robot Psychologist
(Software: Online Psychology)
Source: Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends
Learn More...
Building the Real Iron Man
(Exoskeletons)
Popular Science
Learn More...
U.S. War Robots in Iraq 'Turned Guns' on Fleshy Comrades
(Military)
Source: The Register
Learn More...
Robots Nail Down the Nuts and Bolts of Bomb Disposal
(Military)
Source: USA Today
Learn More...
Killer Military Robots Pose Latest Threat to Humanity
(Military)
Source: DefenceTalk.com
Learn More...
NASA Struggles to Wake Space Station Robot
(Space)
Source: USA Today
Learn more...
Ultimate Sport for the Mind
(FIRST Robotics Championship)
Industrial Equipment News
Learn More...
Waiter! There’s a Fly in My...Chemical Plant?
(Flying Robotic Insects)
Industrial Equipment News
Learn More...
OTHER REFERENCES
Dr. Robert Sturges Homepage
Virgina Tech/Wake Forest University
School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences
Learn More...
Autonomous Robot
Wikipedia
Learn More...
List of Fictional Robots and Androids
Wikipedia
Learn More...
Various Robotics Articles
Del.icio.us
Learn More...
KLAATU’S FAREWELL SPEECH
I am leaving soon, and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly.
The universe grows smaller every day, and the threat of aggression by any group, anywhere, can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all, or no one is secure. Now, this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves, and hired policemen to enforce them. We, of the other planets, have long accepted this principle. We have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets, and for the complete elimination of all aggression. The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets, in spaceships like this one, and preserve the peace. In matter of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk.
The result is, we live in peace, without arms or armies, secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war—free to pursue more profitable enterprises. We do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system—and it works.
I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet—but, if you threaten to extend your violence, this earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder.
Your choice is simple. Join us, and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.
We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests—with you.
Gort, baringa. (Dude, we’re rollin’.)
