Movies have terrified many of us of a future containing robots, and not without some basis in reason, but the truth is these machines are simply advanced tools, tools like your can opener only with more options and a better salesman.
Cute Robots
Kids run into robots early these days, and there are a plethora of them to choose from, but most are little more than wind-up puppets with voice recognition and short battery lives. Here is one example from Japan (obviously, given that’s what they’re speaking):
Of course this is a type of “robot” we’ve had since, well, since the 50’s:
The more useful examples of this category are generally designed to explore methods of human emotional interaction, with a serious intent to design robots that can eventually be partners for lonely people, or helpful psychological companions for old folks in retirement facilities. Here is a short piece that was done some time ago on the BBC:
Very likely the first truly successful elderly care robotic system will come from Japan, which has both the technical expertise to design and develop them, but also a serious oncoming problem with an out-of-balance demographic. Being a somewhat xenophobic society, they would rather find a mechanical solution than import young workers to act as caretakers.
And yes, this class of robot is also being targeted to replace parents and/or nannies to keep children protected and entertained. The psychological damage the widespread use of these will likely cause is a topic for another post.
Industrial Robots
Robots have been in place, all around you, for fifty years. You just didn’t notice it because they aren’t anthropomorphic. Instead of looking like Uncle Eddy on a bender, they are built for the job at hand.
Historically, most of these have used “open loop” control systems, which in this case is to say that they are trained or programmed to go through a particular set of motions, repetitively, to accomplish their tasks. Examples of this including welding robots and painting robots in automotive factories. Others are designed simply to move parts from one place to another, or onto a conveyor belt.
There is a fuzzy demarcation between “machines” and “robots” on the factory floor. A machine might be built to do one job very rapidly and in large quantity, such as a bottle-filler in a soda plant. Or how about beer? A lot of beer?
Others might be designed to sort a jumble of pieces onto several conveyors where they move on to other operations. A true robot, however, can do many different jobs and is more adaptive to variations. An example of this might be a robot that picks corn, or pulls defective vegetables off of a passing conveyor belt. These are “closed loop” in that they sense their environment and adapt to it, just like a human.
This video covers a wide range of typical industrial robot applications (ignore the robot dragonfly, there isn’t much use for that on a factory floor):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_8OnDsQVZE
Autonomous Robots
The really exciting era of the robotic art is just beginning to come to pass, here in the early 21st century. We finally have the compact electrical supplies, computing power, and software expertise to build robots that can start to do the kinds of things we expect from humans. Things like walking free, using tools meant for people, opening doors and finding their own way around a building, and even driving.
It isn’t possible in a short post like this to cover the vast range of applications for this technology, but it can be predicted with certainty that these types of robots will find homes in the military, in police work, on the farm, in the factory, and in office buildings full of white collar workers — in fact, in every human activity and probably beyond.
How will we get along with these? Well, here is a dog interacting with a four-legged robot from Boston Dynamics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93B55I8qrGM
But it must be said that once you un-tether a robot from a bench, you suddenly get into spooky territory. I’ve saved the best video for last. Behold some of the rest of Boston Dynamics’ projects:
The future is going to be fun. And dangerous, too.
6 replies on “They’re coming to get you”
It’s not the technology that’s evil, it’s what you do with it.
Yep! Hence my last sentence, “fun but dangerous”…and it’s the people doing it that decide which.
Long time fan of Boston Dynamics. Remember this show? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISp8Q3ga0F0
Thought about building one of those little guys once, but never got around to it. It’s a shame the public thinks those excavator-sized human-control “battle droids” they’re playing with in Japanese competitions are robots. The software “AI” challenges in those small, autonomous battles are much more interesting.
When Lowell saw ‘canals’ on Mars, that was definite proof of intelligent life – the only outstanding question was on which end of the telescope was the intelligence.
It’s similar with machines and robots. Humans anthropomorphize things so habitually, even inanimate things, that it isn’t really necessary, or perhaps even desirable, to create robots that look like people. The sort of machine or robot that will attract the most ‘affection’ will be the one that’s most reliable and useful, no matter what it looks like.
That’s a reason to suggest that the Japanese won’t be the leaders in robotics.
I see the primary reason for building anthropomorphic robots to be so that they can use tools designed for our use.
That and to scare children, of course 🙂