Robotics
From Future
Robots will soon be everywhere, in our home and at work. They will change the way we live. This will raise many philosophical, social, and political questions that will have to be answered. In science fiction robots become so intelligent that they decide to take over the world because humans are deemed inferior. In real life however they might not choose to do that. Robots might follow rules such as Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, that will prevent them from doing so. When the Singularity happens robot will be indistinguishable from human beings and some people may become Cyborgs. Half man and half machine.
Table of Contents |
[edit] Economic impact
Given that in the next two decades robots will be capable of replacing humans in most manufacturing and service jobs, economic development will be primarily determined by the advancement of robotics. Given Japan's current strength in this field, it may well become the economic leader in the next 20 years (part 1, part 2). Marshall Brain also discusses the emergence of robotic economy [2].
Microsoft Robotics Studio
Microsoft is currently working to stabilize the fragmented robotics market with its new software Microsoft Robotics Studio.
[edit] Minimal requirements
To start a robotic breakthrough we need the following capabilities [3]:
- object recognition capabilities of a 2-year-old child
- language understanding of a 4-year-old
- manual dexterity of a 6-year-old
That will allow robotisation of most manual jobs in the world and will be the turning point in the robotic history.
and for introducing the robots into social context we would need
- social understanding of an 8-year-old child
[edit] Types of Robots
Humanoid robots
Lara is the first humanoid robot with artificial muscles (metal alloy strands that instantly contract when heated by electric current) [4] [5] instead of electric motors (2006).
Asimo (video) is one of the most advanced projects as of 2006.
 ASIMO |
 Hubo |
 Lara |
Modular robots
Modular robots can be built from standard building blocks that can be combined in different ways.
- M-Tran - a snake-like modular robot that uses genetic algorithms to evolve walking programs
- Self replicating robots [6] [7] - modular robots that can produce copies of themselves using existing blocks.
- Swarmanoid [8] [9] is a project that uses 3 specialized classes of robots (footbots, handbots and eyebots) to create an effective swarm. Such swarm should be able, for example, to tidy a bedroom with each robot doing what it is best at.
Police Robots
Being a police officer or a fireman is a dangerous job. They will be replaced by robots. Robot police officers will be sent to the scene of the crime to stop it. The police robots will know automatically who is committing the crime (City Awareness Grid Electronic C.A.G.E). People are afraid of robots with guns. Guns will be illegal in the future. Police robots will only have none lethal weapons.
Educational toy robots
Sports Robots
[edit] Applications
- Caterpillar plans to develop remote controlled machines and expects to develop fully autonomous heavy robots by 2021 [10]. Some cranes already are remote controlled.
- It was demonstrated that a robot can perform a herding task.
- Robots are increasingly used in manufacturing (since 1960s). In auto industry they can amount for more than half of the "labor". There are even "lights off" factories such as an IBM keyboard manufacturing factory in Texas that are 100% automated.
- Robots such as HOSPI [11] are used as couriers in hospitals, etc. Other hospital tasks performed by robots are receptionists, guides and porters [12] (not to mention surgical robots such as Da Vinci)
- Robots can serve as waiters [13] [14] and cooks [15].
 Pharmacist robot |
 Welding robot |
 Robot waiter in Hong Kong restaurant |
 AIC, a cooking robot |
 Robotic librarian at CSU [1] |
[edit] Home Applications
ASIMO, a walking humanoid robot |
 Abio, a dog robot |
 Paero a personal home robot |
[edit] Medical Aplications
 Guide robot in a hospital |
|||
 Da Vinci, a surgery robot |
[edit] Military applications
As of 2006 there is a large robot development program in the US military. Ground robots and UAVs are already used in Iraq. Robotic border defenses are being developed in Korea, US and the EU.
It is likely that 20 or 30 years from now that the UN will make guns illegal in war because of newly developed non lethal weapons that cans be used by robots instead. Most of war in the future will take place in urban environments. The manufacturing of military robots that kill people will be considered a war crime. It is also likely that robots with non lethal weapons will be rented or purchased by a country to keep the peace as law enforcers.
The use of Robot Flys will revolutionize Urban combat.
See also War Technology.
 Machine-gun equipped robot developed by Samsung (video)] |
[edit] Technical challenges
[edit] Timeline
Developments related to robotics from the NISTEP 2030 report:
- 2013-2014 — agricultural robots
- 2013-2017 — robots that care for the elderly
- 2017 — medical robots performing low-invasive surgery
- 2017-2019 — household robots
- ???' — Nanorobot
US Department of Defense plans:
- 2015 — to have one third of its fighting capacity provided by robots
- 2035 — to have first completely autonomous robot soldiers on the battlefield
[edit] Robotics in 2020
Robots will be commonplace: in home, factories, agriculture, building & construction, undersea, space, mining, hospitals and streets for repair, construction, maintenance, security, entertainment, companionship, care.
Purposes of these Robots:
- Robotized space vehicles and facilities
- Anthropomorphic general-purpose robots with hands like humans used for factory jobs - Intelligent robots for unmanned plants - Totally automated factories will be commonplace.
- Robots for guiding blind people
- Robots for almost any job in home or hospital, including Robo-surgery.
- Housework robots for cleaning, washing etc - Domestic robots will be small, specialized and attractive, e.g. cuddly
Properties of these robots:
- Autonomous, with environmental awareness sensors
- Self diagnostic self repairing
- Artificial brains with ten thousand or more cells
[edit] iREX
International Robot Exhibition (IREX), organized by Japan Robot Association (JARA) [1], is a biennal robot exhibition since 1973, which features state-of-the art robot technologies and products. [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] Links
- List of robotics projects
- Overview of robotics - brief but complete (in Russian)
- Robot whiskers - 3D resolution achieved with a low-cost mechanical sensor.
- Investigation of social robots - Robots that mimic human behaviors and gestures.
- Wired's guide to the '50 best robots ever', a mix of robots in fiction (Hal, R2D2, K9) to real robots (Roomba, Mobot, Aibo).
- RobotNet has its finger on the pulse of recent developments in robotics.
- Robotic Nation How robots will affect our economy.
- Communist Robot Daily robot news and a substantial robot database.
- ANDROID WORLD
- american association for artificial intelligence
- Presentation on robotics vision
- (fr)RobotixA new but huge robotic community. Includes tutorials, a forum, and much more!
