Slashdot Mirror
Robodex 2003 Shows Robots Ready for Work & Play
Roland Piquepaille writes "Robodex 2003 was held last week in Yokohama, Japan. At this show 38 companies, colleges and other organizations introduced more than 90 different types of robot. Many were designed to handle tasks too dangerous for humans and assist people in their daily lives. In this column, you'll find a selection of articles and short quotes about this trade show which attracted about 70,000 visitors. I also built my own Robodex 2003 Fashion Show (the whole page weighs 172KB). You'll find there pictures of many new robots, including Banryu, developed by Tmsuk, Inc., which will control your home while you're away, Doki, the world's first gender-aware robot, built by Intelligent Earth, from Scotland, or the Comet III, a one ton mine-clearance robot from Chiba University. There are also pictures of new machines from Sony, Mitsubishi or Fujitsu among others."
Only part of it is acceptance, the other issue is that the robot is operating in an environment designed for certain dimensional criteria. Homes are made for people, and though many of the individual tasks within a home can be better performed by specialised adaptations, for the most part the more adaptable a robot and in this case more capable of mimicking human behaviour the more efficiently it will be able to get about and accomplish its duties.
Any spoon would be too big.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
I dare you to program this, sir!
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Asimov's laws are based on an anthropomorphic view of artificial intelligence. They assume that robots will "think" in such a way that they can follow instructions provided in the form of "ethical principles."
It turns out that cost-effective robots are cost-effective because they've been reduced to the minimum amount of motions, brains, etc. to do a specialized task. And no robots think in a way that would make Asimov's Laws (or Tesuka's Laws) particularly relevant.
In reality, it's a lot simpler and safer to run the robot inside a safety cage that keeps people from wandering into it.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
The "guest of honor" at Robodex 2003 was Astroboy, 1960s Japanese anime icon, who according to the storyline was "born" TODAY on April 7, 2003. Check out lots of fun links on this sidebar story here.
In case anybody noticed, almost none of these robots have HANDS. The only ones that do are Asimo and HOAP, as far as I can see, and they're not yet in the price range where actual people can afford to buy one.
The 'bots in the more rational price ranges have what, little rubber thingies that look vaguely like hands but have no moving parts? What's up with that? Why bother with arms if the hands on the ends of the arms DON'T DO ANYTHING?
Until these bots have at very least opposable thumbs as a rule, they're more toys than useful tools. And I say this as a man who desperately wants a household robot that can actually do something. Get me a 'bot that costs less than half what my car costs that can actually do something useful, like fold laundry and put it away, and I'll be an early adopter.
Anyway, that robot should instantly cease all current functions and initiate functions to disengage (or whatever Isamovian situation you can imagine), if it senses that it poses danger to a human. Not only that, but there should be an "arbiter" if you will, an embedded AI system independant of the actual robot, that will act as a failsafe system. There could probably be other failsafe designs, but that's for the dev teams to think up. If robots are to be accepted among us, they have to pose 0% danger. Not 0.001% danger.
Besides the civilian areas, I see it as an issue with military robots, since I see this as the biggest application of robotic technology. This is also one of the most complex, indeed, probably technically impossible. It is very difficult for even humans to discern if people are friend or foe. (take the friendly fire incidents in Iraq for example, and Vietnam for the classic one). It will be a while before robots will be usable on the ground, but once they are...It will be of enormous benefit to the country who has 'em. Of course, this could create a nation like those droids in star wars I. It's incredibly unlikely, but hey, there might be a government power hungry enough to want it...
I think the most immediate use of robots will be for reconaissance, and information gathering (i.e. spying). This would give them a limited ability to inflict damage (besides actually running into things). The degree of sophistication in programming will be incredible, but hey, that's our job isn't it ;)