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Robodex 2003 Shows Robots Ready for Work & Play

Posted by Hemos on from the looking-into-the-future dept.

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."

2 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Laws of robotics by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Well, my guess is that we should be worrying about these things when (and if) we produce a sentient robot. Only then will "ethics" have any meaning. Otherwise, it is just wishful thinking, much like to creating a law for Internet Explorer to prohibit it from bringing your whole system down... "A browser may not crash an OS or, through bad programming, allow the OS to come to harm".

    I dare you to program this, sir!

    --
    Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
  2. Re:My biggest concern is for the Three Laws by Thag · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.