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The Robots are Coming
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com's new 'Linux-powered Robots Quick Reference Guide' offers an interesting glimpse into of some Linux-powered robots currently available or near production, and provides an extensive reading list with further information on Linux in robotics. According to a fascinating article at TechNewsWorld, Linux is poised to play a centrol role in an emerging industry that many expect to overtake the PC industry in size: robotics. Japan is currently driving robot innovation, according to the article, impelled by a looming labor shortage. Consumer robots like the Sony Aibo and Honda Asimo make headlines, but ubiquitous, cheap, and practical utility robots are what most Japanese robot makers are focused on, and 'carmaker Honda believes that robots will become its most important business,' according to the TechNewsWorld article. Watch out -- the Linux-powered robots are on the march!"
It really is a serious question. All software systems generally have a technical focus guiding their design, but when they're crammed into uses beyond that what they are designed for, product disasters usually result (see embedded NT. Indeed for the portable market Microsoft basically threw it all out and wrote CE from scratch for that platform).
I guess my question is given the plethora of extremely proven, capable solutions in the embedded market, what would make Linux (which was designed for the desktop/server market) a credible choice beyond perhaps catering to the hype machine?
You already have several robots in your home, more than likely:
In addition, there are folks like me who have robots for preparing their coffee in the morning. Some have robots for baking bread, and for making ice cream.
Most people make the mistake of thinking ROBOT = anthropomorphic device but that is not true.
Now, if you want to say "There is no reason for any individual to have an anthropromorphic robot in their home" you are correct, today
But as my mother, who was born in the 1920's once said to me, "When I was your age, if somebody had told me I would have a computer in the home, I would not have believed them - simply because I could not have seen any use for one." This, as she was playing cards on her computer.
Be careful, or you may find yourself up there with the "there is a market for 6 computers in the world", or the (non-quote) "640K is enough for anybody".
www.eFax.com are spammers
...fixing the robots?
I would, however, be uncomfortable with a robot as phlebotomist. I can only imagine sticking my arm in a thing like the bloodpressure checkers at KMart so that a robot arm can scan for a good vein and draw blood. Ugh...
What?
Dude, you really need to format that. I'd read it otherwise, but damn, come on...some freakin' carraige returns for godsake...
the term "Electronic-American"
..and perfectly illustrates one of the class separation problems that America has. When you differentiate yourself as a [Something]-American you're inventing a category to place yourself in.
Italian, African, Indonesian, Chinese, British, French, Spanish, whatever - your ancestor's country of origin shouldn't make a damned bit of difference. The term "American" ought to be perfectly acceptable - even for electronic lifeforms. Classification of physical nature should be separate from nationality. For example:
"Yes, I'm an Electronic-American" - Bad.
- vs -
"Yes, I'm an American AI" - Good.
(As someone who wasn't born in the US, is now an American but who's physical appearance could indicate otherwise - this topic has always annoyed me. I chose to live in this country, dammit, stop putting me in a box).
You assume democracy will hold...
There's no guarantee anywhere that says democracy has to last longer than say 500 years before imploding into some kind of corporatism.
If the robots really make human labor obsolete, there would be no point in depriving others of their use. Lets say I make a robot capable of doing anything a human does but better, able to make more of itself, repair itself, and power itself. Now this robot supplies me with everything I desire. Now I can either keep this robot to myself, and put up with the hordes of people demanding I let my robot help others, or I just let my robots build some robots to help others while they arent working for me. Either way I have everything I want, but one way I'm annoying rich guy who the masses are seriously considering over running and stealing his robots, or the guy who gave the world robots. Furthermore, if I built the robots, someone else following the same train of thought can duplicate my robots, or even make better robots. Property and wealth are social constructs. If I am stronger then you, and you have something I want, I could just take it. The only thing that keeps me from doing that is knowing that a much larger, stronger force doesn't want me taking your things without compensation. Even if I am the strongest person, they are stronger when they form a suffeciently large group. Society has empowered a large group of "strong" people to punish me for using my strength to impose my will on others. This moves the contest of strength to the next level, where instead of physical strength we compete on wealth, political power, ability, etc. With no need to compete (Anything you have I want the robots will give me if I ask) theres no need for the property model. The only thing we would have to compete for is rare elements for our robots to make us things with. But with robots, noone would want to fight when they could send robots to do it for them, so the contest would be who has the best robots. Either society would split into factions fighting never ending robot wars over rare natural resources, but the elements required for adequate food/shelter/clothing are not rare enough to be worth wasting your robot army resources on, so those content to relax on the beach all day would probably be fine, or some sort of agreement or governing body would form, in which case you are back on the political power competition. However it turns out, unless someone is able to gain sole control over robot technology, which is highly unlikely (anything that a human can be build another human can duplicate.) The concept of a robot using "ruling class" which forces the working class to starve or toil for no purpose doesn't make any sense. Capitalism works because it is neccesary for us to compete, because of scarcity. Remove scarcity and there is no reason to attempt to mantain the same model.
Of industrial robots, I know that KUKA uses Windows 95, and now Windows XP in their robot controllers.
At one time ABB also used windows in what they called the "top hat", which was little more than an industrial Win 95 laptop supported above the controller. I am not sure if their new products have changed.
The third major player is Fanuc. I worked for these guys for a little over 4 years. They use thier own OS.
Working with the Windows-based robots has had some issues (BSOD, etc.), and I think it would be nice to have some of these running Linux. All the Win portion is used for is/was the GUI, anyway, so the real path execution is handled separately. Perhaps some of the industry heavies are considering Linux already...
It's also not as simple to say that all these people will be out on their keister, except for the one repair guy. History shows that mechanization and boosts in productivity benefit everyone, starting with the use of agricultural machinery to get people out of the fields. Yes, in the short term jobs are displaced, but the increase in productivity means that fewer people are needed to generate one commodity, and so that the remainder are free to open up new lines of business and create new services and commodities. There will always be a group of obselete workers, but I would take issue with anyone who says artificially protecting their jobs is for the greater good.
The worst case, unfortunately, is that if you artifiically protect certain jobs, they will be moved overseas to where those protections don't apply. In the short term, those workers keep their jobs, but in the long term, the economy of your nation is put at a disadvantage from your neighboors, and that hurts everyone.
On the other hand, as miners in a long family of miners, we are concerned at the loss of mining jobs. That concern is tempered by the lack of participation I see from other miners when it comes to being politically active. It's hard to keep the fight for rights up when you're alone. And that apathy is exactly why groups get BOHICA'd. Soon we'll have UAV's flying aeromag and other airborne geophysical surveys, which is fine by me, considering the prohibitive cost with the conventional method.
Alaska Village invited to test cheap, clean nuclear power
I think it was about 1997 that a bunch of us at NASA started replacing VxWorks systems on robots such as the Marsokhod and Nomad with Linux systems. Much more pleasant to develope Linux based systems. Then there was the time we were forced to cope with a WinNT box on Nomad when it went to Chile. Bad memories.