Slashdot Mirror
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!"
..the term "Electronic-American", you insensitive carbon-based clods!
Finally, a solution to our needless dependence on batteries!
Japan is currently driving robot innovation, according to the article, impelled by a looming labor shortage.
Ugh. I get as excited about robots and Linux as much as anybody, but the semi-marxist in me gets a little freaked out by things like this.
How long before innovation that can take the role of a worker in a labor-shortage environment ends up being used to replace real people in a labor-glutted environment?
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
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?
...here at Slashdot!
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Now, they aren't installing KDE or X on the robot, goodness me. I think you're making the mistake of lumping linux all together, when they are really talking about the linux kernel here.
I think the developments in robotics are going to force us to seriously reconsider our philosophy about life. If robots can do what we do now, better, what are we here for?
Personally, I'll welcome the day when robots can do all our work for us, and I can go and relax on the beach all day long.
There is no reason for any individual to have a robot in his home.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
"Japan is currently driving robot innovation, according to the article, impelled by a looming labor shortage..."
Excuse me?? Japan, with a labor shortage? This is the same Japan w/ the huge unemployment rate, runaway deflation, and enormous national deficit, right? Or, is this some other Japan I haven't heard about yet?
Looming labor shortage, my ass - robotic workers can't form unions, don't need health insurance, don't go on strike, don't quit, don't disobey orders, yada yada yada.
Corporate Japan's fascination with robotic workers has nothing to do with a 'looming labor shortage', and everything to do with eliminating the blue-collar worker to increase the white-collar's income.
Bastards.
This article reminds me of the need, now more than ever, for insurance plans that cover robot attacks such as the Old Glory Robot Insurance plan.
See the video here
As a senior citizen you're probably aware of the threat robots pose. Robots are everywhere and they eat old peoples' medicine for fuel. Well now there's a company that offers coverage against the unfortunate event of a robot attack: Old Glory Insurance. Old Glory will cover you with no health check up or age consideration. You need to stay safe and that's harder and harder to do nowadays because robots may strike at any time. And when they grab you with those metal claws you can't break free, because they're made of metal and robots are strong. Now, for only for only four dollars a month you can achieve peace of mind in a world full of crime and robots, with Old Glory Insurance. So don't cower under your afghan any longer, make a choice. Old Glory insurance, for when the metal ones come for you... and they will.
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
Sounds like Data and Tasha Yar are at it again...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
Humanoid robots use a lot of processing power, every little shift in weight, wind, all has to be compensated for with carefully calculated counter-movements. A robot lying down or sitting would not use as much CPU.
It's why you see the Asimo moving so slowly. Even if faster motors were put into it, and it was rated for a higher top speed, those calculations for balance would have to be done more often.
This is before we even get into random terrain navigation. The robot has to know how to recognize different sorts of terrain (carpet, cement, gravel, dirt) and adjust its stride accordingly.
On top of all that we have the "interacion" layer. Facial recognition, speech and vocabulary. Now we have the perfect robot.
It's 2003, we can barely get the Asimo to walk up some stairs or do a few preprogrammed tricks. Our current limitations are CPU, storage, and battery life.
I think CPU, storage, and battery life will increase, as we create more powerful lower wattage components. Batteries themselves look as though they may be a dead end technology, so robots might be powered by methane fuel cells or some alternative power source we haven't discovered yet.
I think we have another 20 years before we see robots good enough for general use for labor, and maybe another 20 after before we can no longer tell the difference between what is robot, and what is human.
There is a saying:
"What happens when goverments no longer need citizens?"
It applies just as much to the network of corporations as it does to the network of governments.
Hmm, but I bet they don't look as nice in white stockings.
I wonder how long before they develop a blow-up version.
sigs, as if you care.
They do, to a certain extent.
I have been to a couple with fully automatic beverage dispensers. The order is placed with the cashier, which sends a signal and the system drops a cup of appropriate size, feeds it under the appropriate soda flavor, and conveys it out to a person to give to the customer. Someone just has to fill the cup hopper.
And I have seen the soap-and-squeegie equivalent of the Roomba moving about in one once, as well.
What?
Yet you and I are not adversely affected by autoamtion of cotton production, so its clear that a flexible workforce can, over time, adapt. The key is education and a willingness to change. If you don't have those, you're screwed.
Ah, now I get it. Diebold didn't fake any election results, the machines were just exercising their right to vote. That's okay then.
So are the thoughts of Electronic Americans covered by the DMCA?
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
Do you have stairs in your house?
To protect the people of earth, from the horrible secret of space...
Any spoon would be too big.
In fact, McDonalds did a very specific test of robotics in their food lines. It was a Fanuc A-510 that had its cast components replaced so it had a stainless steel body (for wash-down purposes). It also had the regular grease replaced with non-toxic grease. It was edible, but NOT tasty! :P You can see archive.orgs cache of a page that mentions the A-510's successor, the A-520i, here. Needless to say, it never made it past the initial study.
Also, to be technical, there is a difference between the term "robot" and what is called "hard automation". I have seen people claim that a dishwasher is a robot. It is not. A robot is programmable and multi-functional. A dishwasher has a single purpose (two if you count torturing the cat). The same is applied to factory automation that is driven by automated equipmet runnign off of cams or pneumatic/hydraulic cylinders. Those are "hard automation" devices, as they perform a single function until they are mechanically altered.
The world will never need more than 5 robots.
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.
Now, I am not talking that Linux has to be in control of the robot. In industrial robots, Windows is often just used as the 'front end' GUI for the operators and technicians. KUKA and ABB both use Windows for this. Why can they not use Linux instead? It is certainly a very capable OS for a GUI system that needs to communicate TCP/IP to something like VxWorks (on the robot control end).
I think that the lure and attraction of a royalty-free OS would have had industrial manufacturers already on Linux. Corporate inertia is what is really driving the Windows GUI on industrial robots.
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.
At the lab where I'm working, we've been using Linux robots (ActivMedia Pioneer 2) for years. Linux actually came pre-installed on them (the only option). We've even been developing a bunch of Linux tools for robots.
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
so with Linux robots making cars, I can expect to be driving via a command line interface instead of a steering wheel in the future? ignition left right accelerate break On the other hand, it might be cool to be able to write shell scripts. if $CAR $== $POLICE then pullover; else accelerate; fi
Marshall Brain wrote about this in his online novel Manna. The later chapters concerning the "Australia Project" bear a striking resemblance to the never-implemented 1930s-era theory of Technocracy (The actual main Technocracy site is rather ill-organized).
In addition to the Linux Devices guide, Paul Baron spent some time shooting 61 pictures during the 2003 International Robot Exposition in Tokyo about two weeks ago. (Warning: navigation is somewhat difficult; the screen is getting refresh when you just want to scroll). Here is a link to a shorter selection. And for more information about Linux-based robots, you can take a peek at a former overview, "Real-Time Linux Robots Are Coming."
Back when I worked at McDonalds (I quit in 1995) we already had a robot to fill the fry baskets, we just took a basket off the machine, and put it in the fryer. Nearly all McDonalds have this machine now.
This machine is actualy a spinoff from the fully robotic fryer. McDonalds had a fryer delivered that you poured froozen frys in one end, and out the other came fully cooked frys. That machine was too expensive for most stores to justify purchasing, (at current wages anyway...) but the figgured they could make the basket filler a seperate machine for a reasonable price and save come labor there. Eventially all stores will have the full robot, but not until prices come down a little more.
The fryer will come before the robotic grill, because while either can be done, the fryer is much more dangerious. More serious burns result from accidewnts involving the fryer than the grill. However McDonalds can't figgure out how to make money putting the robotic fryer in each resteraunt. (higher prices won't sell in thie buisness)
Will all the displaced workers sing 'me and my buddy' about the robots?