LivingCreatures- The Beginning Of 'I, Robot?'

An Anonymous Reader writes "LivingCreatures.com has released several new photos of the humanoid robot platform that it developed for the USC Interaction Lab. The yet to be named robot is about the same size as an 18-month-old child and will serve as a human-robot interaction (HRI) testbed for studies involving imitation, learning, and the effects that interaction with humanoid robots has on children."

Comments

one question about functionality

[peculiarmethod]

.. umm, do they come with a routine to retrieve beer from the fridge?

God, i hope so.

Housemaid Robots

[superpulpsicle]

If they can figure out how to build an affordable robot that's smart enough and capable of cleaning any house effectively, it'll send the robotics industry to new heights. Until then, all these research are a sleeper.

Re:Housemaid Robots

[Lispy]

This might sound harsh but a human maid would be so much cheaper that I could employ him/her for many years while giving him/her work.

Re:Housemaid Robots

[3vi1]

But what's your average geek going to choose?

1) Interact with another human being.

or

2) A robot maid that doesn't go through his porn.

Re:Ready.. get set..

[Anonymous Coward]

You realize it was a book, right?

Humanoid Robots

[The_Mystic_For_Real]

I'm not convinced of the usefulness of humanoid robots, except for providing disabled humans with prothetic limbs and maybe organs eventually.

It would seem more useful to build robots that are designed with the task they must perform in mind. Therefore, they could perform it far better than any human.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[bersl2]

It would seem more useful to build robots that are designed with the task they must perform in mind. Therefore, they could perform it far better than any human.

What if their task is human relations? Granted the AI to support such a task is a long way off, but the humanoid form would surely fit the function there.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[Dark Lord Seth]

However, if you model a robot after an average human, you can easily give away boring human tasks. Even public ones. For example, you could design a special excavator robot, a special pipeline construction robot, etc. However, you can also make 5 standard humanoid robots and put one in a normal excavtor, have one fit the piping, etc. Remember that everything so far has been designed for human use.

Also, I think it would be easier to deal with humanoid robots in public space then lumbering machines.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[Anonymous Coward]

Hence C3PO's form: he was a diplomatic translator droid. R2D2 was, in contrast, designed to fix spaceships designed to be fixed by R2 units...

The later star wars sucked, but that was one of the really insightful things in the first movies.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[QuantumFTL]

I'm not convinced of the usefulness of humanoid robots, except for providing disabled humans with prothetic limbs and maybe organs eventually.It would seem more useful to build robots that are designed with the task they must perform in mind. Therefore, they could perform it far better than any human.

There are in fact *many* advantages to humanoid style robots. Thusly enumerated, they are:

• Our world and its technologies are currently optimized for human usage. Doors, sidewalks, cars, sinks, tools, etc are all designed specifically to be used by a humanoid. That's not to say that we cannot design new things for use by robots, however it may simply be easier to get robots to adapt to our world rather than vice versa.
• Most people do not like interacting with machines. Human interaction is what we have evolved to be optimized for. Our brain has special structures for face tracking/recognition that are far faster than similar generalized systems in the brain. Many people are uncomfortable with and intimidated by high technology, but would not be with friendly, humanlike robots.
• Many people are lonely. For the same reason that these people keep pets, having a humanoid robot would provide companionship. This is a bit dangerous however for elderly without relatives, or someone who's constantly travelling, this isn't such a bad idea.
• Humanoid robots, given enough intelligence and physical strength, could stand in for humans for a variety of activities, as needed. For instance, a restaurant low on staff may off robotic waiting at a reduced price (plus no need to tip!) during busy times for those who don't mind it. Also, through telepresence, you could use a humanoid robot as an "avatar" representing you physically rather than virtually at a remote location. It may even have your face, or one somewhat similar that mimics your expressions in real time. A bit scary, but so was television when it came out (you can *SEE* people in other cities, in your own living room!)
• Last but not least, there is the coolness factor. I think many people would find a humanoid robot to be much cooler than, say, a platform with some arms.

Yes, for industrial purposes, there's good reason to optimize the shape and form of a robot for specific tasks, however nature has provided us with an extremely adaptable physique, and we have so many reasons to emulate it.

Cheers,
Justin

Here at a JPL, a group that shares our workspace recently got AIBOs, and I was shocked to find myself treating it just like a real dog, and enjoying petting it. It's.... just a machine, I know, but it acts a lot like a dog.

Re:Humanoid Robots

[FleaPlus]

> Most people do not like interacting with machines. Human interaction is what we have evolved to be optimized for. Our brain has special structures for face tracking/recognition that are far faster than similar generalized systems in the brain. Many people are uncomfortable with and intimidated by high technology, but would not be with friendly, humanlike robots.

You have to be careful about the Uncanny Valley, though, at least according to a particular Japanese roboticist. Apparently once you get within a certain closeness of anthropomorphism, small things which aren't "quite right" can really freak people out.

Bow Down!

[edrams]

I, for one, welcome our new 18-month-old child-sized robot overlords.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Codependant people

[MisanthropicProgram]

...the robot appears to be displaying quite different emotions.

I can just see it now, "It looks angry. Oh no! I wonder what I did to make it mad?"
Robot changes positions. "It's happy! Now if I can only keep it happy."
"Oh oh, it's looking mad again."

Ok, it's been a slow day.

Re:Ready.. get set..

[AsimovBesterClarke]

Booook? What's a book? Are you implying there is some other form of entertainment than what we are allowed from the benevolant movie and tv people?

Not named? Hardly.

[Tony]

The yet to be named robot is about the same size as an 18-month-old child . . .

It *does* have a name:Twikki.

Duh.

Doing Right Things and Doing Things Right

[powerpuffgirls]

Why are we trying to create robots that are smart, interactive and intellingent like human? We can't even create a human the way we wanted it, why do we think we can on a machine?

Shouldn't we concentrate on making robots doing the things right, i.e. doing the assigned tasks right, instead of trying to design robots that can decide what are the right things to do.

Re:Ready.. get set..

[phalse phace]

Um... You realize this is slashdot, right? Book? Ha! When people can't even be bothered to RTFA....

Imagine a....

[cr0y]

Talking armadillo...

What did you think I was gonna say?

Antimatter thoughts

[Decaff]

Well, I hope it's not getting us closer to 'I, Robot'. Remember, the Azimov robots used positronic brains. Even a simple headache could result in the destruction of a city block.

Eh.

[sockonafish]

I'm not buying a robot until they produce one that runs on beer, insults my friends, and steals from people.

The economic effects of humanoid Robots.

[Moderation abuser]

Truly economy shaking. AI will have to advance significantly in order to handle our environment, I can't think of a reason it couldn't advance to the point where it can outperform most humans. This means that 90%, 95% unemployment (euphemistically called leisure time) will be the order of the day. The world economy will have to change.

Robotic capability is accelerating

[Saeger]

There's a crossover point for each kind of job where robotic labor outperforms human labor in terms of efficiency and cost. Soon to be out of the job are millions of burger flippers, truckers, pilots, and others, who suddenly find themselves technologically unemployed (and waiting for the economy to suddenly 'create' millions of new jobs that can be better filled by humans - yeah right).

This automation trend will continue to accelerate, but what *could* be a paradise is increasingly looking like a corporate dystopia because the productivity gains, even today, are being hoarded by the wealthy few at the highest rate in history.

When welfare/livingwage is still a dirty word, stuff like this isn't funny: "Go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script."

--

Everyone can relax....

[Artifakt]

...I RTFA'ed (yes, I'm odd that way), and the thing has no red LEDs what-so-ever. Since red LED's are required to set the evil bit in humanoid robots, we are all safe.

Remember Ananova?

[Animats]

This business of "faking emotions" is what robotics people do after they've failed to deal with the physical world. It gets great press, but doesn't do much. Cog at MIT is the most noteable example.

If you want to see fake talking heads, try Ananova video reports.

The Honda walking robot, though, is for real. They have a clue.

That thing isn't going in MY home!

[cfuse]

That's got to be one of the most wimpy robots ever. Why can't I get the T-800 from Terminator? I would happily have either the fleshed up Austrian look or the skinless metal skeleton with the glowing red eyes. Why do these robot researchers think that I want the pansy-bot?

Re:Robot?

[freshmkr]

Robots are single function machines like the ones ford uses. The multipurpous ones shaped like a humanoid are called androids

I disagree.

I'm getting a graduate degree in robotics. My school has a few humanoids. We call them robots. We've got arms. We call those robots too. Same with the trashcan-shaped research robots, the Segway-platform robots, the AIBOs, the helicopters, the farm equipment, the cars, the blimp, and so on. All robots. Nobody here thinks the term "robot" refers to "single function machines", huge arms, industrial robots, or anything you find in an ordinary automated factory. It's a much more general category.

"Androids" are, I guess, a subset of "robots", but nobody here uses that term very much. I suspect it won't be very popular until we have robots that are more like Data.

Until then,
--Tom