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Androids at China's Robot Expo
eldavojohn writes "China's 2006 Robot Expo has wrapped up. Even though there is little information on it online, there has been much attention given to Zou Renti's android. It seems that everyone cool is making androids of themselves these days. There's a decent article on the state of androids in Japan but unfortunately, the concentration isn't on functionality, it's on fooling the humans the robot interacts with: "The key to a successful android, according to Dr. Ishiguro, is both very humanlike appearance and behaviour. One of his early android creations was cast from his then four-year-old daughter. While it looked like her, it had few actuators and its dull facial expressions and jerky movements proved so uncanny that the girl later refused to go to her father's lab because her scary robot double was lurking there." The latest robot he's built has 42 actuators, allowing it to wow many spectators at the expo. I wonder how much longer it will be before we see Blade-Runner-like cases on the evening news?"
I for one welcome our andro... This is getting old. *shrugs and walks away*
Do they obey the laws of robotics? Or is the terminator just around the corner?
Anyone else wondering what use this will be to "copy" people, when we can hardly even make robot walk let alone more these days?
I like muppets.
The most uncanny thing about these is that, every time I see a new one in the news, the skin looks better and better. That aspect of realism is the most striking, I wonder if this is driven by the prosthetics industry?
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...available of this? Have been looking on Youtube, nothing there yet. Suppose there must be someone who has some action footage of this doll? Furthermore, very nice and indeed the skin looks very realistic on the pictures. It looks much like the Hanson Robotics skins which is/are used for the Albert Hubo robot.
To repeat what others have said, requires education, to challenge it , requires brains.
An armed "drone" doesn't do anything without being commanded to. It has no independent decisionmaking capabilities. Hence the name drone.
The "laws" apply to AIs, not machines.
Please help metamoderate.
...is a massive neural network (IMHO).
I was at the expo, and just got back from China today. One of the androids disappeared during the expo. Why? Supposedly, because the president of China wasn't too happy about the android looking like a popular politician.
Regardless, these androids are carnival mannequins with better fake skin. They are also victims of the "Uncanny Valley". At worst they look cheap, at best they're creepy. I got a picture taken with one. The developers refer to it as a "lover robot" and it would move its mouth while piping a Celine Dion song through a speaker. They spent way too much time adding fake nipples and revealing clothing.
The product brochure by the "Beijing Yuanda Superman Robot Science A Company of Limited Liability" states:
"The lover robots like the real beautiful woman and handsome guy are primarily for family collection and appreciation. This is a huge market, for instance, recently Japanese will spend about 27 billion yuan on person-like robots each year, and the global consumption on such commodity is about 500 billion yuan. Comparing with these unmovable puppets, the lover robots are more realistic, charming, intimate, lovely, sexy and attractive."
IIRC, the droids have to be enveloped in real skin otherwise they cannot travel through time.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
unfortunately, the concentration isn't on functionality, it's on fooling the humans the robot interacts with
That's the whole point of those robots. They are neither especially smart or revolutionary. They are very high tech puppies with latex skin, designed to explore our perceptions of what is real and what is not.
And hopefully they don't have metal claws. If you're caught in them, you can't escape, because you know, they're made of metal.
.. you won't find me standing near any stairs after this.
The important site to look at is Robots Dreams, which covers Japanese robotics work. The little humanoid robots at the $1000 level are getting quite good mechanically. The best ones now have maybe 70% of the hardware functionality of Asimo at under 1% of the cost. They're typically remote controlled, but, because they have more degrees of freedom than a human can control with an R/C controller, preprogrammed movements were added. That wasn't good enough, so some hobbyists have added gyros and balance reflexes. Now it starts to get serious.
The hobbyists are doing some very good work. There are competitions and battles for these things. Obstacle courses which look like something from Army basic training. The battles aren't just banging away like Robot Wars; these machines can execute judo throws.
More to the point, the hobbyists are making progress much faster than the academic robotics people ever did. There are more of them, enough to drive a market for mass-produced parts. That makes it easier to build the things.
If you took the best kit humanoid available (which costs about $1200), added a 6DOF inertial unit (a few hundred dollars and getting cheaper every year), a stereo vision system (or even a SwissRanger minature LIDAR), better force sensors in the feet and hands, and a WiFi link, you'd have ASIMO-level capability for a few thousand dollars. We'll probably see that within two years, and probably at a low price point.
Then it's all software. And there's lots of theory out there just waiting to be used. This is going to be fun.
If it's the same one I'm thinking of, the maintenance,behavioral side-effects of malfunction, and 20% downtime argue for hydromechanical replacement.
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When we can develop a Johnny 5. He was just too cool! And had a cool catch phrase... "Johnny 5 is alive!" Unfotunately he wasn't intelligent enough to understand pig latin.
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Where's my damn mod points when I really need them? I don't have any just now, but at least I can give the previous poster "mad props". "Hell yeah!!!
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