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Mars Lander's Robot Arm Shuts Down To Save Itself

Posted by kdawson on from the doctor-it-hurts-when-i-do-dat dept.

Cowards Anonymous passes along a PCWorld article that begins, "The robotic arm on the Mars Lander found itself in a tough position over the weekend. After receiving instructions for a movement that would have damaged its wrist, the robotic arm recognized the problem, tried to rectify it and then shut down before it could damage itself, according to Ray Arvidson, a co-investigator for the Mars Lander's robotic arm team and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis."

8 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Shut down before it could damage itself? by Red+Jesus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait, does this mean that the Mars Lander was programmed to comply with the Three Laws?

    No. The second law translates to "Follow orders." The third law is "Don't get hurt (unless it conflicts with the second law)." If the lander had followed Asimov's laws, it would have followed the order and hurt its wrist.

  2. In other words by aussie_a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In other words the Mars Lander performed as programmed. News at 11.

    1. Re:In other words by paul248 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The article doesn't even contain the word "Phoenix". WTF? If they're gonna talk about one of the landers, they should at least mention its name.

  3. Human Error? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So the big question should be: Why are they sending it commands that could damage it? It's all good and well that it has some safty stops, but most machines do.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Works As Designed by tengu1sd · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The system operated exactly as it was supposed to. That was pretty neat."

    I think it's amusing that after more than 30 years of Microsoft's quality control, when a computing device works as designed, it's a news worthy article. Think about it, I have a device that works as expected, can I be on the news too?

  5. Re:Shut down before it could damage itself? by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've believed for a long time that laws 2 and 3 are the wrong way round.

    You don't want an expensive robot to go breaking itself just because you're a bit careless giving it orders. Most devices are designed this way. Users are stupid. Even the smart ones. Even if I want to do something fairly harmless, like close an application without saving, the computer will stop me and check that's what I actually want to do.

  6. Re:Does anyone else think... by Jellybob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This sort of thing can be done autonomously in all the Japanese car factories that I know. And much faster.

    The difference between the Mars lander and a car building robot is one of function.

    The car building robot is programmed to do one task. It spends all day, every day, welding specific spots, on a car which is in a specific location.

    The Mars landers have to content with an unknown environment, where they could be asked to do a wide variety of things, with any number of possible consequences.

  7. Re:Shut down before it could damage itself? by smittyoneeach · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You need to bound that forward-looking aspect of the law.
    As the decision tree gets huge, just about any tiny action will eventually lead to tragedy, or [odius] being elected.
    There is no real safety under the sun.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear